Comments
Wow, most of the South increased since 1990. But Louisiana has is tied with Montana for the most negative change in Catholic believers.
Do you think after the Katrina disaster that they are all saying, “there is no god?” If so, what happened in Montana?
yeah but how many catholics are really in louisiana anyway. i’d guess less than 10% of the state would be catholic. plus, there is an 8% increase of non-catholic christians. la appears to be the only state with significant change in that area.
nonetheless… good news!
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I mean yeah, we all live in fairly populated and in or around metropolitan areas so I’m sure it’s a skewed perception to point this out, but how many really religious young people do you know? I mean I’m 10 years older than probably most on here and out of all of my friends and aquiantances I know of my own age, the most religious among them are probably more just lip service religious in that if asked they’ll identify as a denomination but yet have no actual religion in their lives, don’t go to church, etc.
It doesn’t help that young people increasingly have more contact with all of these things that devout religions teach them to hate and realize that none of them are that bad and in fact most of those things they’re told are bad are really pretty fucking great. It may have been easier to fool them when things were swept under the rug, but with so much out there now it kind of lays bare that much of what religion has come to devote itself to is full of crap. Maybe if religion can get back to convincing kids and young people what they’re supposed to like instead of what they’re supposed to hate and be against, this could turn around. But in the absence of that I don’t see it happening.
I think I’m probably one of the rare birds on here in whose:
- best friend goes to church every Sunday and teaches CCD;
- my other best friend goes every Sunday, is in charge of youth group, and goes on Wednesdays;
- my brother goes every Sunday and Wednesday and he teaches at vacation bible school during the summer;
- one of my close college friends is married to a youth pastor and goes to church at least once but possibly twice a week;
- one teaches at a Catholic school;
- and a handful of other college friends go to church on Sundays.
In general conversation, no one would know my church-y friends from my non church-y friends. My brother is a whole different story, reading Jonah and the whale stories to my nephew, which kind of weirds me out.
I should also say that my brother is 6 years younger than I am and is pretty religious in that he goes to church every Sunday. But he’s also not religious in that it ultimately does not cross over into the other 98% of his life or affect his views or how he perceives things or any of that. It’s more just childhood inertia of being raised that way and not being particularly someone who questions things or shakes things up in his life in any way if not forced to.
When I think of religious I think of people like you described your brother as being, and/or someone who if you know them in even a fairly casual capacity you know that they are religious (which to me means it’s something that is so much a part of their life that it even seeps into casual conversation).
Also keep in mind there is a small minority, but none-the-less present, group of users of this very site who are pretty religious.
I work with several Muslims, one of which I have very stimulating conversations about relgion with on pretty much a daily basis. None of my close friends go to church at all, and my family has pretty much given it up too, but not for reasons that i would deem particularly thoughtful.
My family stopped going on Easter Sunday in about 1987. I had been begging my mom to let us leave and she wouldn’t. Then we hit the two-hour mark of the service, grabbed our stuff, and ran for the hills.
I had a really interesting conversation last night with two of my new Boston friends who were raised Jehovah’s Witnesses. One said that someone knocked on their door and converted her mother. My response: “That works?!?!? Who knew that actually worked??”
Where’s Justin on this thread?? He’s got a good religious/non-religious family dynamic.
He’s not in work today. Home sick?
Yeah, I’m curious about the religious/non-religious angle with regard to how people were raised or their family environment. I mean was anyone raised non-religious but is devout or religious at all?
I was raised ridiculously heavy duty catholic with regard to all the tenets/sacraments/etc. but without the dogma. So it’s not like I had this ridiculously oppressive religious environment I was rebelling against. Yet I’m probably in the end as anti-religious as John.
I want to be buried in a shirt that says, “Thanks a lot, Science,” just in case you go to Hell in whatever you were wearing last.
Thanks for posting – that’s a pretty nifty graph. Not really surprised, but after the last 8 years it sometimes seemed like there was one set of religious attitudes on the coasts and a completely different one in the south and in the middle. It’s interesting to see that this isn’t necessarily the case.
As for me, I was raised very Catholic, and as a result have been an atheist since I was like twelve. I’ve actually mellowed out about it over the last few years (because we do not convert!), but I still think Richard Dawkins should be the Pope.
I was raised in a very religious home.. went to youth group, church retreats, etc. I even went to Russia as a missionary to discuss my faith with Russian teens who for years were not allowed to publicly acknowledge religion. Then I went away to college, tried out a couple of churches but didn’t like any I went to, and just continued the practice of not going when I was home for summer breaks. One time I did go and my pastor completely ignored me after I waited around to talk to him. I figured I didn’t need to go to church just to be treated that way.
I consider myself a very spiritual person.. I believe in divine intervention… I have seen how paths open up before me in my life when I am in most need. But I don’t identify myself as part of a certain religion. I think what it comes down to is that church is ultimately more about politics than God, and who wants to wake up early on one of only two days off a week to sit through that? I’m not happy with the lack of priority I’ve given spirituality in life recently, but am likewise unhappy about my inattention to creating music and just feeling a sense of connectedness in general.
You can’t spell “God” without the “8=D~~.”
I’m sorry, Sarah, that had absolutely nothing to do with you. Your post is sincere. My post is unfortunately timed.
Hutch: Your formatting limit on consecutive equalses made my dick a chode.
Wow, that must be a textile thing. Try using the textile escape tag next time you want to draw a giant dick.
Like so.
8==========D~ ~~ ~
Clearly I’m more of a man than you are. A man with a disproportionately large dickhead, and puny, puny balls.
Is it bad that I’m more upset by the spelling of my name than the ejaculation?
Sara said:Is it bad that I’m more upset by the spelling of my name than the ejaculation?
Name spelling is important to me as well. And really, Sam, her name is right there.
I don’t understand your emphasis.
i have no idea what’s going on.
8==D~ ~~ ~
since when the hell does 8 equal D?
……. oh, thats clever.
kevin, in response to your question on religious background:
we went to methodist sunday school for years, but sometime after my parent divorced we stopped going. when my dad remarried they tried to start us up again catholic because thats what my stepmom was, but it didnt take. i was pretty anti religion at that point and would question her beleifs.
in highschool i would do the same thing with people i knew, which usually erupted into arguments. some of those ive had with people who are currently members of the scrabbled. my favorite thing to ask them was ‘on which of the seven days did god create and then get rid of the dinosaurs’. post highschool i lived with my friend dan, raised catholic, went to paul vi, we’d have long conversations.
no one ever tried to convert me, and looking back i think i was the dick because i was the one trying to convince them they were wrong. ive never had a bad experience with religion really, so thats why on here, even if i dont beleive in any of it, ill throw some ideas out there to stir up talk on the other end. now im willing to accept that i dont know what the hell happens next. the idea of a big guy with a white beard leading us in a land of fluffy white clouds where i get to hang out with my loved ones sounds awesome, but also unlikely. i tend to only beleive in tangible things, and in the area of death and stuff, well, theres only one way for a person so know, so in that respect theres no way to ever know. im less militant now in my view (probably from becoming a parent), and think that as long as your ideas dont tread on mine or vice versa, i have no problem. in fact i enjoy talking about it and exchanging ideas on it.
even if i dont beleive in god stuffs, id love to be convinced, because in my mind, if i am wrong, i still win.
Derrick said:
even if i dont beleive in god stuffs, id love to be convinced, because in my mind, if i am wrong, i still win.
That kind of hits the nail on the head. If I’m wrong, me getting or not getting into heaven is pretty much going to be contingent only on the super biblical literalist evangelical types being right because I’m not “saved”. I figure even if people like my parents (Catholic) or lutherans or episcopals or jews are right, I’ve lived my actual life by enough of their tenets where it counts that I should be o.k. because they don’t demand total commitment to their god himself, as much as they do his general rules.
And if by chance the evangelical, spiteful god, “be saved” types are right then I think I’d rather wind up in hell than up there with them anyway, so…..
I actually don’t believe there are as many “rules” as what religious groups would tell us. The whole idea that if you don’t believe in Jesus, you are going to hell, disgusts me. I believe that God must be pretty lame to let such a huge portion of the world go to hell each year just cause they weren’t brought up as Christians. I’m uncertain about the whole heaven/hell thing, but I know that spirits aren’t gone at death.