Way More Americans May be Atheists Than We Thought

[michaelArc]

Agreed, I don’t find these results surprising in the slightest. Most of my family, friends, and acquaintances are effectively atheists, agnostics or “nones”, outside of my church, yet if you asked them if they’re atheist many would deny that they are. Not because they aren’t necessarily but because they either ascribe a different variant title to themselves (humanist, secularist, etc…), or they claim link to a religious heritage that they really are not a part of beyond paying lip service when a poll like the typical religious identity poll is taken (ie: saying their Christian, Catholic, etc… when they in practice are nothing of the sort).

I don’t find this surprising either.
All of this is spot on, as this would also be my experience with anyone I know outside of the church.

 

[PJM]

fivethirtyeight.com/features/way-more-americans-may-be-atheists-than-we-thought/?src=obsidebar=sb_1

Please help ME out here. How does this “cause” atheism?

Are you suggesting that personal likes and dislikes are equal to or greater than TRUTH here?

GBY

Patrick

 

[Rosebud77]

I was referring to people who actually do believe in God, but live as if He did not exist. On a survey they would respond that they are Catholic / Baptist / whatever, but look at how they live, and it’s like

Maybe if “we” lived our faith and stopped judging others’ lives? Heal thyself…

 

[DaveBj]

Maybe if “we” lived our faith and stopped judging others’ lives? Heal thyself…

 

[Faithdancer]

Throughout Holy Scripture, it is made abundantly clear that not all are to be saved, not all will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So if more Americans reject God, that is simply all part of God’s providence.

There is so much evidence of the glory of God all around us. There is no excuse not to believe. If God wants an atheist to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, God will make it happen no matter how many other unbelievers there are. And there will always be unbelievers, no matter how Godly they see Christians around them behaving. That is fallen human nature. Some will remain defiant toward God to the end.

That said, it is vital that those who believe in Christ don’t hide their faith, on the chance that they may influence others who simply haven’t been drawn by the Father yet.

 

[In_Hoc_Signo312]

I think the difference is that this one is starting to include Agnostics, which changes it up a bit. On top of that, this study likely moved down to more teens/millenials, which are where you’ve started to find a lot more atheists today. I think part of it is that when you see Stephen Hawking and other incredibly smart atheist scientists, people feel like if they become atheists they have the intelectual high ground and overall are superior to those silly theists. I’m not sure if many of these people will get a little older and realize that’s not the most important thing in life (I hope they will) or not, only time will tell.

That brings up something that I’ve been meaning to ask in recent days. Is it fair to put agnostics and atheists in the same category? Agnostics don’t know if they believe in a God. Atheists believe God doesn’t exist in the world, which is a distinct difference there.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

It’s different in the UK as most atheists are open and tolerated, if anything its more likely to be Christians who feel less able to talk about it.

I agree with some of the above comments in that atheists aren’t really a single category, you get weak atheists (don’t believe in God), strong atheists (believe there is no God), agnostics and people who believe in some form of God but don’t relate to any organised religion.

 

[Ryan_Star_Mayor]

That brings up something that I’ve been meaning to ask in recent days. Is it fair to put agnostics and atheists in the same category? Agnostics don’t know if they believe in a God. Atheists believe God doesn’t exist in the world, which is a distinct difference there.

I think it depends on what kind of agnostic you’re talking about. If it’s just someone who has drifted from the faith and now just has an apathetic attitude towards religion and truly aren’t sure who’s right if anyone, I would not call them Athiests. If you’re talking about someone who did a bunch of research, and refuses to acknowledge any religion, then they honestly aren’t agnostic. I meet a lot of people who claim to be agnostic, who are clearly Athiests, but I think they call themselves agnostic because they want to be able to say that they are open to anything, even though they actively actively don’t believe in something

Basically the way I would define an agnostic is someone who has drifted away from any particular faith and now is unsure of who is correct if any.

I would define an atheist as someone who actively does no believe in God. If you did a bunch of research and now do not believe in God, but if you heard a convincing argument for a religion you (claim) you would convert, you are still an atheist.

Sorry if that didn’t make sense. My thoughts don’t always come out correctly when typed out.

 

[adamhovey1988]

I don’t know most of the people who I’ve talked to that claim to be atheists are actually agnostics I’m not sure why they use the word atheist to describe themselves when there’s already a word for it.

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

I don’t know most of the people who I’ve talked to that claim to be atheists are actually agnostics I’m not sure why they use the word atheist to describe themselves when there’s already a word for it.

Outside of this religious forums most people do not make a real distinction between the two.

 

[Padres1969]

Outside of this religious forums most people do not make a real distinction between the two.

Indeed, don’t believe in God, don’t believe there are God(s)… same difference in general parlance. The individual doesn’t believe in God in either case, as opposed to us Theists or the rare Deist you run into.

 

[Debbie_Kono]

If true, that would be very sad news, indeed.

IDK if this would necessarily be so very bad. In Revelation 3 God says that He will spit out the lukewarm. I’ve thought about that from time to time and am wondering if a person isn’t better off being totally against the idea of there being a God instead of wishy-washy and indecisive. Seems to me the indecisive person might by their nature have a lesser chance at the ah-ha moment than a person firm in their beliefs. Just my take…I could be way off.