One of the Muslims I worked with was asking me about the USA and religiosity last Friday. I asserted that the USA was about 80% Christian. The Creationist who was standing near by told me that my statistics were outdated. I checked it out and WOW! What a nice surprise! I have been in Korea since 1997, Apparently America was once 85% Christian around 1990. It dropped to 81% in 2001. In 2012 it dropped to 78%. In 2015 it continued to drop and managed to come in at 75%. As of 2019 65% of polled American adults identified themselves as Christian.
Based on telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, Pew said Thursday that 65% of American adults now describe themselves as Christian, down from 77% in 2009.Oct 17, 2019
Okay, statistics may vary depending on the site you visit but the trend is obvious. In a few more years, we will all be unnecessary in the USA.
BUT TAKE HEART!
In 1900, in Korea, only 1% of the country's population was Christian. Catholics have grown as a share of the population, from 5% in 1985 to 11% as of 2005. The current Christian population is around 29%.
SO WHAT'S THE GOOD NEWS???
THERE IS PLENTY OF WORK FOR US TO DO!
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@Cog
"THERE IS PLENTY OF WORK FOR US TO DO!"
Last time I looked, I was not a part of an 'us'. Getting a bunch of atheists to agree on anything is about as likely as getting Donald Trump to have and express a cogent thought.
Me?I could not care less about the personal superstitions of others. Individually,if they get in my face I may say some very unkind things alluding to their IQ and parentage.***
En masse? I grew out of the need for futile gestures many years ago.
****************************************************&***********************
*** "You have the IQ of a comatose chicken and the personal charm of a turnip" AND " Your mother is a Republican senator /Pauline Hansen and your father is a professional grave a robber," that kind of thing
According to New Zealand's 2018 census, 48% of people have no religion. This is almost double 2001 figure. Christianity is down to 37%, and the percentage who actually attend church is probably around 15%. Those who indicated that they have a religion included around 25,000 Jedi and Flying Spaghetti Monster followers, which suggests that religion is not taken very seriously in New Zealand.
On the negative side, major engineering projects often require the payment of large sums to Maori animist consultants, who appease the giant invisible dragons (taniwha) that infest the landscape.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/losing-our-religion
@Algebe
One reason for lower numbers of Christians in Oz stats might be;
Some years ago,the now pretty much defunct Australian Atheist Foundation had a public campaign. People were urged to put 'no religion' on the census if that were true, rather than than lip service or "Jedi".
@Cranky47: rather than than lip service
Yes. I'm sure a lot of people identify as C of E, etc., out of inertia when in reality they haven't been to church or even thought about religion for years. Not everyone is confident in the secrecy of the census, either.
And as a result the option of "no religion" was added to the official forms to join the nondescript "other", which was in itself a minor victory for atheism. I forget when that was.
From the Australian Bureau of Statistics website
(ABS ) on the 2016 survey
"Reflecting the historical influence of European migration to Australia, Christianity was the most common religion reported in 2016 (52%). Islam (2.6%) and Buddhism (2.4%) were the next most common religions reported.
Nearly a third of Australians reported in the Census that they had no religion in 2016 (30%)." (the survey on religion was offered as optional, so the "no religion" group might be higher.)
I still don't think religion or spirituality will ever disappear. The 'work' atheists do will only wax and wane with the psychological needs of the world's population as it deals with global and local problems, catastrophes and pandemics.
We are characteristically irrational beings, not scientific. We speculate, hope, gamble and make excuses for failures. It seems too difficult for the majority to stick with the facts, when fantasy offers relief or hope, no matter how false or temporary.
@ohgreatone
I feel like nailgunning my temples after interaction with some of gigantically dumb failures of reason that shit and run on this site. I have only gotten to one person, that I know of, in 20 years of voicing my disbelief in gods...a friend of my wife...who occasionally thanks me. Work? Ummmm, it feels more like torment.
On an up note, the Muslim guy at work asked me about "Critical Thinking." He apparently has a university class on the subject. I told him he could begin with a list of fallacies.
He told me the goal of Critical thinking was to find problems in arguments or assertions. I informed him that the goal was to avoid the fallacies so that you can make better arguments. A fallacious argument does not mean your conclusion is wrong. It just means you are horrible at presenting it. So. I will put together a few lists of fallacies, that I have lying about, and add "Burden of Proof" to the mess. Who knows... he might actually pick up a few things.