Belief In God Plummets Among Younger Generation

[metta]

Belief In God Plummets Among Younger Generation


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/4/17/858249/-Belief-In-God-Plummets-Among-Younger-Generation

 

[discreetlatin76]

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for this. As soon as we scoot religion out of our lives, the faster we can get to being humanists who are good for goodness' sake.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Perhaps this shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

The younger generation is always farthest from death, it's the oldest ones who start thinking about heaven and hell.

I'm an atheist by the way.......

 

[sabot3ur]

when did belief in Zeus plummet?

I wonder what the next idea of god will be.

 

[Nomenclature]

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for this.

RAmen.

10noodleyappendages

 

[star-warrior]

I hope its got to do with the ridiculous lengths some Xtians are going through to justify their religion through the idiotic pseudoscience of peanut butter and bananas.

 

[RationalLunacy]

Praze Jeebus!

 

[hylas]

yes this is lovely.
clicking through to the study this article is based on, i find one particularly interesting paragraph:

In their social and political views, young adults are clearly more accepting than older Americans of homosexuality, more inclined to see evolution as the best explanation of human life and less prone to see Hollywood as threatening their moral values.

because as much as i think religions are bullshit, i dont really care about your believes as long as you dont act like a total moron. so this is encouraging.

however:

At the same time, Millennials are no less convinced than their elders that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. And they are slightly more supportive than their elders of government efforts to protect morality, as well as somewhat more comfortable with involvement in politics by churches and other houses of worship.

hm... this is not as honey-sweet as the other poll-results, especially the part about churches becoming involved in politics. however, i doubt wether the question about "the government protecting morality" really belongs in a poll about religions. morality is not the same thing as religious values.

 

[Ares]

The younger generation is always farthest from death, it's the oldest ones who start thinking about heaven and hell.

I agree with this. They will come around eventually. People turn to God when they start getting scared of the unknown.

Remember after 9/11 church attendence skyrocketed. When the younger generations starts to realize they aren't immortal, God will be their new rockstar.

 

[elra]

The internet happened. Seriously.

Kids are teaching themselves instead of blindly accepting the word of their elders.

 

[PolterGUYst]

I consider myself agnostic. I don't believe in God, but at the same time I admit that there is no evidence to prove/disprove the existance of a God and there never will be.

In my eyes there are two options:
1. There is no God
2. There is one but he doesn't seem to give a flying f***, in which case why the hell would people bother praying to him.

Also, as mean as it sounds, I hate it when I hear stories on the news about people who survived a disaster or illenss and they and their families say that it was because they prayed to God and that God was on there side. I know it comforts people during difficult times to think there is a higher power, but I find it selfish and heartless at the same time. Why the hell would God save one individual from cancer but not the millions of othes who die of it every year, or from the countless other disasters that occur around the globe all the time? Does God play favorites? Are you put on high priority because you prayed more? That doesn't even make any sense, since people who pray a lot STILL suffer and die. Believe in God if you want, but don't expect him to do anything for you at all.

...just thought I'd rant and get that out there lol

 

[nautiboyjeff]

I think we are going to have balance ourselves with the religious zealots of the world. As the educated, sane, rational people, we are going to have to give understanding to people who believe differently and figure out a way to get them to allow us to have our beliefs while they embrace their own.

I think the critical thing will be for non-believers to manage believers because they are going to "heaven" and some don't mind the express train.

I 100% believe that education is the key to evolving the world without destroying it. With education, hopefully we can reduce the level of wars (although we are the most educated country in the world and we have two wars going on - so that theory is yet to be proved).

Just an interesting stat: 98% of the academy of sciences do not believe in god, 98% of prisoners believe in god.

Anyway - I think this is a good thing, I just think we are going to have to figure out how to mange through this without creating "Armageddon"<-everyone rots and dies, because the triumphant return of a savior is pure fairy tale.

Carry on....

 

[PolterGUYst]

^I think I read somewhere that the US isn't even in the top 5 in terms of educational performance though, which is disheartening.