Topic: Young Americans shifting US towards becoming less religious nation (Read 1751 times)

It isn't true. I've met plenty of people who became Christians from personal experiences and logic. I don't think anyone has converted because they're afraid of what happens when they die. Because if you don't believe in religion, you're not afraid of hell, so no one would convert for fear of it lol.

Haha Just joking but i have my point

Sometimes i dont get the logic of religion. Really.

Growing numbers of ‘millennials’ who are unaffiliated or atheists are causing vast changes in the American religious landscape, report says


Declining levels of religious belief and practice among the generation of Americans born in the last two decades of the 20th century is shifting the US towards becoming a less devout nation, a major new survey has found.

The growing proportion of “millennials” – young adults now in their 20s and 30s – who do not belong to any organised faith is changing America’s religious landscape, says a report by the respected Pew Research Center, based on a survey of 35,000 people.

The religiously unaffiliated or “nones”, who include atheists and those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular”, have grown to 23% of the US population, compared to 16% at the time of the last comparable survey in 2007.

But three out of four Americans still have some religious faith, mainly Protestant denominations, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. And 89% of US adults say they believe in God – including a significant proportion of “nones” – making America more religiously inclined than other advanced industrial nations.

Youth largely equates with a lack of religious activity, says the report. One in four millennials attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with more than half of those adults born before or during the second world war. Only 38% of adults born after 1990 say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 67% of those born before 1945.

Overall, 55% of American adults say they pray daily, 53% say religion is very important in their lives and 50% attend a religious service at least once a month. Significantly, more women (64%) pray on a daily basis than men (46%).

The 2014 Religious Landscape Study follows an analysis in May which looked more broadly at the changing religious composition of the US public. The report released on Tuesday examines beliefs and practices.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/young-americans-shift-religious-landscape-less-devout

But read from some book (forgot what it is ) "People go to religion to avoid going from hell or be in despair when they die".

Growing numbers of ‘millennials’ who are unaffiliated or atheists are causing vast changes in the American religious landscape, report says


Declining levels of religious belief and practice among the generation of Americans born in the last two decades of the 20th century is shifting the US towards becoming a less devout nation, a major new survey has found.

The growing proportion of “millennials” – young adults now in their 20s and 30s – who do not belong to any organised faith is changing America’s religious landscape, says a report by the respected Pew Research Center, based on a survey of 35,000 people.

The religiously unaffiliated or “nones”, who include atheists and those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular”, have grown to 23% of the US population, compared to 16% at the time of the last comparable survey in 2007.

But three out of four Americans still have some religious faith, mainly Protestant denominations, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. And 89% of US adults say they believe in God – including a significant proportion of “nones” – making America more religiously inclined than other advanced industrial nations.

Youth largely equates with a lack of religious activity, says the report. One in four millennials attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with more than half of those adults born before or during the second world war. Only 38% of adults born after 1990 say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 67% of those born before 1945.

Overall, 55% of American adults say they pray daily, 53% say religion is very important in their lives and 50% attend a religious service at least once a month. Significantly, more women (64%) pray on a daily basis than men (46%).

The 2014 Religious Landscape Study follows an analysis in May which looked more broadly at the changing religious composition of the US public. The report released on Tuesday examines beliefs and practices.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/young-americans-shift-religious-landscape-less-devout

I do think that NDE are interesting I just do not see the need for any supernatural explanation.

It makes perfect sense that one would have an altered perception of reality when dying. The brain takes 10 min. or so to die from hypoxia. During that time normal functions become increasingly difficult. As you mention, most people go unconscious about 30 seconds after the heart stops. But they often can still hear or remember things that happen after appearing unconscious. Sometimes they later are able to recall things that were said in the ER. This proves they are able to form memories even in their sad state.

Of course this does not dis-prove a God or an afterlife. There is no logical way to prove that. But there is also no logical way to prove that people don't turn into bananas when they die. This leave us to decide on the information we do have rather than what could be. I personally think that when we die that's it. No fanfare or grand event, no turning into a banana or Valhalla.

As I mentioned in my other posts in this thread, the "dying brain" and "illusory hallucination" theories are not scientific. The brain needs oxygen to create hallucinations; someone who lacks a gag reflex due to cardiac arrest will not be able to form memories, that is why NDE in the AWARE study cannot be explained by brain chemistry alone.

In an article in the Atlantic last December, Sacks explains that the reason hallucinations seem so real “is that they deploy the very same systems in the brain that actual perceptions do. When one hallucinates voices, the auditory pathways are activated; when one hallucinates a face, the fusiform face area, normally used to perceive and identify faces in the environment, is stimulated.” Sacks concludes that “the one most plausible hypothesis in Dr. Alexander's case, then, is that his NDE occurred not during his coma, but as he was surfacing from the coma and his cortex was returning to full function. It is curious that he does not allow this obvious and natural explanation, but instead insists on a supernatural one.”

The phenomena of low oxygen hallucination is well known and happens to people of all faiths and no faith.  As the brain dies our perception of reality is, of course, skewed and perverted. There is nothing in this observation that is inconsistent with that process. I just don't see where the God part comes in. The first link does not mention anything about religion or an afterlife, it is about near death hallucinations.
It's just not evidence of God of any kind. Where is this God/afterlife part?

Actually, research indicates the opposite.

A large scientific study determined that veridical perception during brain-death is a scientific fact. Consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat. This is paradoxical, since the brain typically ceases functioning within 20-30 seconds of the heart stopping and doesn’t resume again until the heart has been restarted. Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events.

Press release:
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2014/10/07-worlds-largest-near-death-experiences-study.page#.VDa5LhaOqSo.

Perhaps atheists like YOU are simply refusing to acknowledge the scientific evidence for what it is?? This is not the first time that I have presented this evidence to you, RodeoX.

Scientific evidence supporting near-death experiences and the afterlife:
http://www.near-death.com/science/evidence.html

The 'NPR-listener Atheist' crowd that I know is suddenly quite warm to the new Pope, and were leading into his visit to the U.S.  Clearly a well implemented marketing campaign occurred.  On a side-note, several people in this general category mentioned to me independently how great the Rockefellers are now.  The 'younger generation' of Rockefellers is reported to have dumped all of their interest in evil fossil fuels and are going green or some shit.  It is fascinating to see the focus and impact of some of these marketing campaigns, and observing the through the filter of the impacted target audience is helpful in some ways.

Some of the fantastical assertions about the desire to set up a 'one-world religion' are interesting to muse about.  Similarly, the idea that it might be possible and useful to foment significant conflict  between the the Monotheists and Atheists in which they would mutually destroy one another leaving a gap to be filled by what your type (MMH) would classify as 'Satanists'.  To me these are things that I neither believe nor dis-believe.  Just ideas to match against observations I make.

For just about all of my life it has seemed common for many non-religious people to claim that they are not religious but clarify they are 'spiritual'.  My estimate is that something like 90% of humans have some sort of a 'spiritual' instinct.  It expresses itself differently under different social pressures.  Under political systems which dis-favor organized religion it might pop out as a fixation on 'lucky numbers' or some such.  It might indeed be possible to capitalize on this phenomenon world-wide and forge a 'one-world religion'.  If so, the 'Scientism' I mentioned earlier would be a key component since it could re-absorb those who have been pinched off from the more organized big faiths (e.g., Christianity, Islam, etc.)

Really if you look at Islam in particular it's already happening, any time people start openly trying to criticise them they go ballistic, Christians are more used to it but there are definitely groups out there that are already enraged at the thought of somebody daring to question their religion.

They won't convert the whole country, as some Christian religions in the US would point out the papacy may be the beast of Revelation, as they changed times and laws.

But I can see them becoming bigger here, especially after watching everyone fawning over the Pope when he came.

No problem, as muslim immigration is encouraged in all (originally) white christian countries, they will soon rebalance this situation and in the long run the western countries will be religious states again . In the US the latin population probably will have the numbers and ability to convert the whole country to one big catholic community soon .