There is an interesting new Pew poll that shows that the number of Americans without affiliation to any religion is continuing to rise — as is the number of Americans who now classify themselves as atheists or agnostics. The numbers of “nones” has grown to 56 million in recent years, making it the second largest number behind evangelicals. From 2007 to 2014, Americans describing themselves as as atheist, agnostic or of no particular faith grew from 16 percent to nearly 23 percent. This is roughly one out of four Americans. Pew found a rising tide of secularism in the United States. It is an interesting poll since religious groups tend to have far greater political power in the country as shown by various “faith-based” policies.
I have written previously (here) on how both Republicans and Democrats, including President Obama (here), have embraced faith-based politics. Yet, in addition to strong support for separation of church and state, many Americans disclaim any faith-based affiliation.
Notably, the largest group of faith followers (Christians) has shown the greatest decline in numbers. In the latest poll, Christians dropped from about 78 percent to just under 71 percent of the population. Protestants now comprise 46.5 percent the country.
Last year, 31 percent of the “nones” said they were atheist or agnostic as compared to 25 percent in 2007. In addition, the percentage who said religion was important to them has dropped.
The question is how the parties, and particularly the Republican party, will respond to this trend. Notably, people with no religion tend to vote Democratic, while white evangelicals tend to vote Republican. The greatest drops among Christians were seen among more liberal Protestants and Roman Catholics.
Mainline Protestants declined by about 5 million to 36 million between 2007 and 2014. The study put the number of Catholic adults at 51 million, or just over one-fifth of the U.S. population, a drop of about 3 percent over seven years.
While there was an increase in Muslims and Hindus, both groups comprise less than 1 percent of the U.S. population. The number of Jews rose slightly over the period, from 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent of Americans.
It is fascinating to see these demographic shifts as well as the relative political power that is held by various groups in our political system.
With one out of four Americans in the “none” category, it will be interesting to see if the rising secular values in our country will translate to changes in either party — or whether the determinative factor will continue to be the concentrated voting blocks or influence of particular faith-based groups.
Source: PEW Study
St. Peter declared in his epistle, he was writing from “the new Babylon…which was code for Rome Dave…any objective historian will acknowledge his life and preaching in Rome as well as his martyrdom…in fact I have been to Rome and prayed over the tomb of the first Pope…
The Great Stanton wrote: “St. Peter declared in his epistle, he was writing from “the new Babylon…which was code for Rome Dave…”
What version of the Bible are you reading that says “new Babylon”? The text simply refers to Babylon, which is not code for anything. It refers to Babylon in Assyria, which was a great center of civilization and a place where many Jews lived since the Babylonian captivity. The Talmud was written there. Peter was the apostle to the Jews. If that is your best case to place Peter as establishing a church in Rome and being Pope there, it is a very weak case.
I too have traveled to Rome and seen Peter’s tomb, but that does not prove that he was a Pope in Rome. History is clear that it would be several centuries before any religious leader in Rome was called the Pope.
I have no problem with the tradition that Peter was martyred in Rome, but that does not establish him as the first Pope anymore than trying to argue that Paul (or one of hundreds of other Christians) was the first Pope because he was martyred in Rome. In fact, the historical evidence is much stronger that Paul spent years building up the church in Rome with little to no evidence that Peter did.
Annie,
Under our Constitution they do have that right to be unmolested by the Government. As is often mistaken The Constitution and the Bill of Rights recognize and codify your rights and protect them from interference by the Government both Federal, and after the passage of the 14th Amendment, State and Local Governments. Nothing in the Constitution protects you or your rights from being interfered with by another private citizen. That would either be a crime (if against the law) or a tort if it wasn’t.
You would be free to sue said person for tortuous interference of some sort I imagine, or file a restraining order restricting the distance they must stay away, the maximum volume they could use while “rebuking”, or possibly any signage employed.
You could probably limit how offensive they could be – but not that they were offensive to you.
Also forgot about the Sikh Temple shootings in Wisconsin. Clearly molestation because of their faith. That dum@$$ thought they were Muslim.
orthodoxy is a disordered splinter on nationalist churches, that are not UNIVERSAL in scope, with no central head, or foundation… as does the Catholic Church which means UNIVERSAL! Orthodoxy is a hodge-podge of false Churches started in 1035, when the Byzantine patriarch was mad at the pope, because he wasn’t in charge…he was excommunicated and heresy has been rife within the orthodox movement since. Claiming that orthodox historians dispute the church is irrelevant…atheists dispute the belief in God!…does this mean they are right?…of course not…common sense, and reason all point to the truths of only one reality…the catholic Church…all roads lead to Rome…not Constantinople…
David’s knowledge of history is is as tragic as his hubris…he claims he won’t join a Church, as he does not know which is true! According to his loony logic, the orthodox churches would seem logical, as a choice…which one Dave, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, maybe the rumanian variety. No…how bout you join the episcoplainas, as a founder you have a syphilitic madman, named Henry as it’s founder. How bout Joseph Smith, and the Mormon’s Dave?…if you become one, when you die, you get your own planet, maybe even a galaxy, if you play your cards right!…Of course you are aware that they don’t believe Jesus is God, which means they are not Christians…even Muslims claim to believe in Jesus as a prophet and find value in His life and teaching…as do many agnostic’s and even buddhists. Than again you can embrace the flavor of the month…become “non-denominational”…that’s been the hot flavor for many ant-Catholic protestants for the last 30 years or so.
David…You should read the book The faith of Our fathers, by James Cardinal Gibbons, published by Tan Books. This book will allow you to read the history of the Church, from the stand of a true scholar and erudite historian. Lutherans started in 1524, the Anglicans in 1535, the Anabaptists and methodists few years later, on and on. All of these churches were started by sinful, fallible men…my Church was personally started by Our Savior Jesus Christ, as He started only ONE Church…God is not going to confuse us…He wants the evidential nature of the Church to be visible to all men, for all-time. I have been used as a conduit, to assist three men from leaving the heresy of protestantism and embracing the faith as a Catholic, these men are all ardent apologists now!
The Great Stanton – you should not forget that Henry VIII was very learned in theology and had been named Defender of the Faith before his break with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Great Stanton wrote: “he claims he won’t join a Church, as he does not know which is true!”
I never said that I don’t know which is true. I think religions are created by man. Religions are man’s way to approach God, but Jesus Christ is God’s way of approaching man. That’s what I believe.
I do believe that the church is the pillar and ground of truth, but not in the way that Roman Catholics believe that. We have a different understanding of what the word church means. I think the way Roman Catholics use the word church is different from the way the apostles used the word.
The Great Stanton wrote: “… my Church was personally started by Our Savior Jesus Christ, as He started only ONE Church…”
No, your so-called “church” is not the one and only church started by Jesus Christ. The word “church” in Greek is ekklesia. It simply means assembly. It was not a religious term at all. It is even used in the New Testament to refer to an assembly that included nefarious mobs who wanted to kill the apostles (Acts 19). It is a word used of political bodies too. The fact that the New Testament refers to many churches in the plural indicates that there is not only ONE church. Jesus started many churches after his resurrection, one in each city. Did not Jesus teach, that where two or three are gathered together in his name, there he is in the midst of them? How do you define church? In your perspective, is a member of the church someone who swears allegiance to the Pope?
Well, I’ll be darned….
Annie,
Then we are in agreement that the “molestation” is in violation of their inalienable right of conscience.
Spinelli, with not even ONE substantive comment. Can’t keep up with the discussion?
Stanton,
Would you stand in defense, even with your life, of people that truly believe the two verses from Romans that I posted above? Would you denounce anyone that believes as those verses describe if they are locked up in a cell and unable to participate in the holy sacraments or practice their faith in the Catholic traditions? The thief on the cross was never baptized yet he believed Jesus Christ was the true son of God and was told by Jesus he would join him in heaven. How do you explain the thief’s path to eternal life in heaven without having practiced his faith within the Catholic Church?
Olly and David w/ substantive logical, unemotional comments. And, I just learned David likes to fish. I like to eat fish.
We have an inalienable right to believe or not believe anything we want, that’s called freedom of conscience. This means the law cannot be used to infringe on that right. If we act on our conscience in a way that infringes the natural rights of others exercising their freedom of conscience then we are violating the social contract this nation was founded on. We will all never agree on the issue of religion. One’s relationship with God is a personal matter for which only God can legitimately judge. Our responsibility in this life is to secure our natural right of conscience and “support and defend” that right as well as every other inalienable right we have.
And other more liberal churches like Presbyterian and Episcopalian have had letters threatening to kill parishioners, because of their beliefs.
“Agreement is not what she seeks w/ people of faith…”
Spinelli, has no clue as to what I seek. For him to attempt to speak for me, is laughable.
Unmolested. To sit in their houses of worship without fundamentalist hecklers disrupting their service, as in the instances in Washington DC last year. The “rebukers” were INSIDE the church during mass. Also in liberal churches such as UU, gunmen have come in during services and killed parishioners. That sounds like molestation.
I. Annie wrote: “The “rebukers” were INSIDE the church during mass. Also in liberal churches such as UU, gunmen have come in during services and killed parishioners. That sounds like molestation.”
If that is what you mean by molestation, then I am in agreement with you. Nobody should be doing these things. However, the examples you gave previously were all people engaged in legitimate free speech activity. They were in traditional public forums. Nobody went into the classrooms of the university and started disrupting the class with their preaching, and nobody went into a church to disrupt mass.
David clearly is another anti-Catholic bigot with an an axe to grind…the Catholic Church was started in the year 33 in Jerusalem…orthodox chuches broke off in 1054 and were declared heretical. The orthodox churches has done nothing to evangelize pagans, as the Catholic church has done, when our Lord declared “Go out and teach all nations”…I would assume that one of the eastern othodox churches would have sent missionaries out to New Guinea, Greenland, S. America and throughout India and South east Asia… strangely they have not. Protestantism was established by Luther who was a horny Monk and priest who debauched a nun and was a compulsive “self-abuser”, this bogus church was started in the early 1500’s, Henry the VIII followed suit and started the Anglican’s when the Pope refused a divorce, from his lawful wife Catherine of Aragon. Protestantism is a major heresy, which has created over 20,ooo false churches since it’s creation. Protestants never no what to believe, since the Church existed before the Bible. The Old testament is not the Bible only the old and new testament’s together constitute the Bible. Sola Scriptura has been debunked…as not one protestant scholar can determine precisely how the bible should be interpreted, man left to his own devices has Luther, Pailsey, Joseph Smith, Ellen White, Doug Batchelor, Wesley, Calvin, Huss and a whole host of quack’s claiming they have the truth…some protestants worship on saturday, most on Sunday, Some claim sola scriptura, others not, some have adult baptism, some infant baptism, some believe in five sacraments, some none, some only two…I can only hope when the protestant head stops spinning it’s face is to the front again! protestantism is five hundred years old…orthodox churches only a thousand….the Catholic church is 2,000 years old with Jesus Christ as it’s founder. Pope St. Peter is the first Pope, which literally means “papa”…all the way down with an unbroken succession, to Pope Francis the I. Orthodox theology which allows 3 marriage and divorces, which clearly is not what the Church or Scripture teaches. Orthodox Christianity is limited to a few countries in Eastern Europe and Russia, but even within these nations Catholics abound as well, throughout western Europe, the Western Hemisphere, Oceania, Africa and portions of Asia and Asia Minor, Catholicism is growing, in overflow numbers yearly. Peter in Aramaic means “ROCK”, his name was Simon Barjona and it was changed by our Lord to ROCK or Cephas in Aramaic! Peter alone was given the “keys of the kingdom”. Catholicism is the LARGEST Christian Church in the world and the only true Christian Church, as all other’s are false and man-made. The truth is a sobering reality.
The Great Stanton wrote: “the Catholic Church was started in the year 33 in Jerusalem…orthodox chuches broke off in 1054 and were declared heretical. ”
That is the history you have been fed by the Roman Catholic Church, as well as from our public educational system which was highly influenced by Roman Catholic history. Try reading some history from independent sources. Try reading history books written in the East. It might open up your mind to realize how much you believe what Roman Catholics told you rather than what the true history is. There isn’t really any evidence that Peter oversaw a church in Rome at all, much less that he was a “pope.” The word pope (meaning papa) would not even be used for hundreds of years, so that whole Roman Catholic theology about apostolic succession is built upon shifting sand.
Prairie Rose, God bless you for trying. But, to even intimate she might agree w/ DavidM is akin to slapping her in the face. Agreement is not what she seeks w/ people of faith, particularly someone like DavidM!! Eeek!
Define “unmolested”.
I was in a poker group once. The rule was no discussion of religion or politics. It was a FUN group.
Prairie Rose, worshipers have a right under our Constitution to worship unmolested, unless I’m mistaken. Non believers also have a right to be unmolested in their unbelief, under our Constitution.
I belonged to the Wisconsin Synod Lutheran Church as an adult for ten years. I don’t think for a minute that Lutherans or other Protestants are heretics, as Stanton does. Not even fundamentalists are heretics, they just think they are the only true believers, Muslims and Christian fundamentalists alike.