The Decline Of Organized Religion In Western Civilization

29% said they came from an unspecified Christian family, 27% said Catholic, 26% were Protestant, 9% said none and a small 6% said they were atheists and their parents were atheists. They asked when they decided to stop their belief and 13% said they never believed, 29% said they did when they were less than fifteen-years-old, 37% said they decided to become atheist between the ages of 15 and 24 and 21% said they did past the age of 25. Finally they asked why they did become atheist. Almost half, 47%, said that it didn’t make logical sense to them, 12% said that it didn’t comply with conventional science, 9% said it was because of a negative experience when they were young, 15% said it was because of the hypocrisy of religion and the church, 3% said that God didn’t meet an expectation they had, and a surprising 6% said they couldn’t remember. Finally 21% gave very specific reasons why, saying that college opened their eyes or that there was a person in the sky watching them but also how patriarchal the church is and its obsession with obedience and punishment. This shows a trend in why most left religion. One is that it didn’t make sense nor does it work with science, or they did liked how the church felt or worked which pushed them away to soon become atheists.

Author, Reginald Bibby, has written three books to date, this will be the fourth and latest work published. From having seen Canada’s religious developments through a secular lens, several scholars thought for the most part reasons behind the decline were clear and obvious. This is not the case, and is what the author tries to show here. After one prominent scholar named Stark opened up new data to the author it gave him his new books idea: reality of religious polarization. Now everything is more clear and focused through this polarization lens. The book is then divided up into 9 chapters, all very informative, focusing on all aspects to those who are religious, aren’t religious, good news and bad news.

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.

Canada’s diversity in religion is constantly increasing, Atheism as a part of it. Though statistics show that the number of Atheists in Canada has been fluctuating, it is currently the most it has ever been. Before 1971, there were only 202,025 Atheists in Canada. Now the number has grown to 7,850,605. Looking at the statistics, there was a great increase in Atheism in Canada from 2001 to 2011. This is associated to the plane flewn into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Since religion played an aspect to the tragedy, people chose to denounce religion entirely. The number of Atheists during 1991 to 2000 was 346,395 while from 2001 to 2011 the number increased to 445,130. As numbers of Atheists grow so do numbers of those who oppose them.

We all know that religion is an organized system regarding the spiritual or supernatural along with various practices that give numerous individuals a sense of purpose in the world and allows these individuals to understand things beyond their reach. However, while reading the articles from “Nones on the Rise,” it is evident that there is an increase in the number of individuals who claim unaffiliation to any religion in the United States. “Nones” gives the facts and figures of the Americans who do not place themselves in any religious category, with an approximate one in five of the public claiming no affiliation. But there are some individuals who denote themselves as spiritual or religious in some way. The entire article is an intriguing one because it breaks everything down, from what it means to be unaffiliated religiously to the composition of the unaffiliated, the demographics of the unaffiliated and theories as to why there is an increase in the numbers of the years. It is interesting to see how people view themselves when it comes to their beliefs.

While the majority of Americans (almost 80%) identify themselves as Christians, religion in the United States is characterized by both a large diversity of believers and variable attendance and adherence levels (Eck, 2002). However, an August 2010 poll showed that almost 70% of Americans believed that religion was losing influence in everyday life, yet most feel that is a negative thing even though politicians continue to discuss religion while campaigning (Religion Losing, 2012). In light of these statistics, many religious scholars have turned to more quantitative methods to establish ways to both improve service attendance, solidify the financial health of churches, and establish a faith-based understanding of current psychographic trends. One of the predominant ways this is happening is through people like George Barna.

American journalist and feminist, Gloria Steinem, once said, “by the year 2000, we will, I hope raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.” Although we are 16 years past the year 2000, her hope is slowly coming true. For centuries cultures all around the world have raised their children to believe in a higher power, forcing them to believe in what their grandparents and great grandparents believed in. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington D.C., found that, “the percentage of Americans who say they “seldom” or “never” attend religious services (aside from weddings and funerals) has risen modestly in the past decade. Roughly three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) now say they seldom or

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).

The accomplishments and success of civilizations are closely linked to their religious outlook and the role of religion in their governments and society. Throughout history rulers have used the influence of religions to control their populations and provide the justification for their power. A society with a greater degree of separation between religion and government promotes a superior level of liberty and creativity amongst its people. By the time of the decline of the Roman Empire in the west, however, the world had come full circle to a return to theocratic dictatorship.

More adults and families raising children are adapting a secular, non-religious, lifestyle than ever before. As stated in Phil Zuckerman’s LA Times article “How Secular Family Values Stack Up,” there has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of American families who are raising their children without God. He also goes on to state that “23% of adults in the U.S. claim to have no religion, and more than 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say the same.” In the same article he goes on to state that the parents that are raising their children in this lifestyle are having success and

According to some studies, young Americans are less religious than older generations. It is generally assumed that this number of non-religious people will increase in the future due to many current factors. According to the Pew Research Center, “Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans” (pew research). Young adults are slowly creating an era when religious beliefs and rituals will have a minor impact on their lives. Although some millennials are likely to continue their religious rituals as a form of culture in their lives, they often disagree that practicing religion has anything to do with believing in god or religious ideas. Moreover, there are a huge amount of millennials who grow up into a family that

How can the sociological approach to religion help us understand the world in which Martine and Philippa live? The sociological approach to religion is separated into two distinct categories: quantitative methods, and qualitative approaches. I believe that we can better understand Martine and Philippa’s world through qualitative approach. One of the main observations I had was, the relationship between their religion and economic status. The sisters, and the rest of the community looked as if they lived in poverty. The members of the church never seemed to indulge in anything (besides the feast at the end of the film). Overall, the community seemed to be supportive, and were regularly there for each other.

Anthropologists have assumed that organized religion began as a way of easing the tensions that arose when hunter-gatherers settled down, however The construction of a massive temple by a group of hunter gathers is evidence that organized religion could have come before the rise of agriculture and other aspects of civilization.

Ernest Becker once said, “Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.” In his novel The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker explores the fragility of religion and explores how religion is a illusory quest for the immortality formula. Albert Camus’s upbring in French Algeria gave him a unique perspective on religion, where he personally viewed the consequences from the quest to find the “immortality formula.” In The Stranger, Albert Camus embodies Ernest Becker’s philosophy that religion is a safety mechanism created from the fear of human mortality

Religious faith is important to most Americans, with approximately 95% of Americans reporting belief in God and about 50% being active in church organizations (Gallup & Castelli, 1989). Despite the widespread prevalence of religious beliefs in society, some researchers have maintained that religion and religious beliefs are often neglected in psychological research (Jones, 1994; Plante, 1996). This neglect stems from a couple of different factors. First, it is difficult for psychologists to overcome the fact that believers in many religions claim to have unique access to the truth. Secondly, truly theological questions such as the existence of God or the nature of an afterlife are often ignored by scientists. This may be in part a