Atheism

We can just go to therapy instead of confessional.

It's been a slow trend over the last decades but it's encouraging to hear about.

In the 1970s, only about 5% of Americans fell into this category. Today, that number exceeds 25%.

That's ... a surprisingly slow transition. I can understand that an official turn away from christianity only started in the 1970s, fueled by a cultural revolution.

But the fact that only 25% of people have officially said no to religion as of today is staggering me. I would have thought it would be closer to 80%, maybe.

Because it's all horseshit?

It's dumb?

Everyone, myself included always come back to the same reason - there is no proof.

If I was given actual proof of a god or pantheon or any other ridiculous nonsense I’d absolutely change my mind but actual proof magic exists can’t exist because magic isn’t real

I fully accept that I don’t and can’t truly understand the universe but where the fuck does that somehow morph into “god did it” it’s ok not to know everything I don’t need made up bullshit to fill the gaps so I can feel better about not having every answer. Live with not knowing, that’s what being human is meant to be, acceptance

My guess is that the extreme hatred flowing out of outspoken "Christians" in the US is a huge turn-off, as it should be.

They have tech now. And conspiracy theories. Lots of stuff to cult about. They can build their own religion if they want.

For their study, Schnabel and his colleagues used data from the National Study of Youth and Religion. This included four waves of longitudinal survey data and 183 in-depth interviews conducted from 2003 to 2013. The sample included over 1,300 individuals, each tracked from adolescence into young adulthood. [...] The number of respondents attending religious services dropped dramatically between 2003 and 2013.

The study used data that's 12 years old! Millennials are not young adults anymore. At this point it's well known that Americans, especially the younger cohorts, are moving away from religion, so why even bother reanalyzing ancient data?

Here's my theory why:

• People nowadays have higher average education and can much more easilly spot the logical inconsistences in Religion.
• People are so overexposed and overwhelmed by swindles in the modern era that they are more naturally spotting the swindle nature of ancient swindles such as Religion.

Because I don't need God to be a good person, or know what good morals are.

I've been reading that Gen-Z is going to organized religion more now.

I'm not technically leaving religion, I was raised atheist and just never got the hang of believing in supernatural things.

I believe some CRAZY stuff but it's not supernatural

should be happening with gen z and alpha too, but gen z has more right wingers than previous generations, due to significant propaganda.

Good for them.

These ancient lies designed for crowd control have been horrible these past thousand years.

Not that modern political groups or sects etc are much better...

Lmao because it's horse shit that's why

Source: me, a 37-yo exmormon who was all-in, true believer, until his mid 20s.

because its bullshit?

Well, my whole life, I've lived in a society where organized Christianity has overwhelmingly been a force for evil, rather than a force for good. Fuck, I straight-up believe that most Evangelical Christians are devil worshipers. If your religion leads you to hate, you aren't worshiping God, you're worshiping the Devil.

there is literally nothing that religion can provide that can't be gotten without religion

Part of this is just that the socially conservative pressure to fit in has eased. Time was you had to be "religious" to fit in to communities and it was seen as part of American identity.

I find it hard to believe 75% of Americans are religious. In the UK 37% identify as non religious. 45% identify as Christian yet churches have emptied our and most young people only end up in one for marriages or funerals. People say they're Christian but I have no doubt a large chunk of those people are just ticking a box on a census form as it's part of their identity.

I feel like the unloved sect is really the unitarian universalists. They're basically a doctrine free "church" of social justice. Like, I love going sometimes and just getting more advice on how to be an excellent human to others. And then we have snacks.