WaPo Blog: This is a mystery? Really?

[Synnical]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/atheists_and_economic_foxholes.html

Atheists and (economic) foxholes

Church attendance rises when the economy slips:

Every day, the economist Daniel Hungerman looks at the graph that hangs above his desk at the University of Notre Dame. One jagged line goes down and up. This is America’s gross domestic product since 1972. Another jagged line goes up and down. This is the religiosity of Americans over the same period, as measured by church attendance. The lines show an almost exact inverse correlation.

“You can see as clear as day a negative relationship in this picture,” says Hungerman, who threw the chart together for fun. “When the business cycle goes up, religious attendance goes down, and vice versa. The good mystery is why.”

By Ezra Klein | July 27, 2010; 4:43 PM ET

Newsweek article Klein links to: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/22/no-atheists-in-foxholes.html

[laconicsax]

1. It's hard for people on the inside to work out how it looks on the outside.

Just look at how long it took for a heliocentric model of the solar system to be adopted.

I'm sure the explanation offered for an increase in grown-up story time attendance will include epicycles.

[trotsky]

2. So, roughly 85-90% of this country is Christian, right?

This is just crazy fundie atheist me speaking, but isn't the bigger story why, even in times of recession, only HALF of the most noblest Americans attend religious services?

Why is this spun as the non-believers "finding gawd"?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. And therein lies one of the reasons why right-wingers don't want poor people to catch a break.

In fact, I'll post just that.

[and-justice-for-all]

4. I have the answer...

FEAR.

[onager]

5. The (fundie) Barna Research Group sort of agrees...

Yes, shocking as it is, a Fundamentalist Atheist always like to check this sort of poll with Barna Research Group.

Whose owner, George Barna, is a Fundamentalist Xian his own self. But his objective poll results constantly get him condemned by the likes of Pat Robertson.

e.g. - after 9/11, the mass media (and televangelists) were whooping about a big "return to faith," with more Americans flocking to their churches.

Mr. Barna dumped cold water all over that one, with a poll showing that church attendance ticked up slightly for a few weeks after 9/11, then dropped back to the usual low numbers.

At the height of Bill Clinton's "Monica-gate" trouble, Barna published a poll showing that self-identified Evangelical Xians still supported Clinton by roughly the same numbers as they had voted for him - about 66%. The Repubs went crazy over that one.

Barna's religion does cause him to draw some funny conclusions from his data, occasionally. One of his polls showed that ATHEISTS!!! were less likely to get divorced than Fundamentalist Xians. Mr. Barna rationalized this by opining that the atheists probably Lived In Sin for a few years before getting married, giving their marriage a better basis for success.

But after all that bloviating from me, on to the subject of the OP! A poll published by Barna on July 26:

Has the Economy Influenced Americans' Priorities?
July 26, 2010

A new study by the Barna Group updates a multi-year tracking study and explores what Americans identify as their highest priority. Family and faith continue to be the most common priorities of Americans, though these have waned in importance since 2006. Meanwhile, other elements such as health, leisure, money, and professional success are more likely to be identified as Americans’ top priorities.

The percentage of Americans who say their top priority is family has declined (from 51% in 2006 to the current level of 45%). Despite the decline, though, family-related goals – which include having a good family life, being a good parent and having a good marriage – remain the most important priorities to Americans.

Fewer adults said faith is their top priority in the 2010 study (12%) compared to 2006 (16%), although this is a slightly better proportion than 2008 (when just 9% of adults described faith as their top objective in life)...

http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/405-has-the-economy-influenced-americans-priorities

[lazarus]

7. one thing interesting about this

Barna's religion does cause him to draw some funny conclusions from his data, occasionally. One of his polls showed that ATHEISTS!!! were less likely to get divorced than Fundamentalist Xians. Mr. Barna rationalized this by opining that the atheists probably Lived In Sin for a few years before getting married, giving their marriage a better basis for success.

I just read on good ol' Cracked that "living in sin" actually makes you more likely to get divorced, not less.

I think atheists are less likely to get divorced because we put our marriage first, not Jesus.

[Lost-in-FL]

6. Sunday Church is cheaper than taking the whole family to the movies. nt