Do you think society is becoming more or less religious?

Less in my circles.

Growing up you were a Catholic or, at minimum, a Protestant. You would never say otherwise even if you believed differently.

Now, many people I know say they are either, “Not really religious. More spiritual.” or admit to being atheist or agnostic.

Which is better because I get the impression that those who say they believe really do. As opposed to sticking with a religion out of fear or tradition or habit.

Less. It would seem we’re finally getting our shit together.

Less. In “real life,” people I know barely talk about religion. Only on Fluther is it a constant topic, it seems.

From what I gather, less so in the US. Not sure about the rest of the world.

According to this it is in a rapid decline in the United States. -7.8% for Christianity since 2007. Rise in unaffiliated by +6.7%.

Coincidence?

But really I think the internet has helped. Now it is pretty easy to talking to people all over the world with different views. If you told me in 1990 that I would be replying to a gay dude in Ireland without leaving my desk I wouldn’t have believed you.

In America I think some parts of the country are still fiercely religious. I think the religiousity in America hasn’t changed very much in the last 50 years, but probably has declined at least a little bit. I think more than anything the atheists and not very religious admit it more now. We are more out of the closet. That my feeling about my country, I don’t know about others.

Huh. Even though I know that the majority of people are affiliated with some religion, I honestly didn’t realize that atheists only clock in at 3% (per @johnpowell‘s link… but then, I’m not sure what “nothing in particular” is if not atheist or agnostic and not wanting to name one). I’ve always imagined it was higher than that. I also knew that Christianity would have the majority in the US, but again, I thought it would be the majority by a much smaller margin…

^^I don’t think the atheist number is correct. Although, maybe we should combine agnostic and atheist together as not believing in God? Still a surprising low statistic. I don’t think it accurately represents the actual number.

Edit: I looked at it again and I think they aren’t counting atheists Jews as atheists. I find that questionnaires written by Christians often do not evaluate Jews and their belief system accurately. There often is no really correct answer on multiple choice questionnaires.

Which society? In Australia, I’d say we are less religious than we were in the past and I’d expect that trend to continue. However, in other countries, this wouldn’t be true. This news article suggests globally there will be an increase in the number of people following religions.

Judging by the number of churches that have been converted to pubs I would say yes.

@JLeslie Oh, all of that makes sense!

Over here in lil ol englandtown, you’d never notice
In ee-merry-ka though, religion is in your face everywhere you look

@ucme: Ireland, too.

@jca Oh totally yes. Even calling yourself Catholic here, is more of a cultural thing at this stage.

@NerdyKeith: The first trip I took to Ireland was on a tour with a priest, and the priest’s name was in the title of the tour. I’m not Catholic, mind you, but a friend hooked us up with this tour out of a church, named after the priest and the priest was on it, too. I’m telling you the people in Ireland would practically bow down to the priest! It must be a good life to be a priest. Everyone was talking with him, joking with him, they just loved him. He was a great guy, but still.

It depends where you go in Ireland as well. If you were in a more rural area of Ireland, they do then to be a bit more religious. It also depends on the generation in question too. The older generation are more religious. But the vast majority of younger people today in Dublin don’t really care about religion. Some still get their kids baptised out of cultural expectation.

Don’t get me wrong though, there are some very nice priests out there. But I’ve run into some very arrogant ones to (one of which I’m related to, but I never see him often)

Religion is in decline among industrialized nations. There are some European countries that are majority atheist. The U.S., which is the most religious of Western nations, has as many people who are religiously unaffiliated (the so called nones) as there are Catholics, and the rate is even higher among millennials. I see no reason for why the trend should not continue.

This article discusses the reasons behind the trend. It predicts a short time until we have a majority of atheists worldwide. I find that hard to believe, given the concentration of population growth in poorer nations and the connections between poverty, ignorance and religion.

Religion is up against it. And there isn’t a one of them that doesn’t decry the increasing secularization and desertion of the spiritual defining the societies in which they are immersed. This is understandable and should be expected in a world where the price for fuzzy mystical approaches to combat realities is both punishing and severe.

I really hope so. More and more I think people are speaking of spirituality, spiritual growth, the soul, love, and joy. Religion kind of messed that all up I feel.

Probably, but only extremely marginal. So long as there are many religious parents in this world there will always be generations to ‘brainwash’, religious generations ‘brainwash’ the next generations, and so on.

There isn’t any mainline denomination in America which has not experienced significant decline in membership. It’s likeky that trend will continue.