Near-Record High (70%) See Religion Losing Influence in America

[DeSwiss]

Near-Record High See Religion Losing Influence in America
Current 70% nears all-time high of 75% recorded in 1970

GALLUP
Thursday, December 30, 2010 Updated 01:00 PM ET
by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ-- Seven in 10 Americans say religion is losing its influence on American life -- one of the highest such responses in Gallup's 53-year history of asking this question, and significantly higher than in the first half of the past decade.



Americans' views of the influence of religion in the U.S. have fluctuated substantially in the years since 1957, when Gallup first asked this question. At that point, perhaps reflecting the general focus on family values that characterized the Eisenhower era, 69% of Americans said religion was increasing its influence, the most in Gallup's history.

Views of the influence of religion shifted dramatically in the mid-1960s. By 1970, in the midst of the protests over the Vietnam War and general social upheaval, a record 75% of Americans said religion was losing influence in American society. These views moderated in the years thereafter. At several points during the Reagan administration, a plurality of Americans returned to the view that religion was increasing its influence. By the early 1990s, Americans became more convinced again that religion was losing its influence. These views persisted until a sharp reversal after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when a number of social and political indicators, including presidential and congressional approval and overall satisfaction with the way things were going, showed substantial increases.

Views that religion was increasing in influence began to fade in the second half of the last decade. The 7 in 10 Americans who now say religion is losing its influence is tied with 2009 for the most who have held such a view since 1970.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/145409/Near-Record-High-Religion-Losing-Influence-America.aspx">MORE

[Gabi Hayes]

1. thank god

[ejpoeta]

2. +1

[rfranklin]

7. Let's pray for deliverance from religion...

and the mental illness it causes.

[sakabatou]

26. LOLz

[Deep13]

3. Right wing media has programmed them to hold that view.

That includes religious-right hate-mongers.

[DeSwiss]

13. I think that their scandals helped a little too. n/t

[rucky]

39. Yep. It's always under attack by teh seculars

so they fight back preemptively.

[Greybnk48]

4. The crazies killed it. n/t

[Hello_Kitty]

5. Sadly, the majority are mistaken on this.

Read "The Family" and you will understand just how deeply the tentacles of theocracy have penetrated public institutions.

[starroute]

8. Actual religions are losing influence -- religio-crypto-fascists are not

It could even be argued that it's the death of real religion that allows these zombie cults to take over the corpse and proliferate wildly.

[patrice]

9. +1~ Precisely, the question doesn't ask whether religion has less influence over YOU.

Nor does it ask what your reaction to the situation is.

It doesn't even establish what religion is, i.e. what it is that is having more or less influence over other people's lives. Respondents could be referring to all sorts of things.

[Hello_Kitty]

12. So-called "nondenominational" churches are the fastest growing sect

It just looks like Pentacostals without the speaking in tongues and snakes to me but, whatever. They're massive and very well organized. They're basically social support groups where you get brainwashed.

[Lucky Luciano]

22. Hah! Nicely said! nt

[awoke_in_2003]

30. "zombie cults"...

so do you define someone who rises from the dead after 3 days a zombie or a Messiah?

[patrice]

11. +1~!

[DeSwiss]

16. Yep.

- And you'd think they would have noticed something by now......

[qazplm]

6. from your lips

to...someone's...ears.

[starroute]

10. The poll is being reported in a weird way, though

They didn't ask people if they thought religion should have more influence, or if religion has become more important to them personally. They asked them if they thought religion was becoming more or less influential on society as a whole -- which is to say, for an objective opinion on what they perceived around them.

But the poll is being interpreted as if it had to do with subjective feelings. "At several points during the Reagan administration, a plurality of Americans returned to the view that religion was increasing its influence. By the early 1990s, Americans became more convinced again that religion was losing its influence."

It's all phrases like "returned to the view" and "became more convinced" -- as if Americans were changing their opinions independent of what was actually happening. I mean, if you'd asked me in the early 90's, I would have said religion seemed less influential than it had been during the heyday of the Moral Majority. But that wasn't became I "became more convinced" of anything. It was just the way it was.

So there's something a bit weird about the whole writeup, though I can't tell if it's a deliberate attempt by Gallup to spin the results or if they just can't help using that kind of boilerplate language.

[DeSwiss]

17. I'm not a great fan of polls.....

...because having both studied and created them I realize how easily they can be manipulated to say what one wants them to say.

However, in this case, the poll asks for the respondent's opinion. Likewise, it is asking the same question over a 53 year period. So from this perspective it is a valid prognosticator of public opinion of religion in my book.

- At least insofar as the value of personal opinions go.....

[liberal N proud]

14. Since it has had such a stranglehold on the nation it is about time

I believe in having faith but organized religion is not much different than totalitarian government.

[patrice]

15. Bingo! - but - I'd bet the poll respondents did not make that distinction. nt

[valerief]

18. So for those thinking religion is losing its influence, are they unhappy about or relieved? nt

[awoke_in_2003]

32. living I Texas...

I would have to say they are unhappy. 70% of the population is persecuted, dontcha know :)

[valerief]

43. Oy vey, the only people truly persecuted are those of the working class. nt

[awoke_in_2003]

44. Well, add the poor...

and I would agree. I just have to hear christians moan all the time about their "persecution". Don't worry, every time the ultra-religious ones wished me Merry Xmas this year I responded with "Happy Xmas and a Merry New Year"- some laughed, and some really wanted to say something but didn't (I mean, hey- I expressed my wish that they be happy :) )

[valerief]

45. Well, the poor ARE the working class. They're just unable for one reason or another

to get work with a living wage.

Jolly Kwanzaa!

[awoke_in_2003]

46. And a "Zesty Generica"...

to you :hi:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=263x43214

[valerief]

47. Love it! Zesty Generika. And a Bon Festivus to you, too! nt

[awoke_in_2003]

48. I love "Zesty Generica"...

it makes me think of spaghetti and the WONDERFUL pesto bread my stepdaughter makes (sorry, the bread has to be stressed). Yum.

[Drale]

19. Why do you think the "true beleavers" are going nuts and fighting tooth and nail?

because they see their way of life dieing and they will kill anyone to keep that way of life a little longer.

[madrchsod]

20. interesting set of polls....

i stopped going to church in the early 60`s but i am a person of faith.

[DeSwiss]

28. Mid-to-late 60's for me.

Which caused no end of trouble for me, as I was a PK.

I am a believer in reality. I believe that we, and everything else in existence are a part of All That Is.

"We wish to pursue the truth, no matter where it may lead. But to find the truth we will need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure of eloquent truths, of exquisite interrelationships, of the awesome machinery of nature. The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore we've learned most of what we know. Recently we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep -- and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." ~Carl Sagan

[jwirr]

21. The good ole rw fundies have been destroying their gods. They

think they are such Christians but they are actually the ones tearing down the church. For lack of a better word - the anti-Christ - the 666.

[struggle4progress]

23. This is a standard rightwing theme: it was common, where I grew up, to blame

every social ill, real or imagined, on the supposedly growing secularization of society

How could the hippies possibly think it makes more sense to jump naked into public fountains than to go drop napalm on poor peasants in Vietnam? Who could possibly think such a thing? Whatever could be happening here? It can only mean ... (drumroll) ... lack of religion is destroying society! I blame ... (drumroll) ... lack of school prayer!

[droidamus2]

24. This is one of those polls...

I wish the pollsters would do the obvious followup question in these kind of open end polls. Okay you asked the first question 'Do you believe religion is losing influence in the US' but then ask of the same group of people 'Do you see that as a good thing or a bad thing'. Without the followup question you don't really know what the 70% number means. In my case I would say less influence by religion(s) is a good thing but you may have a lot of people saying it is losing influence but that is a very bad thing. I guess what I am saying is there would be a least two camps both saying less influence those that think there should be even less influence and those thinking there should be way more influence.

[DeSwiss]

33. Given the fact.....

...that http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm">87% of Americans consider themselves to be "Christians" and yet this fact cannot be borne out by using something as simple as http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm">church attendance to confirm it, it becomes harder and harder to really know just what any of this really means.

- If it means anything at all......






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-slAgzJmdU&feature=player_embedded">Why does every intelligent Christian disobey Jesus?

[Demoiselle]

35. I was thinking the same thing...

Are those polled who feel it's losing its influence happy or sad about it? And, for that matter, I'd like to know whether those polled believe THEY are influenced by their faith or not? I think that polls that ask people what they thing OTHER people think are always iffy.

[aquart]

25. Must be all those damn religion channels.

They make it clear that religion is just a business.

[ladjf]

27. If the trend away from religion were to continue, it could be the

salvation of America. Currently, the religious block has been largely "in the pockets" of the Republicans.

[awoke_in_2003]

29. 7 in 10 americans...

are either blind or stupid. the stranglehold religion has on this country is getting tighter every year.

[craigmatic]

31. They say Gen-Y is religious but a different kind of religious than what we're use to.

I think it was Time that said that the millinials are more religious from a standpoint of doing the right thing instead of just having the right stand on social issues. Hopefully the trand will increase.

[Marianne_]

34. Pinch of salt?

Much in the same way conservatives think that the US is sliding towards socialism, I gather? Just because 75% of Americans think this is the case doesn't make it so. Indeed, the more that people who are opposed to religion losing its influence think it is happening, the more they are likely to actively resist its decline, resulting in an even more religious society.

[DeSwiss]

41. "Just because 75% of Americans think this is the case doesn't make it so."

- I think it's safe to say that you're from the Mark Twain "lies, damned lies and statistics" school of thought.

BTW, welcome to DU.

[Odin2005]

36. I think this just indicates that the religious are having a pearl-clutching spasm, unfortunately.

Note the peaks around 1970, when the Right was hippie-bashing, and in 1995, when the RW Culture Warriors were on the war path. That indicates to me that this simply shows when the right-wing religious idiots throw a fit.

[DeSwiss]

38. I think you may have something there......

[pipi_k]

37. Just because they believe it, doesn't mean it's true

I mean, who knows what some of them think "losing influence" entails.


Many of them probably think religion is losing influence because they can't force us all to live according to their religions...


They're being persecuted, by God!!!!111



:eyes:

[fascisthunter]

40. you can Thank the Republican Party for That

and their sick fanatics who try to hide behind something sacred.

[Takket]

42. yea!

The sooner we stop believing fantasy wizards from the sky are responsible for our well being, the sooner we as a race will actually be able to start solving problems down here.