In a study sponsored by the American Physical Society that was the finding!
Three researchers, Daniel Abrams, Haley Yaple and Richard Wiener studied ten countries (not including the United States) asking census questions that included religious affiliation.
Going back 100 years their findings indicate that from a mathematical perspective the trends are moving towards the answer non-affiliated with any religion and away from affiliated to any specific religion. In the Netherlands the number identifying themselves as non-affiliated is 40% while in the Czech Republic the number soars to 60%.
(Personal aside: although none of the countries included in the study were predominantly Muslim, I will make the assumption that the trend in those would be the exact opposite to that found in the study above! In addition to affiliation, the religious passion and fervor in the Muslim faith would on average likely be much greater than for those who claim to feel a religious affiliation to other religions.)
In an online survey commissioned by the
British Humanist Association almost two thirds of the people in the
U.K. who were questioned said that they were
not religious.
In Britain, those who profess no-religion have risen from 31% to 43% between 1983 and 2008. In 2009, this was found to have further risen to 51%.
Conversely, in 1983 66% identified as Christian, in 2008 the number was 50%. In 2009, this further declined to 43%.
In 2008 37% of the UK population are sceptical, 35% have definite or doubtful.
In 2009 only 17% of the British population attend religious services at least monthly, and only 11% attend at least weekly.
Those self-described as members of the Church of England consist of 20% of the population in 2009 (40% in 1983). In 2008, it was found that 49% of this group never attend services; only 8% of people who identify with the CofE attend church weekly.
62% of people in Britain never attend a religious service.
42% of all those questioned are against any form of faith school
So is a decline in religious attachment at all related to a breakdown in societal values?
In reality (no pun intended) one only has to watch T.V., listen to the music of today or go on social media websites like Facebook (last week a smut list surfaced on Facebook in the N.Y. and Ct. area) to understand that much of society is in a serious state of moral decline.
But is it a move away from religious belief that's a major contributing factor to this moral decline? Consider that if little or no regard exists for the religious teachings as basic as the list of "Thou shalt nots," then the decline in religious belief is definitely a part of the cause.
Spend 20 minutes watching television during primetime to get an idea of the state of the
social decline that we currently find ourselves in. The one saving grace is that
Two and a Half Men is off the air although plenty of damage can still be done watching it in reruns. This is a quote from
Charlie Sheen who until recently was the highest paid actor on T.V.:
"Guys, it's right there in the thing, duh! We work for the Pope, we murder people. We're Vatican assassins. How complicated can it be? What they're not ready for is guys like you and I and Nails and all the other gnarly gnarlingtons in my life, that we are high priests, Vatican assassin warlocks. Boom. Print that, people. See where that goes."
Charlie Sheen for President?
Now this from
Public Policy Polling. While without question
Barack Obama should be out of the
White House at the end of this term (how he got there in the first place continues to boggle the mind) and I don't think that
Sarah Palin should be the next (p)resident, can these numbers be right?
"...
Democrats would support
Sheen over
Palin in 2012 by 44 percent to 24 percent. Meanwhile,
Republicans would back
Sheen over
President Obama 37 percent to 28 percent..." (
Yahoo.com)
Consequences of religious decline in a society
Society beware as these are some of the consequences of a move away from organized religion:
First, with the loss of religion comes the loss of a solid moral compass.
Second, with the loss of a moral compass comes a decline in moral standards.
Third, with the decline in moral standards will come a willingness to shirk responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
Fourth, with the shirking of responsibility comes the demand for someone else to take care of me.
(Associated Content)
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In a study sponsored by the American Physical Society that was the finding!
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