Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumBelief In God Plummets Among Youth
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/belief-in-god-plummets-millenials.php?ref=fpnewsfeedThe younger generation is abandoning God in droves.
A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that belief in the existence of God has dropped 15 points in the last five years among Americans 30 and under.
Pew, which has been studying the trend for 25 years, finds that just 68 percent of millennials in 2012 agree with the statement “I never doubt the existence of God.” That’s down from 76 percent in 2009 and 83 percent in 2007.
Among other generations, belief in God is high and has seen few changes in recent decades. Between 81 and 89 percent of older generations say they never doubt the existence of God, although the older the generation, the more likely they are to believe in God.
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Turbineguy
(40,085 posts)from the many (but not all) idiots who believe. If I decided whether or not God existed based on scumbags like Hagee and Robertson, I would have to conclude God does not exist.
dmallind
(10,437 posts)For decades the demographics of belief have been taunting rationalists with the idea that time alone will stop the stranglehold of faith-based superstition on the US body politic as younger less religious folk take over. It hasn't. It won't now either - not for much mich longer than we would think, and only if it continues. I mean centuries not decades.
Why? Because it's not that the 95% religious 70+ generation will eventually be replaced 1 for 1 with the 78% religious <30 generation in 50 years. That <30 generation will become more like the 70+ generation as they age - in many ways. They'll become more conservative as younger folks annoy them and as technology and culture leaves them in the past. They'll become more concerned with stability rather than progress as they near and entire retirement. And yes they'll become more religious as they experience mortality in others and look more closely at their own; as the remorseless unceasing indoctrinating and normalizing beast of Christianity keeps squeezing and squeezing until it finds a way inside most of them. They'll end up, if we are lucky, as a 93% religious 70+ generation.
Don't believe me? The first great wave of original hippies IS now that 70+ generation. How much of that anti-establishment, freethinking "it's all God, we're all God, man" do you see in the vast majority of them now?
citysyde
(74 posts)rather significant.
I wonder what influence all those TV channels that constantly have idiots asking for money and proclaiming all sorts of stupid statements, how many hours those shows waste trying to disprove evolution, or global climate change. The more we see of these modern day con-artists and their TV shows, the more young people know religious belief is nothing but a big con game.
I also wonder if the influence of Youtube and other social media might play a part. If young folks find out someone they grew up with, went to church with, is now a non-believer, from their Facebook or Tweets, I wonder if that's helping other non-believers "come out".
daaron
(763 posts)It would be a mistake to get excited about this trend continuing. I'd like to add to your point dmalind about aging conservatively, and note that the Baby Boomer bump gobbles up a lot of room in all these studies. We can expect to see dramatic shifts in all sorts of once stable trends when the BBers start, y'know...
That will have a reinforcing feedback effect on an already growing movement in younger age groups.
citysyde
(74 posts)a different part of the the same whole picture.
I'm not sure that I understand your point. I'm a Post WW II baby boomer, just retired.
I never believed in a deity beyond about 18, I haven't attended a church service other than to see a young family member do something, maybe once every 10 years or so, just to be "tolerant" of my other family members who seem to eat that religion stuff up.
So I'm a "baby boomer" of the post WW II generation. Now we have gen x'ers and gen y'ers and even post 9/11 babies entering puberty.
My 16 year old atheist great nephew was 5 when 9/11 happened. He's more computer and smart phone savvy than I am, (and I did computers for a living for a few years in the 90's). He has more skepticism about religions and politicians than I had at 16, in the Kennedy years, for sure.
daaron
(763 posts)having to do with the bump in the population at that age group, which gives it proportionate weight in studies that measure for the age factor.
Like the lump in a snake's body as it's meal makes it's way through, the needs of the BBer generation get prioritized more of the time simply because there are more BBers in our nominally democratic society. When the lump makes it all the way through the snake, as't'were, then some graphs are going to have jumped. The graphs that change the most will be for factors where BBer opinions differ most markedly from the rest of society (whatever those are).
I'm not making this stuff up, just bringing it up because dmalind's model seems suited for this observation. It seems to me that belief is one of those areas where BBer population size would now be biasing statistical measures of opinion over non-age factors... meaning that the trend among the youth does matter, but will matter a lot more across non-age factors as BBers get older and, y'know...
My final point was something of a swipe, and for that I apologize. I don't think BBers have hogged history's stage since they were old enough to burn draft cards and bras. I don't resent it wasn't cool to be over 30 until BBers were over 30. Then Thirty-Something was cool until the BBers were in their forties. Then suddenly Forty-something was the new Thirty-something. Then Fifty-something was the new Forty-something, etc. Now all of a sudden age discrimination at work is a big issue, because all of a sudden an outside chunk of our society is getting a taste of that bitter medicine they've been serving since their 30s back in the '80s. I'm not bitter. 
citysyde
(74 posts)It's a pleasure to talk to you and see your perspective.
But the original WW II baby boomers like me are different than, for instance, my parents.
Father died at 65 after 3 heart attacks and no modern statins or other drugs to keep his BP and Cholesterol low. Mother died at 75 from a life of smoking, giving it up at 70, and getting medically maltreated by a new doctor in hospital when all she had was phlebitis.
Oh, and they both died in community hospitals that were "charity" or largely charity supported facilities. Nowadays, even Catholic hospitals are "for profit" or part of a "for profit" network in my state.
My point: we WW II baby boomer old fogies are going to live into our 80's and 90's in much larger numbers than our parents did. We are going to get humane treatment in medical care, but that care will cost ten times what it did when my parents were alive. My father, a day in the hospital before his death, in an ICU, $200., but that was the 60's, the great and glorious hippy 60's.
Getting far afield of young people giving up on god beliefs, but I think the older folks, many of them still believers, almost all of them voters, they will stick around a while, but the young guns? Fewer and fewer of them will want to get into the religion thing, as they see that it makes not a bit of difference in terms of morality, in terms of caring for the poor, in terms of delivery of medical care to the aged, religious institutions just get in the way, they no longer deliver anything of value to a young person's society. That's my point.
daaron
(763 posts)
Warpy
(114,616 posts)Because we'd pretty much rejected the mainstream suburban church as anything but a social club, gossip factory, and financial scam.
A lot of got sucked back in because we got scared or because our kids wanted to join their friends in church activities.
A few of us, of course, resisted the suck and stayed heathen.
Likely the same will happen to the present crop of young heretics.
dimbear
(6,271 posts)That kind of stuff leaves a mark.
citysyde
(74 posts)If there is any evidence for people alive now that religion is useless, and destructive, let them see those planes fly into those buildings.
That's the best proof religion is useless and very destructive.
I hope some Catholic or Muslim reads this post and tries to defend their own religion, and we all respect them, and tell them how full of shit they are.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)It sealed the association in my mind of Religion = Mass Murder.
Kennah
(14,578 posts)AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)How many are lying?
I personally don't think anyone has never doubted the existence of God. At least once they have. That's why all the extravagant systems and reminders in place to help you forget your doubt.