RELIGION IS "OUT OF DATE"

A Gallup poll released on Christmas Eve seems to agree with studies done by the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) and reported in previous posts:

Secularism Rising, Religion Declining

and

Godless Numbers Rise

Gallup reports increases since 2000 in those who have no religious preference (from 8 to 13%), that religion is not important in people's lives (from 10 to 19%), and that religion is out of date (from 20 to 29%).

When given the choice of Protestant (or Other non-Catholic Christian), Catholic, None, or Other, approximately 22% describe their religious preference as "Other" or "None." In 1948, that figure was only 2%.

About 78% of Americans still describe themselves as Christian, down from 91% in 1948.

In the late 1990s approximately 68% of Americans thought religion had answers to the world's problems. That has decreased to 57%. More people are seeing religion in a negative light.

You can find more information, along with graphs HERE.

Gallup concludes:

The United States remains a dominantly Christian nation. Almost 8 out of 10 Americans identify with a Christian religion. And the vast majority of those who identify with any religion identify with one that is Christian.

Yet, the percentage of Americans who in theory could celebrate Christmas this week as a specific component of their religious faith is down significantly from where it was 50 or 60 years ago. The most important reason for this shift is straightforward: there has been an increasing percentage of Americans who say they have no specific religious identity.

The fact that fewer Americans say they have a religious identity does not necessarily mean there has been a decrease in overall religiosity in America. It is possible that some proportion of those who don't identify with a specific religion are still personally or spiritually religious.

Although a little more than one out of five Americans do not identify with a Christian faith, the Christmas season has ramifications for a broader segment of society. A Gallup survey conducted last year showed that 93% of all American adults said they celebrated Christmas.

CHRISTIANS PICK AND CHOOSE WHAT TO BELIEVE

Pollster George Barna's recent survey of American Christians reported some interesting information.

"Americans are increasingly comfortable picking and choosing what they deem to be helpful and accurate theological views and have become comfortable discarding the rest of the teachings in the Bible," said Barna.

"Growing numbers of people now serve as their own theologian-in-residence," he continued. "One consequence is that Americans are embracing an unpredictable and contradictory body of beliefs."

By a margin of 71 percent to 26 percent adults "noted that they are personally more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set of beliefs taught by a particular church," the report said.

None of this should be surprising to nonbelievers. Christians have decided that despite the Bible's admonitions against eating pork and allowing women to speak in church (to give two examples) they can do it anyway. The only "abomination" some of them care about is homosexuality.  Many ignore Bible passages that don't fit into their own comfort zone. We already know they have been picking and choosing what to believe to satisfy their own agendas ---and they have been doing it for many years. 

All of the GREEN TEXT was quoted from this WEB SITE where you can find more detailed information on Barna's survey.