The Good News
The Good NewsI saw some good news on Yahoo News and NBC Nightly News tonight. Apparently, 15% of Americans (with a margin of error of only ± 0.5 given in the ARIS survey) now say they are non-religious. Here is an article from USAToday, with links to graphics state-by-state for Christianity, Other Religion, and None. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-american-religion-ARIS_N.htm "None" has gone up in every state of the union since 1990. And the media seem to be covering this fairly objectively. NBC News showed a clip of Obama’s "non-believers" line from the State of the Union. USA Today remarked in the above article that "So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists." It make me feel better personally to think that I’m the 3rd largest group in terms of a religious survey instead of being part of a tiny shunned, or even hated, minority. (Well, maybe still shunned and/or hated, but not as tiny as many thought!) But it also makes me feel better about the state of things in the country. Sometimes it saddens me to think that so many people still believe in religious superstition. But maybe the tide is starting to turn? Even if some of the "non-religious" are actually spiritual or just not a "traditional" religion, it shows people are thinking outside of the box on religion. They are either examining it and choosing something different from their parents, or choosing not to be religious at all. And of the former group, at least it shows some examination of religion, meaning it’s okay to make up your own mind about religion. With 15% saying they’re non-religious, this hopefully means "none of the above" is an okay option in an increasing number of minds. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but the results of this survey could mean that people may at least be becoming more open-minded about religion, and in my opinion, that can only be a good thing. |
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