Young Americans Losing Their Religion "It's a huge change,"

[moobu2]

New research shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church -- or to participate in any form of organized religion -- than their parents and grandparents.


"It's a huge change," says Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, who conducted the research.

Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small -- hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans.

Putnam calls this a "stunning development." He gave reporters a first glimpse of his data Tuesday at a conference on religion organized by the Pew Forum on Faith in Public Life.

The research will be included in a forthcoming book, called "American Grace."


ABCNews

[ZombieHorde]

1. "between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans"

This is very interesting news. K&R

[valerief]

3. Double those numbers for accuracy. nt

[valerief]

2. This Putnam has been living under a rock, I guess. nt

[Bill McBlueState]

21. no, I think he's been really busy

gathering and analyzing a bunch of data to find out whether what some people think they've noticed is actually true.

I'm not a specialist, but I'm pretty sure that's an important function of sociological research.

[LeftyMom]

4. I guess this is only news if you don't know any young people.

[JerseygirlCT]

9. Yeah, I would have expected that to be rather the norm

I think many younger people move away from the religion they had been raised with.

Many do come back again, once they have children of their own, though. Or back to some sort of organized religion - not necessarily the one they were raised with.

I'm not at all surprised that my young adult son has no interest in attending church with me when he's home. But nor would I be surprised if one day, when he has children (I'm hoping that's a "when" not an "if", lol) he and his spouse decide they want something organized for their kids. We'll see. At my church, we've seen a resurgence of young families. They decide they want to baptize their kids and then stay.

(And I love having all those adorable, wiggly little ones around!)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. News like that bring a smile to my face. Come on, say how awful I am because of that. -nt

[valerief]

6. You're awful...

...awful smart!

:hi:

[izquierdista]

7. The world is coming around

Or maybe I was just born 30 years too soon.

[msongs]

8. except for, perhaps, some cults, especially one located in western states nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I don't think this is anything new

Thirty or forty percent unaffiliated seems low to me, even for forty years ago.

When I was a young Lutheran in the 1960s, people used to joke about confirmation as "graduation from church." When I was in college, very few students had anything to do with religion.

When I came back to teach at my alma mater ten years later, I was astounded and a bit creeped out by the evangelical students on campus.

But some (not all) of my high school or college contemporaries are now churchgoers. They may not attend the same denomination that they grew up in (I switched from Lutheran to Episcopalian), but I see enough adult baptisms and confirmations to know that not everyone who drifts away stays away. There are a lot of young families, too, so many that we have a special service geared for them, and we're a downtown church.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. I hope they are learning to think for themselves.

I was raised more or less Presbyterian.

My grown child is an agnostic. I raised her Unitarian. Her father is an atheist but would not go to the Unitarian church unless there was food to eat!

I am a UU atheist.

[JerseygirlCT]

15. And thinking for themselves may also bring them back to religion

It doesn't necessarily equate to one or another outcome.

[stopbush]

12. Our kids are being raised free of religion's shackles. My HS son gets into it

at school all the time with the religious kids who can't argue their faith to save their lives. Seems the kids who believe the religious shit these days truly believe blindly.

BTW - my kids both have an avid interest in science. I can't imagine what it would be like to have your kids conflicted between the truth of science and the stupidity of creationism. Better one's kids be interested in the mysteries of science than the fantasies of religion.

[redqueen]

13. Hallelujah.

Imagine no religion...

That always seemed like such a far-away concept. Perhaps not in my lifetime... but someday. Maybe.

[sakabatou]

14. RAmen

[YewNork]

24. I hope not.

I think it's perfectly possible to be religious and also be a good Dem.

[Odin2005]

16. This young atheist American could have told them that.

I've been telling people for a while that my generation is going to be the starters of a new Enlightenment.

[Silent3]

17. At least once they stop being so distracted by texting.

:evilgrin:

[cosmik debris]

20. Progress.

I think it is amazing that 130 years after Bell invented the telephone, with all the modern technology applied to that invention in the last 130 years, thanks to Bell, people all over America can now send telegrams to each other.

Isn't progress wonderful?! :)

[rrneck]

23. LOL Ain't it the truth. nt

[moggie]

19. But do you have to do it on my damned lawn?

And your generation may be abandoning organised religion, which is a step in the right direction (since they're less likely to be dogmatic), but aren't they replacing it with disorganised new age "spirituality"? Is that what you see as the New Enlightenment?

[Bill McBlueState]

18. Oh, this is the guy who wrote "Bowling Alone"

This new report is like much of his previous research: It confirms what a lot of people think they've noticed, but he presents mounds of data to back it up.

[TCJ70]

22. Thanks R.E.M. n/t

[Jeffersonian Dem]

25. No wonder

More and more young people will refuse to join the blind led by the blind.

Of course, the so-called "Christian Right" is responsible for it, because they are in fact the blind led by the blind.

One day, though, there will be a new reformation ... and not just of Christianity, but also of Judaism and Islam.

I look forward to that day.