Increasing Number of Atheists

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It is a well known fact that the precentage of Americans who are atheists is increasing. Why is this? Ask most atheists and they'll say, "atheism is the way of the future! It is mankind's destiny to abandon religion and become atheist." Some atheists will say "It probably also has to do with the fact that our current enemies are fundamentalist Muslims instad of godless commies."

Maybe that's the only reason.

If the U.S. stopped waging war against the Middle East and went to war with China would the precentage of Americans that are atheists rise or fall?

If the US went to war with China, we would lose. Badly. Rather than being atheists, we'd all be Mandarin-speaking agnostic Confucians.

i think its worth noting that atheism is a lack of ideological belief in a superior being
some would argue china promotes the state as a god and demands reverance as such.


here in denmark there was a similar segment in the news, a priest then stood forward with the words "the reason for a falling number of christians is becuase less children are "breastfed" with christianity", what an argument

Or could the fact that the educational system and the media calmly [mostly] and confidentlyt proclaim that theism is at best old fashioned and and at worst antisocial and in any case uncool?

But I think that is just as much an oversimplification.

I don't know if we have credible statistics on the ratio of atheist / theist worldwide from let's say 1900 on. It would be interesting to see.

I think it could be to do with the passing of the age of Pisces into the age of Aquarius

It could be that more information has become available, especially since the advent of the Internet - information that is both valid, and that contradicts the Bible. How can "The Lord said..." going to compete with "It can be demonstrated that...", when the former can only be a matter of faith, and the latter is a consistently repeatable experiment?

Religion is doomed.

Or perhaps the number of people that didn't quite buy that religious stuff was always this large. But they are now able to share their disbelief with other people.

without fear of torture and death,

The biggest reason that atheism & agnosticism is growing concerns the communities in which most Americans now live. Up until 60 years ago, Americans lived in very homogeneous communities. For example, most Irish-Catholics lived in Irish-Catholic communities while Russian-Jews lived in Russian-Jewish communities. The fact that someone would share the same religion as their neighbors (and presumably attend the same place of worship) instilled their religious values as a deep part of their culture and identity.

Many of these communities existed in neighborhoods of major cities (eg: Little Italy (Italian) or Lower East Side (Jewish)). With the advent of suburbanization, many people moved away from their old homes and into communities that would be more religiously and/or ethnically diverse. The exposure to diversity itself didn't lead to increased atheism and agnosticism.

Instead, the religious diversity prevented one's religious belief & values from being a lynchpin of the culture of a typical suburban community. This affects the kids who grew up in the suburbs more than the adults who moved there from the city. This is because religion wouldn't play as central of a role in the kids' lives as it did in their parents' lives. While this does't directly cause atheism or agnosticism, it increases the likelihood for people growing up in a less religion-central environment to become nonreligious.

Access to increased information certainly permitted religious and ethnic tolerance. However, I don't think that it impacts the increase of those who are nonreligious. People who remain in religiously and often racially/ethnically homogenous communities still exemplify high rates of religion. This is evident in urban communities that are predominantly Hispanic-Catholic as well as other urban & small town/rural communities that are mainly African-American-Protestant. This is also apparent in rural/small town communities that are mainly Protestant (but still ethnically diverse). Religious beliefs and values flourish among the people living in aforementioned communities despite the access to information that they enjoy via the internet or television.

There are probably other things in our national culture that contribute to this increase of nonreligious people. However, the cultures within the close-knit & religiously homogeneous communities are more impervious to these external forces, thereby allowing religiosity to retain a strong presence. Meanwhile, the cultures of more religiously diverse communities are more likely to be shaped by materialism (b/c these communities are often more financially comfortable) and other external forces.

Addendum:
US foreign policy will not affect the increasing rate of atheism and agnosticism in the US. Besides, any conflict that the US has with China will begin with a war in the Middle East where the US, NATO, GCC, & Israel fight against Iran, Syria, Lebanon, & Russia. If Iran can stop GCC oil flow from the Persian Gulf, Iran & Russia will coerce China into drawing the US into war in the Pacific. Iran & Russia would instruct China to invade Taiwan (& maybe Japan) as well as have North Korea invade South Korea. China will comply with these demands b/c China would need Iranian & Russian oil should Iran permanently prevent GCC oil from leaving the Persian Gulf.

Last edited by Montana2Clark on 30 Jul 2011, 12:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

The internet.

Atheism vrs. Christianity has been getting fairly entertaining online the past recent years.

People are not stupid and realize religion has been used to hyjack our own minds. I am thankful my parents did not bring me up to be religious.

Higher levels of taxation and a large social safety net are directly related to higher levels of atheism. The United States has relatively lower tax rates and fewer social programs than most other developed nations. The United States also has one of the lowest rates of atheism among developed countries. The highest percentage recorded by a reputable poll to date is 7% in January of this year as reported by the Gallup organization. Up until 1987 it averaged 1 percent.

World wide though, the rate of atheism is still 2.5%, and the fertility rate among religious people in the US and the rest of the world is significantly higher than that of the fertility rate among the non-religious.

The Hispanic population, is the second most religious ethnic group in the US, and also has the highest fertility rates of any ethnic group. In the first decade of this Century according to the US Census half of the increase in the US population can be attributed to Hispanics. The trend is expected to continue.

If it were not for the increase in Hispanic population the atheism rate would likely be higher than it is in the US, but with the continued skyrocketing impact of the Hispanic population, it's not likely that we are going to see the atheism rates spike significantly higher in the coming decades.

There is nothing else to replace the need for a social network and sense of social security in poor undeveloped countries other than religion. Scientific research provides evidence for this.

If social programs are doomed in countries that no longer can afford them, including the United States, that factor along with the reproductive factor may ensure that atheists will continue to comprise a percentage that is not much higher than the current 2.5% rate, worldwide, for some time to come.

Current research in this area indicate the world, overall, continues to be a very fertile place for religion to flourish, including the US.

Depends on your definitions. I am more frustrated than entertained as a general rule.

I don't think that would make any difference.

I think more people are willing to believe when they feel they have a need or reason to. After 9/11, people were breaking down the doors to get into church. Now? Well, why SHOULD we go to church or believe in a supreme being? If there is nothing keeping religion relevant, then the expectation is people will fall away from it UNLESS they really do buy into the ideology.

@Fnord: Religion is hardly doomed. Someone mentioned being "breastfed" religion... True story--I teach a pair of identical twins whose parents are from India. The parents are both doctors, all-around good people, and have plenty of money to spread around. So during the summer they've hired this Mennonite sitter for the kids to get them to piano lessons, etc. I don't bother getting into a deep theological debate, though I'm itching to, but I figure "just making conversation" with this girl I can at least do a little fact-finding. For this community of Mennonites, religion is all they've ever known. She asked if the school offers GED courses, to which I said, "sure. You making college plans?" She says, "No, we drop out of school after 8th grade, and we don't go to college." If you don't know anything about the Mennonites, they are highly productive people and provide valuable services to the community at large. Some Mennonite women operate a very popular bakery near my home, and I bought a really cool portable building from a Mennonite business. Despite what we may think of as a lack of education, these people are thriving. The limited influence of the outside world probably has a lot to do with avoiding distractions and focusing on faith--and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that, though I think an unchallenged faith is a weak faith. However, living by faith is what these people do and it works for them. If every other variant of Christianity died out to your version of "reason," you'd still have these people around. There's no real reason why I couldn't "covert" to that religion if I wanted to, but they also have the reproductive advantage that more "secularized" Christians lack. Some Christians, however, are starting to wake up to the fact that declining Christianity in numbers has to do with the fact that they aren't making babies. Christianity will really turn around once you have families of over 4 or 5 children in the home. Take Dennis Jernigan, for instance (well-known Christian songwriter). He gave up the homosexual lifestyle when he converted, determined he'd never get married since he didn't really "do" women, and ended up not only getting married but having 9 children. Like it or not, lots of things can change, and religion is hardly doomed.

I think most people didn't arrive at athieism out of a disgust of Middle Eastern fundamentalists, they arrived at athieism out of logic.

I know I arrived at athiesm out of a rational analysis on the stories of the bible. I found Noah's ark to be completely absurd. This idea of fitting two of every animal on a boat and it raining for 40 days and, just the idea that the whole world could flood - that's impossible. The notion that the earth was here only like 10,000 years ago or something, the wide body of evidence that refutes that. Not to mention monkeys look a lot like people, and it seems clear - irrefutable, a priori, that we have descended from monkeys. Is it more absurd to think the bible is false, or the wide, ever expanding body of knowledge we call "science"? For me this was a no brainer, the bible is false and so is every other religion, and while I am not 100% certain I am sure enough to call myself an athiest.