Rising number of Americans are switching religions

[applegrove]

Rising number of Americans are switching religions

Russell Contreras

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/16/rising-number-americans-switch-religions

"SNIP........

........


Nearly a quarter of Americans say they used to follow a different religious tradition or denomination than the one they practice now — a percentage that keeps growing, a new survey says.

Why it matters: The jump in religion-switching comes as many Americans say they no longer believe in their initial religion's teachings — or, in many cases, disagree with a religion's stance against LGBTQ+ people.

* More Americans also are turning away from Christianity and are seeing themselves as unaffiliated with any religion or as religious "nones," even as some conservative Republicans seek to inject more religion into schools and public life.

.......SNIP"

[GreenWave]

1. But isn't religion in somewhat of a decline?

I thought I saw stats about a year ago with atheists and agnostics on the uptick.

[applegrove]

3. Yup. Paragraph 3.

[Mosby]

34. 93% of Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Just saying.

[dchill]

2. Pretty sure that's against every religion's religion.

[Iggo]

15. I believe....you're right!

[dchill]

22. Religions - gotta love 'em!

Amirite?

[Wounded Bear]

4. The irony escapes them, as usual...

"even as some conservative Republicans seek to inject more religion into schools and public life."

Gee, maybe that is WHY people are moving away from Christianity.

[Chainfire]

5. The shrinking numbers make many those who remain madder than hell.

We are "taking their religion away." The Ten Commandments and chaplains in schools is going to backfire on them. If you want to make a kid reject something, just try to shove it down their throats.

[Freethinker65]

8. Yep.

But it will further divide students and make it harder to teach, so it helps destroy public education, which is the GOP's end goal.

[Chainfire]

9. Religion in America is now the gospel of Trump; Jesus is old school.

[NewHendoLib]

6. My wife and I switched, all right. We switched it off.

[Sky Jewels]

12. Brain: On

Religion:Off

[NewHendoLib]

13. You can hear the "click"!

[Sky Jewels]

18. ...

[PJMcK]

21. CLICK!

Same for me.

[Walleye]

7. I read that Americans with more likely to switch religions than political parties

I’m not sure exactly what that means

[Sky Jewels]

10. The younger people tend to see through propaganda of all kinds.

They can discern quickly that religious propaganda is just a steaming heap of misogynistic bullshit fairytales.

[3catwoman3]

14. That's a very succinct and pithy...

…description.

[Sky Jewels]

19. Thanks you.

[Mosby]

35. 93% of Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus.

If only young people voted at those rates.

[barbaraann]

11. My brother switched from fundamentalist to New Age.

[Mosby]

16. They aren't switching religions

They are switching denominations.

The Catholic church is losing a lot of Hispanics to evangelical movements for example.

[Zeitghost]

36. I think you're description is more accurate

Outside of those leaving religion altogether, most people will not radically change their beliefs. A few may, but most switching churches are moving from one flavor of their religion to another. Your example of hispanics leaving the Catholic church is a good example, we have quite a few Spanish language evangelical and charismatic Protestant congregations in the area.

[vercetti2021]

17. I switched

To pure agnostic. These so called "good Christians" pushed me away from religion.

[Effete Snob]

20. I switched and saved 15%

[AwakeAtLast]

25. .

You were tithing too much!

[NowISeetheLight]

23. I Believe

There is something out there. God, intelligent design, who knows. Who can look at the scope of the universe with millions of planets and our millions of years old earth and think "we are it"?

I definitely believe and hope after death our consciousness continues. Who knows where though?

I sure don't believe what Man says about "God"... whoever or whatever that is. Man is concerned about power and nothing else.

[Effete Snob]

26. Just out of curiosity

Do you recall your consciousness before birth?

I'd bet that it goes back to the same place after death.

[NowISeetheLight]

27. Not Sure

Growing up I spent hours looking into space just thinking “what’s out there”. I think a lot about the fact I’m conscious. What that means… who knows. I have had instances where I’ve thought about history and dreamt about the past.

I guess my point is that I don’t believe man’s version of some “God” with a book of rules written by men we select what we like to follow and ignore the rest (Aka: The Bible). Beyond that I’ll just wait and see.

[keithbvadu2]

24. Martha, we need to find a fresh religion that follows our political beliefs.

[MustLoveBeagles]

28. Unlocking

Last edited Wed May 17, 2023, 04:47 PM - Edit history (1)

After careful consideration I'm unlocking this thread. Post away.

[applegrove]

30. Thanks. I'm bad at thinking everything is politics.

[Emile]

29. K&R

[Hortensis]

31. I've read that significant numbers of young people especially are

"deconstructing" religion that's failing them, personalizing to keep what they can believe in today, adding and discarding other. It's a positive change for many that allows them to keep faith they need.

But significant others are also currently adding from and turning to paranormal, occult, pseudocientific, emotion based, and often highly race-based mysticism forms of faith. Part of this dangerous era.

Not all go wrong or too far, of course. A friend's belief in the paranormal powers of positive thinking keeps him happy and helps him deal with problems in positive ways.

But it is dangerous on a large societal scale because it leaves the world of beliefs with established "guardrails" and support from stable social groups. We're seeing that, beyond the old guardrails, vulnerable faith seekers find both uncharted paths and maliciously planned ones that lead to dysfunctional conspiracism and other forms of irrationality, which often circle round to political extremism and general whackadoodlery created to serve the political agendas of special interests. And the numbers at risk have been increasing as part of the increase in "switching" religions.

I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's. ~ Mark Twain

Those who believe that politics and religion do not mix, understand neither. ~ Albert Einstein

When religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows. ~ Frank Herbert

[Sky Jewels]

32. Established beliefs, however, are a also steaming pile of irrational horseshit.

In our culture, Christianity is the mainstream belief set.
It's also primarily a tool to push and maintain the patriarchy in order to enrich the few at the expense of the many.
Under this mythology set, The Great Omnipotent Sky Wizard is a male.
His supernatural "son," the savior of mankind (emphasis on the man part) is a male.
All the major characters in the fairy tales are male.
It's pure, unadulterated, science-denying, misogynistic crap.
Talk about dangerous...
We still see this nonsense play out in modern times and put women in danger.
Christianity largely embraces political extremism and general whackadoodlery.
SCOTUS is chock full of Opus Dei Catholic nuts, for example, and they took away our bodily autonomy.

[Hortensis]

33. :) I almost never am able to agree with blanket statements

and attitudes, and this is one of those cases. Even though I agree with bits of what I feel are truth scattered throughout. For instance, I'm solid that I feel there are too many Catholic justices, and Leonard Leo is an Opus Dei board member.

I was thinking, "If only rational truth were more common than irrational horseshit!" But we have to be careful what we wish for, never having had to find out what the tradeoffs would be.

[Model35mech]

37. You live in a representative democracy, christianity is built on monarchism

with God as the King of Kings.

Why would anyone in America accept a political/religious organization to run their lives when it is so opposed to basic principles of participatory government?

God, as christians believe him to be, is an uncompromisting tyrant. It's his way or hell forever. Really. He loves us, jah, right.

Why would a "loving God" create a monarchichal system for orgainizing the creation he loves? Because His emotions and judgement aren't really his, they are fantacies assigned to an always absent Him by people who only knew and attributed to him their experience with the absolute power of dictators.

The history of protestantism is really a history of attempts to reconcile evolving sense of the need of participatory governance with an intransigent clerical empire.

Some people, especially conservatives LOVE authority, so not surprisingly, most American religious adherents lean into the security of knowing the jealous, always potentially angry and vindictive God you've got, rather than risking a change toward uncertainties even if they are proposed as more charitable, just, and loving.

[Sky Jewels]

38. That's an interesting take!

Thanks for that. I never thought about it in those terms.