Religious Influence In Society: Big Deal?

Many people believe the United States is becoming a "Godless" culture. The argument is that we are losing our moral values, because religion is not an important part of our life anymore. This is the view of most Fundamentalist Christians and right wing believers. I vehemently disagree with this argument. I say this because there are many ways to practice religion. We have many ethnic populations in our country with many different religions. Because of this, there are many beliefs that differ from the Christian based or religions of only one god. Therefore, our country is not becoming Godless, there are many ways to practice one's faith.

Americans have been believing in God less and less in recent months, and new research is shedding light on why that may be.

Huffington post says, “religious practice and affiliation has greatly declined in the united states in the last 50 years”(Blumberg). Change has happened and it’s not bad but its evolved into something different from the

The decline in religion across America is most likely related to the increase inIndividualism, among many Americans in the 21st century. “The decline in religions practice has gone down 29% from the Silent generation to the younger Millennial” (Decline of mainline Protestantism and Catholicism). Many argue that culture influences, portioning to college and other environments, would be the greatest factor in the big question as to why Americas on a religious decline. However Individualism seems to be the greatest contributing factor. Individualism highlights selfish motives, only caring about ones self, and laziness. All things that religious believes takes away from a individual.

The practice of organized religion has been declining greatly since the mid 20th century, but the pace in which religion is dying is not constant in every western country. Ireland is the only country where most people attend a religious event weekly, on the other hand, less than ten percent of Scandinavians attend religious events. Organized religion is dying where it once was common in everyday life, which is bad news for church leaders who want to fill their seats. From 1945 to 1985 the percent of regular church attendees in Canada dropped in half, from 70% to 35%. Although people have stopped associating themselves with a religion, many of them still believe in a creator. Around 32 percent of America’s population attends church weekly, but 66 percent of Americans have no doubt that there is a God, and another 16 percent believe in a God but have doubts (Altemeyer 79). There is evidence that the recent rise of religious apostasy occurred because of backlash against the “Religious Right”, the christian fundamentalists that are known to be anti-homosexual. Many people are turned off by these beliefs and severed their already weak relationships with the church. Children are also not being taught religious beliefs because of parents who have left the faith. Parents have stopped

But American religiosity is diminishing. Other forces like materialism, globalism, humanism, and science continue to push the world into a new frontier. Between 2007 and 2014, adults who are religiously affiliated dropped 6%; though, 77% percent of Americans are religiously affiliated and 58% find religion very important—and those who identify strongly with religion continue to have the same intensity in belief.

The United States (U.S.) has always been the melting pot of the world, resulting in a diverse spiritual community. Christianity is still the predominant religion, but a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the shifts taking place in the U.S. According to the study, 28 percent of American adults have left the faith of their upbringing for another religion, or no religion at all. The number of people that claim no affiliation with any particular faith is rising, and the number of people practicing non-Christian religions is increasing (Pew Forum 2010).

More and more people are identifying as nonreligious, but the majority of America still aligns with some religion (1). It is theorized that switching of religion is to blame, in that many people that are raised in a religion are changing to become unaffiliated as they get older (1). While the nonreligious population is growing, “roughly seven-in-ten [Americans] continue to identify with some part of the Christian faith,” something that is lacking in the Brave New World society (1). Religion is a still a strong influence in modern day America, with the presence of God affecting our politics, our everyday conduct, even minute things such as the Pledge of Allegiance, with the line “one nation, under God.” However, as the nonreligious population is generally young, with a 20% decline of Christianity in Millenials who are now unaffiliated, it could come to change as the older generation begins to die (“Religion” 1). For now, though, regarding religion, we are not living in a brave new

Americans are either more religiously involved or don’t see religion as an importance which can cause a drift between the two types of people, Putnam has stated, “Religious drop outs have come out at the expense of those whose religious involvement was modest but conventional” (Putnam 75). Influence of not participating in religious outings is spreading to those who are involved which can cause a dramatic decrease in the numbers of participants in religion. The involvement of Americans in religious participation also affect numbers of religions. Religious participation has increased in the catholic religion as Americans gravitate to the particular popular religion in America. It is seen that, “Protestant and Jewish congregations have lost market share in items of memberships, while Catholics and other religions have gained” (Putnam 75). This complication has arisen more due to the involvement of more immigrants migrating to the US and influencing the growing numbers of Catholics. Many of those immigrants are Latin American that makeup “one-quarter of American Catholics” (Putnam 76). However, numbers of participation in mass are still low even with all the popularity of the Catholic religion which demonstrates how religious participation isn’t important to some Americans. (add more

This has changed to the government overtaking the roles of the Church and family. First of all, the government has had a major impact on the Church. People have come to trust the government rather than trusting the Church. There are many reasons for this including: if there are no jobs, people go to the government’s welfare; if you need food, you get food stamps instead of relying on the Church; and if you need medical support, you get ‘Medicaid’ instead of relying on the Church for support. The government has also taken away the right of talking about God in the public-school system.

The religions around the world are practiced in America such as Christianity,Islam,Jewish,etc and this country still remains one of the most religious nations in the world today.Population also usually can be participates in organized religious practice while others can choose to engage in a private spirituality.Besides that,religion can be describes as spiritual belief in, worship of, or obedience to a God and considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny.I believe the percentages in American people that believe in God still be higher in 50 years ahead,but the religious practicing probably will decreasing.It has many factors such as age, race, gender, economic class, and other demographic factors that can affect American

Religion has been a powerful force in human history. Mankind has longed and searched for the answers to its purpose, the reason for being and the possibility of life after physical death. They reasoned that an afterlife would be a place of accounting and reckoning for the life they lived on earth. Religious belief systems seemed to give the answers as to how to prepare for the afterlife. Religion became the means of giving answers to those basic yet deep-seated questions of both life and death. Religion provided a format of rules and laws for conduct and treatment toward others based on the desires and wishes of a god or gods that people envisioned, imagined or invented. Religious belief systems have been a powerful force for good and bad...good in the sense that it provided a measure of individual behavior and order in society for the wellbeing of the whole, but bad in the sense that men of ambition who craved power and control over others would often use religion as a tool of manipulation and fear. A casual glance of history tells us that complete civilizations have been built, grown and maintained around elaborate religious systems, ancient Egypt being a prime example.

The U.S. News took a survey asking 1000 people questions about their belief in God, or how God played a role in their lives. As a result, 93 percent of people said that they believed in God or a universal spirit (Sheler, 8). Also, when asked to describe their beliefs about God, 76 percent said that they consider God to be a heavenly father who can be reached by prayer (Sheler, 8). That is a remarkable amount of people to belief that they have such a connection with something that they have no actual insurance of existing. Now, obviously America is considered a moral society, so wouldn’t all this faith play a key role in that observation?

It’s the twenty first century. Scientists have found evidence of water on Mars, they have successfully cloned human embryos, and everyday, they are getting closer to finding a cure for cancer. Still, in a world of groundbreaking facts and evidences, where the newest discovery leaves older ones out of commission, we fool ourselves into blindly putting faith on a series of chronicles conceived during the primitive age. Religion probably started out as a result of mankind trying to explain the physical world, but then became a tool to control and oppress, a reason for bloodshed and hate. While religion may have been of great help in

Throughout history, religion has proved to be the main source of social stability in different communities and cultural groups. Everything that is part of a societal system, including law, is influenced by religious beliefs and practices of that society. This being said, most religions are based on the theory that there is a single more powerful entity, that has control over aspects of which humans do not. For the longest time in history, sociologists have argued that peer group, political movements, schools and most importantly, the family to be agents of socialization. Because of this reason, they have ignored the role played by religion in the perpetuation of cultural as well as social