Religion News Services (via the Huffington Post) is reporting Atheism Rises, Religiosity Declines In America:
The poll, called "The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism," found that the number of Americans who say they are "religious" dropped from 73 percent in 2005 (the last time the poll was conducted) to 60 percent.
At the same time, the number of Americans who say they are atheists rose, from 1 percent to 5 percent.
The poll was conducted by WIN-Gallup International and is based on interviews with 50,000 people from 57 countries and five continents. Participants were asked, "Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?"
The seven years between the polls is notable because 2005 saw the publication of "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris, the first in a wave of best-selling books on atheism by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and other so-called "New Atheists."
"The obvious implication is that this is a manifestation of the New Atheism movement," said Ryan Cragun, a University of Tampa sociologist of religion who studies American and global atheism.
Still, Cragun does not believe the poll shows more people are becoming atheists, but rather that more people are willing to identify as atheists.
[. . . ]
Another possible factor may be the number of atheists within organized efforts by American atheist groups to encourage those who do not believe in God to say so publicly. The Out Campaign, a project of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, was launched in 2007 and has since been endorsed by several national atheist groups.
That’s the foundation David Rolfe pledged £20,000 to if they “simply accept the challenge [to show how the shroud might have been ‘faked up’] and follow it through to some kind of conclusion. The public can make up their own minds about the result.”
Well, there has to be a mass falling away of people from the faith before the man of lawlessness is revealed. Perhaps we are closer to the end than we think?
I guess April 1st is becoming a major holiday!
The groups in the question, “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?,” seem to seriously lack. There are many other potential answers including the combinations of “not atheist or religious”. Further, the study is flawed due to the wording “convinced atheist.” Why is there a need for a modifier to atheist? Perhaps these are two different categories that need differentiation. The wording would seem to imply that the hoped result is to increase the answers to atheism rather than providing a wide array of combinations which would give a much more nuanced result. How disappointing.
I passed the URL for the report on to a few NZ acquaintances. Here’s two comments I received back:
GG: “I feel the information re the increased % of people having no religion or being atheists in USA is not accurate in my opinion. There are more Hispanics now and many are Catholics.”
PMC: “I do wonder if it is indeed a rise in atheism, or rather a rise in the number of people admitting to, or facing up to, atheism – an atheism that was always there, but perhaps not accepted by themselves. In other words – How many people in this “rise” have actively and recently denounced or ceased religious practice? Or perhaps it might be that more people are coming to realise that they are atheistic, or have not actively followed Christianity for a long time, if ever… just got around to formally stating their lack of religious interest?”
I’d agree with Andy Weiss that the survey question is deficient and appears to be loaded. Some sponsored surveys are merely looking for a headline for a slow news day. It requires a rare professional skill to design a truly objective survey, including insights from disciplines in psychology, critical thinking, and mathematical statistics. Much of the time they’re designed by no more than some amateur “think group” or committee, who think they know better than the professionals.
My own comment: “Americans who say they are ‘religious’ dropped from 73 percent in 2005 (the last time the poll was conducted) to 60 percent. At the same time, the number of Americans who say they are atheists rose, from 1 percent to 5 percent. This ‘change(?)’ would suggest that USA could still claim to be a religious country, well ahead of several others (probably including NZ).”