Best News This Year (so far)

[Honor]

x-posted from my 'blog

In other news... In a recent Pew Forum study, by comparing the "faiths" people grew up in, compared to what they claimed today, it was found that almost every offensive faith group in the US is shrinking in terms of member retention.

The two exceptions were two of the most... ::cough:: unusual ...brands of christianity... Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentacostals (yes... The snake people.) Go figure.

The two biggest gains were to "non-denominational" protestants (+3%) and "unaffiliated" (+8.8%), making those who are unaffiliated with any religion the fourth largest "religious" group in the US. It's worth noting that these percentage increases are as a percentage of the total... So, the increase in "unaffiliateds" from 7.3% means it's more than doubled in one lifetime.

Of course, the study is quick to point out that "unaffiliated" doesn't just mean "agnostic" or "atheist". These are also those people who say yes, they believe in god, but they have a personal relationship with faith and follow no outside authority.

Still... I consider this the best news I've gotten all month. While many will revert, to be sure, I think it's inevitable that a higher percentage of people raised in a household with no established, authoritarian religious structure are much more likely to be critical free-thinkers, and, as such, agnostics or atheists.

It's extravagantly difficult to think of any single stroke that could improve the world more than the removal of the evil twins, islam and christianity.


In the same post, I als mention that Ralph Nader is a jack-ass bug fucker republican tool and should die a horrible and embarrassing death. But that's another story.

[Halo299]

yay!

and "death to Nader".

-halo

[Aeridus]

It's good when people start thinking for themselves more. Well, most of the time.

[Ce6]

Yeah, I read an article on that earlier today, very refreshing news.
The one I saw also had something about churn rates, and how Jehova's Witnesses had like a 2/3 average of defections, thus why they keep knocking on peoples doors so often. (yes, that joke was in the article I saw)
Though I wasn't part of the survey, I'm part of that 8.8% increase of "unaffiliated."

[Nithos]

My one concern about that statistic is that the unaffiliated christians are often the scariest. I suspect most of those gains are an improvement in the world of free thinking, but sometimes the organized part of organized religion isn't the fucked up part. While I suspect most of those people are moderate or liberal by the standards of american christians, a good number of them are also radicals who aren't tempered by any traditions or outside interpretations, all they have is their own biases and a book of gibberish to twist to support whatever it is they fucking want. Or, the other way around, you also have people who have few ideas of their own, and when they go cover to cover through that book in the belief it's the instruction manual to life, they're going to begin and end with a book of harsh punishments, ancient ethics of brutal people, and a cute part nearer the end about a guy nailed to a stick before the big climax of paranoid ramblings and bullshit prophecy. Without a church, they're not christians as usually known, they're bible-worshippers, and what redeeming bits there are in that book are hidden between long passages of who should be killed how and with what blunt objects.

Once again, I do think that's a sign of net progress toward a more enlightened society, I'm just saying their are whack jobs in the mix as well.

[Halo299]

and not a moment too soon

youtube

-halo

[Kittyboymuffin]

*thuds*

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I'm primarily a Discordian in order to annoy fundies, although I don't actually know any at the moment ... ``

Oh, and also so I can say things like "(on Saturday) With the powers invested in me as a Discordian Pope, I hereby declare today to be Friday, and yesterday to be Not Friday, because I forgot to eat hot dogs yesterday ..."

[Nithos]

I'm a lapsed discordian (which sounds like a broken instrument) primarily because six tons of flax.

[Xero]

I bounce around a lot

I think theres stuff pulling our strings a little bit, but that could be anything from broken mircowave ovens to pandimentional metabeings

but 100:1 thats just me being my paranoid self
so other than that I'm pretty non-theist

[Halo299]

i'm a devotee of the Cthulhu Mythos.

-halo