Teens are fleeing religion like never before:

[Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM???]

www.rawstory.com/2015/05/teens-are-fleeing-religion-like-never-before-massive-new-study-exposes-religions-decline/

I sort of saw this coming, it does seem to be dying out even among my age group. The younger generation apparently even quicker. Do you think religion will completely die out eventually? Why or why not?

I also ask you proboardians: do you believe in god? As in, a theological god. Related to organized religion. Any religion. God, jesus, moses, muhammad, allah, YHVH, whatever. 

I personally do not. I do, however, believe in some sort of universal spirit / creator...but I think it has nothing to do with any religions humans have created.

[mmhmm]

I don't think religion is going to completely die out during any of our lifetimes. I do, however, recognize the number of believers has been lessening over the past decade, or so.

[Inkjet]

Having worked professionaly in the church environment part time for the last 12 years, I always find these articles to be an interesting topic. These articles always surface every few years, sort of like a "the sky is falling" type mentality.

Most church's are aware that they "loose" believers some where in their teens until roughly their 30's (obviously the age group can vary). There are all sort of factors as to why young adults leave the church environment, but ultimately, this is never new news.

As for religion dying out? If you're a Christian and have read Revelations, it'll eventually die out after God has called his believers home during the rapture leaving non-believers behind. So I guess yeah, it eventually "dies out", but not in the sense we're thinking.

[Mid]

My family (at least on my mom's side, with whom I spend most of my time) is mostly atheist/agnostic. I didn't even know what religion was until I started school and other kids talked about God and whatnot (we're not close-minded about it, we just don't feel the need to talk about it because we're not religious). I'd never heard of that stuff.

I don't think religion will die out for a long time, if ever, but the number of people who don't believe in any sort of god is definitely rising.

I don't believe in any sort of higher power. I don't really care about why we're here, how we came to be, etc. etc. It's knowledge that's useless to me because I only care about the fact that I'm here, living a pretty decent life. I also feel like it's a bit of a wild goose chase, given how long we've been trying to figure it out as a species. Some people have dedicated their entire lives to finding the answers to questions like those, and if that works for them, fine, but I don't like thinking about it myself.

[T.C.]

May 29, 2015 17:15:17 GMT -8 Inkjet said:

Having worked professionaly in the church environment part time for the last 12 years, I always find these articles to be an interesting topic. These articles always surface every few years, sort of like a "the sky is falling" type mentality.

Most church's are aware that they "loose" believers some where in their teens until roughly their 30's (obviously the age group can vary). There are all sort of factors as to why young adults leave the church environment, but ultimately, this is never new news.

As for religion dying out? If you're a Christian and have read Revelations, it'll eventually die out after God has called his believers home during the rapture leaving non-believers behind. So I guess yeah, it eventually "dies out", but not in the sense we're thinking.

Not much can be said after this excellent post!

[Chris]

While I do believe in something after death (Though I'm not sure what that is), I don't really believe in the idea of God or a higher power. I went through the motions and got confirmed for the sake of my parents, but I haven't stepped in a church since that day except for weddings or funerals.

[Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM???]

May 29, 2015 17:15:17 GMT -8 Inkjet said:

Having worked professionally in the church environment part time for the last 12 years, I always find these articles to be an interesting topic. These articles always surface every few years, sort of like a "the sky is falling" type mentality.

Most church's are aware that they "lose" believers some where in their teens until roughly their 30's (obviously the age group can vary). There are all sort of factors as to why young adults leave the church environment, but ultimately, this is never new news.

As for religion dying out? If you're a Christian and have read Revelations, it'll eventually die out after God has called his believers home during the rapture leaving non-believers behind. So I guess yeah, it eventually "dies out", but not in the sense we're thinking.

Well, the reason this article interested me so was because of the sheer numbers of responses - 11.2 million, wherein 75% said they don't really care about religion. That's pretty drastic IMO, and if you can point me to another article or 2 that have such numbers I would love to read them and take note of the date they were published. 

As for religion dying out? If one is a believer in the bible I personally think one will be highly disappointed when no such rapture or second coming happens. As a follower of science, it truly does boggle my mind that people can believe in this book so powerfully...but not in a bad way, like it doesn't make me angry or anything, if religion helps someone cope with the mysteries of life and everything, and it gives them comfort, then I think that's great...it just isn't something that has ever worked for me. Even at the age of 5 or so, when a neighbor wanted to bring me to church with her, I went but thought it was all very silly and dramatic as, even at 5, I thought it was obvious there was no such God. 

I'm hoping that young people are leaving the church environment more because science education and literacy is becoming more prevalent, and more people are realizing that deep, deep down inside themselves, they realize that organized religion is a hot mess and cannot possibly actually explain anything real. 

[Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM???]

May 29, 2015 17:31:25 GMT -8 Mid said:

My family (at least on my mom's side, with whom I spend most of my time) is mostly atheist/agnostic. I didn't even know what religion was until I started school and other kids talked about God and whatnot (we're not close-minded about it, we just don't feel the need to talk about it because we're not religious). I'd never heard of that stuff.

I don't think religion will die out for a long time, if ever, but the number of people who don't believe in any sort of god is definitely rising.

I don't believe in any sort of higher power. I don't really care about why we're here, how we came to be, etc. etc. It's knowledge that's useless to me because I only care about the fact that I'm here, living a pretty decent life. I also feel like it's a bit of a wild goose chase, given how long we've been trying to figure it out as a species. Some people have dedicated their entire lives to finding the answers to questions like those, and if that works for them, fine, but I don't like thinking about it myself.

It's funny how so very different people can be. I am the complete opposite - I care very, very much about why we're here and how we came to be. It's all that's been in my mind for the past few months or so. I've been reading book after book, article after article, and stayed awake at night for hours in my bed thinking about all the myriad ways. 

[Mid]

May 29, 2015 17:42:26 GMT -8 Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM??? said:

May 29, 2015 17:31:25 GMT -8 Mid said:

My family (at least on my mom's side, with whom I spend most of my time) is mostly atheist/agnostic. I didn't even know what religion was until I started school and other kids talked about God and whatnot (we're not close-minded about it, we just don't feel the need to talk about it because we're not religious). I'd never heard of that stuff.

I don't think religion will die out for a long time, if ever, but the number of people who don't believe in any sort of god is definitely rising.

I don't believe in any sort of higher power. I don't really care about why we're here, how we came to be, etc. etc. It's knowledge that's useless to me because I only care about the fact that I'm here, living a pretty decent life. I also feel like it's a bit of a wild goose chase, given how long we've been trying to figure it out as a species. Some people have dedicated their entire lives to finding the answers to questions like those, and if that works for them, fine, but I don't like thinking about it myself.

It's funny how so very different people can be. I am the complete opposite - I care very, very much about why we're here and how we came to be. It's all that's been in my mind for the past few months or so. I've been reading book after book, article after article, and stayed awake at night for hours in my bed thinking about all the myriad ways. 

If I think about it too much, it actually makes me feel physically sick. It's ... I dunno, I guess it's too heavy for me or something. I just can't stand it, because it always leads to thinking of the afterlife, and although I believe in (and desperately hope for) reincarnation, I get really scared that it's something 'permanent' (not necessarily a Heaven or Hell, but something similar in concept).

In most cases, I don't like permanence. I'd love to live another life, or several lives, whether as a human or other animals, and get all of those different experiences.

[Teg]

I grew up in a family that practiced the Lutheran faith. It was forced on me as a child and even into my teen years. I, however as an adult, do not follow religion. Do I believe in God? Yes! Do I pray?? Absolutely, but you are not going to find me in a church or actively reading the bible. I find religion to be contradicted. At any rate, though I believe in God, I often wonder why he lets bad things happen. You know, such as my daughter being murdered at two years old, after allowing her to be born disabled and with several rare birth defects? Why make her fight so hard to just let someone murder her at two years old? Those are the things that make me question my beliefs. But, at the end of the day, God exists... At least for me.

[User 180565 is taking donation]

In a way I think it's good that more children are questioning believes. It shows they aren't dumb and want to ask questions about what they're told. No I don't think religion is going to die out but I think it's a good thing children are asking questions.

[Former Member]

No. /me

[Bugme]

Interesting, it seems that if you are not a believer, then what you do believe is based on science. Science in it's simplest form is based on things being observable and then repeatable. The perfect example is fire: It is observable & it is repeatable. We know without an oxygen source, there can be no fire. We also know that fire needs fuel or there can be no fire, thus fire is science.

However, if something is not observable nor repeatable, it then becomes a theory. We can use different proven scientific methods to develop this theory but, until it can be observed and repeated, it is still a theory. We can conclude then that theory requires faith since there is no proof of the theory actually being science. Even scientists agree on this. Thus, when it all comes down to it, much of what an atheist calls science is really nothing more than a religion based on faith.

As for youth fleeing religion, it's been like that since the dawn of time. Teens think they are smarter than everyone else and spend their 20's finding out they were wrong and then return in large number in their late 20's and early 30's. The article is much ado about nothing.

[Inkjet]

May 29, 2015 17:40:20 GMT -8 Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM??? said:

May 29, 2015 17:15:17 GMT -8 Inkjet said:

Having worked professionally in the church environment part time for the last 12 years, I always find these articles to be an interesting topic. These articles always surface every few years, sort of like a "the sky is falling" type mentality.

Most church's are aware that they "lose" believers some where in their teens until roughly their 30's (obviously the age group can vary). There are all sort of factors as to why young adults leave the church environment, but ultimately, this is never new news.

As for religion dying out? If you're a Christian and have read Revelations, it'll eventually die out after God has called his believers home during the rapture leaving non-believers behind. So I guess yeah, it eventually "dies out", but not in the sense we're thinking.

Well, the reason this article interested me so was because of the sheer numbers of responses - 11.2 million, wherein 75% said they don't really care about religion. That's pretty drastic IMO, and if you can point me to another article or 2 that have such numbers I would love to read them and take note of the date they were published. 

As for religion dying out? If one is a believer in the bible I personally think one will be highly disappointed when no such rapture or second coming happens. As a follower of science, it truly does boggle my mind that people can believe in this book so powerfully...but not in a bad way, like it doesn't make me angry or anything, if religion helps someone cope with the mysteries of life and everything, and it gives them comfort, then I think that's great...it just isn't something that has ever worked for me. Even at the age of 5 or so, when a neighbor wanted to bring me to church with her, I went but thought it was all very silly and dramatic as, even at 5, I thought it was obvious there was no such God. 

I'm hoping that young people are leaving the church environment more because science education and literacy is becoming more prevalent, and more people are realizing that deep, deep down inside themselves, they realize that organized religion is a hot mess and cannot possibly actually explain anything real. 

First and foremost, as with an religious thread that ends up here in GT, I want it made known that I am having an adult conversation regarding the topic at hand. I fully respect your beliefs, and anything I quote you for is not a personal attack of any sort, merely a response to your question or comment.

With that being said...


I looked into what sort of articles Joan Shipps writes, and it appears she writes some pretty liberal articles. It appears in her article that she only wanted to focus on the teenage years - which is fine, that's what the research article was mainly about. With that though, I feel she should have followed up with some more research of her own. Maybe her employer doesn't need more details, they just want some click-bate, quick read type articles, I don't know. Needless to say, before responding to you, I wanted to honor your request and not just talk about the topic at hand. I will say, the landscape of Christianity (which by now, I think you've gathered I'm a Christian) and other religions as of 2015 isn't necessarily stark, but it currently isn't rapidly growing either. I imagine I did a bit more research than Joan Shipps did and actually read the whole research article because I felt she was probably intentionally leaving certain findings out of her article. As suspected, I came across this tidbit of information from the paper itself:

Significant debate surrounds the question of trends in religious orientation among Americans. Several studies have revealed that the number of adults answering “none” to religious affiliation has increased, especially from the 1990s to the 2010s [20–23]. However, other studies suggest that religious service attendance, belief in God, and prayer have not changed or have even increased between the 1970s and the 2000s [24–26]. Thus there may be variation in the trends based on specific aspects of religiosity, demographic variables, and time periods examined.

There are other mentions within the study released that admit that, "In addition, research on trends in religious orientation in adolescent populations has been sparse, with few studies in the last 20 years (for example, Smith et al. [27] stopped with data from 1996)." Knowing that now, it would seem as if claiming that religion is declining is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. Especially when once again, the research only points to young adults. I think that in order for a claim to be made that religion is declining, there needs to be some follow up research within 20 years of the original polling. Predictions are pointing to another 10 million believers of the Christian faith by 2050.

He notes that while church attendance is projected to increase from 50 million in 1990 to 60 million in 2050, because the U.S. Census estimates that America will grow from 248 million in 1990 to 520 million in 2050, the Church can”t keep up with population growth if it stays on its current course.

If anything, it looks like religion will be growing, not declining as the original author describes. It is also worth noting, that when churches report numbers that their attendance is down, that doesn't necessarily mean the Christian faith has shrunk.

“Although about 40% of Americans are regular church attendees, it doesn”t necessarily mean 40% are in church on any given Sunday,” he explains. “The most regular church attendee gets sick or sleeps in. The other reason may be people who tell us they go to church but are worshipping in non-traditional ways, such as small groups, people meeting in gyms or school libraries.”

Quote Soure

As the article continues, it does go on to mention that the Christian faith may be declining sure, due to the outpacing of Church plants versus the population growth, however, contradictory research claims just the opposite.

In 1990, 20.4% of the population attended an Orthodox Christian church on any given weekend. In 2000, that percentage dropped to 18.7% and to 17.7% by 2004. Olson explains that while church attendance numbers have stayed about the same from 1990 to 2004, the U.S. population has grown by 18.1% — more than 48 million people. “So even though the number of attendees is the same, our churches are not keeping up with population growth,” he says.

Recent data from The Barna Group (barna.org) indicates just the opposite. Church attendance is actually growing, company President George Barna says — climbing slowly from 1996?s 37% to 47% in 2006. His research shows that other core religious behaviors are also up.

For example, Bible reading increased from 40% in 2000 to 47% in 2006.

“The data shows the number of unchurched people is unchanged — 76 million adults,” he says. “And 47% of Americans reported to us that in the last seven days, they attended a church service, excluding weddings and funerals.” His research indicates that attendance at house churches has also spiked. That may explain, Barna says, why these core religious behaviors are up. “Nevertheless, people are seeking God.”

Ed Stetzer, missiologist and director of the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board (namb.net) of the Southern Baptist Convention, has found similar evidence of spiritual behavior occurring outside church walls. He recently finished a study on alternative faith communities, and found that a growing number of people are finding Christian discipleship and community in places other than their local churches. The study found that 24.5% of Americans now say their primary form of spiritual nourishment is meeting with a small group of 20 or less people every week.

“About 6 million people meet weekly with a small group and never or rarely go to church,” Stetzer says. “There is a significant movement happening.”

Quote Source

As I've been mentioning, just because the numbers regarding teens is low, doesn't mean people are leaving their religion.

For years, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has been rising, a trend similar to what has been happening in much of Europe (including the United Kingdom). Despite this trend, in coming decades, the global share of religiously unaffiliated people is expected to fall, according to the Pew Research Center’s new study on the future of world religion.

To be clear, the total number of religiously unaffiliated people (which includes atheists, agnostics and those who say they have no particular religion on censuses and surveys) is expected to rise, from 1.1 billion in 2010 to 1.2 billion in 2050. But this growth is projected to occur at the same time that other religious groups – and the global population overall – are growing faster.

These projections, which take into account demographic factors such as fertility, age composition and life expectancy, forecast that people with no religion will make up about 13% of the world’s population in 2050, down from roughly 16% as of 2010.

Pew Research Article

In our main scenario, the unaffiliated are projected to increase in absolute numbers
by nearly 100 million people (9% growth between 2010 and 2050). However, the
world’s overall population is expected to grow much faster (35% between 2010 and
2050), adding 2.4 billion people during the 40-year period. Because that growth is
driven disproportionately by births to affiliated women, the unaffiliated share of the
world’s population is projected to decline from 16.4% in 2010 to 13.2% in 2050
(Table 1). Even in the scenario with an additional 50% increase in switching patterns
favoring the unaffiliated, the unaffiliated share of the world’s population would still
decline to 14.3%. If switching patterns favoring the affiliated increase by 50%, the
unaffliated share of the world would decline even further, to 12.2%.

As I did more research into the topic, it appears that China is a large wildcard in the picture of religion. No one has any solid numbers regarding how many religious (Christians in particular) exist within China's borders.

Another limitation of this study is that current patterns of religious switching are
only available for 70 countries, which constitute 43% of the world’s population. The
most consequential omissions are China and India. While there is no adequate data to
directly measure individual change in religious identity in India, cohort-based analysis
of Indian census and survey data does not provide evidence that switching per se is
leading to net change in the size of religious groups. In China, the absence of switching
data may lead to underestimates of global movement toward higher levels of religious
affiliation.

Demographic Research, The future size of religiously affiliated and unaffiliated populations *This is a PDF file with the findings. For the simple text version, see Here*

May 29, 2015 17:40:20 GMT -8 Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM??? said:

I'm hoping that young people are leaving the church environment more because science education and literacy is becoming more prevalent, and more people are realizing that deep, deep down inside themselves, they realize that organized religion is a hot mess and cannot possibly actually explain anything real. 

I'll have to politely disagree with you on this one in regards to science. Would I agree that organized religion is a hot mess? Absolutely. When none of us are perfect, how can one expect a perfect organization? That includes both those of faith, and non-faith.

Lifeway.com (*PDF*) has an article that lists six reasons why people ultimately leave the church. I don't think I need to find more articles than this one, because the six listed are the main culprits in just about any article written. This six reasons are:

1) Poor Leadership
2) Different Styles
3) Specific Program
4) Disillusionment
5) Inner Hurts
6) Church Size

Now, it should probably be mentioned, that just because people leave the church, it does not mean they are leaving religion or God.

In conclusion, you could say from the research and articles listed that yes, religion is not rapidly growing. However, it isn't necessarily on a rapid decline either, it at all.


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Generational and Time Period Differences in American Adolescents’ Religious Orientation, 1966–2014
Teens are fleeing religion like never before: Massive new study exposes religion’s decline
7 Startling Facts: An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America
Why people with no religion are projected to decline as a share of the world’s population
The future size of religiously affiliated and unaffiliated populations

[_RainbowxWolf_]

Well that is just crazy what religion has come to now. People should be able to believe what they want to believe in. I myself am not a religious person.