Fewer Americans Identify as Christian

[BSB]

This Christmas, 78% of Americans Identify as Christian

Over time, fewer Americans identify as Christian; more have no religious identity
by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- This Christmas season, 78% of Americans identify with some form of Christian religion, a proportion that has been declining in recent decades. The major reason for this decline has been an increase in the percentage of Americans claiming no religious identity, now at 13% of all adults.

The trend results are based on annual averages of Gallup's religious identity data in America that stretch back over 60 years. One of the most significant trends documented during this period is the substantial increase in the percentage of American adults who don't identify with any specific religion. In 1948, only 2% of Americans did not identify with a religion.
That percentage began to rise in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Eleven years ago, in 1998, 6% of Americans did not identify with a religion, a number that rose to 10% by 2002. This year's average of 13% of Americans who claim no religious identity is the highest in Gallup records.

The percentage of Americans who identify as Catholic, Protestant, or some other non-Catholic Christian faith has been concomitantly decreasing over the years. This suggests that one of the major patterns of religious transition in America in recent decades has been the shift from identification as Christian to the status of having no specific religious identification.

In 1948, 91% of Americans identified with a Christian faith. Twenty years ago, in 1989, 82% of Americans identified as Christian. Ten years ago, it was 84%. This year, as noted, 78% of all American adults identify with a Christian faith.

There has also been a slight increase in the percentage of Americans who identify with a religion that is not specifically classified as Christian. Sixty years ago, for example, 4% of Americans identified with a non-Christian religion. By 1989, 9% of Americans were in this non-Christian religion category, the same percentage as today.

Personal Importance of Religion

Does the decrease in religious identity signify that religion is losing its importance for Americans? There was a substantial drop in the percentage of Americans who said religion was "very important" in their lives between the 1960s and the 1970s -- from 70% in 1965 to 52% by 1978 -- but in recent decades, this "very important" percentage has remained relatively steady. The overall figure today -- 56% -- is slightly higher than it was 31 years ago.


http://www.gallup.com/poll/124793/This-Christmas-78-Americans-Identify-Christian.aspx

[Xavier_Onassis]

While the numbers of actively religious people seems to be on a slight decline, the intensity of the religious spiel has increased. The number of people who believe that the End is Nigh and that we are in the End Times seems to be quite a bit greater. This seems to wax and wain throughout American history.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Almost 80%..and if you throw in Judeo-Christians...wow such "low numbers"....LOL

NEXT?

[Xavier_Onassis]

So, what is this?
Do you see this as some sort of popularity contest, in which the religion with the most followers wins the prize for being the One True Religion?

[BSB]

XO "So, what is this?"

Exactly.

CU4, what are the set assumptions that led to your comment in this thread? And further, what are the set of assumptions that led you to start your Christianity thread?   

BSB


P.S. I spent some time in Texas, and I liked it. I wonder, though, if all that light and space damages ones ability to interpert intelligence?

[Xavier_Onassis]

I don't think we can blame Texas for the obsessions of one of its residents.

[BSB]

Regarding Texas, XO, you do realize I was just having a little fun. However, lets not forget, Bush and LBJ were from Texas, and we all know how well they read intelligence.

BSB

[Xavier_Onassis]

LBJ knew that he would be reviled if he gave into the Viet Cong.

Juniorbush knew that his chances of being reelected were much better if he could make himself a "War President".

Both of them understood that their own personal careers could be wrecked by doing the peaceful and logical thing. I am not sure whether Juniorbush figured this out all by himself or he got his advice from Rummy and Cheney. In any event, both chose to protect their careers rather than serve the best interests of the nation. I do not know whether their being Texans was a part of this or not. I just know that both made stupid errors that resulted in the death and maiming of many and the loss of vast amounts of money.

[Plane]

...............Both of them understood that their own personal careers could be wrecked by doing the peaceful and logical thing. I am not sure whether Juniorbush figured this out all by himself or he got his advice from Rummy and Cheney. ....................................

   Could you describe for me the peacefull and logical response to 9-11?

   The President may be the decider and the leader , but when the people cry blood the leader better get out in frount of it .

[Xavier_Onassis]

Could you describe for me the peacefull and logical response to 9-11?

============================================
I would say that invading Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9-11 was clearly NOT any sort of logical response. Perhaps attacking Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and wiping them out at Tora Bora would have been logical. Then followed by a speedy withdrawal.
'

[BSB]

LBJ didn't send 500,000 troops to Vietnam because he was afraid of the right in this country, and Bush didn't invade Iraq to secure his second term.  They were a couple of rootin' tootin' cowboys who went for their guns and shot from the hip.

In the final analysis both wars were our, the American people's, fault because we elected them.

BSB

[Christians4LessGvt]

So, what is this?Do you see this as some sort of popularity contest, in which the religion with
the most followers wins the prize for being the One True Religion?

No it's a LaughOutLoud at such a ridiculous biased headline!

[Xavier_Onassis]

The fact is that the percentage of believers in a given population does not have a thing to do with the validity of a given religion or its lack of same.

To say "95% of Americans believe in Jesus" or whatever is an example of the logical fallacy known as the Bandwagon fallacy.

[BSB]

There's nothing biased about it. That would be your first assumption, what are the others?

Fact: Fewer Americans identify as Christian.

BSB

[Xavier_Onassis]

There is a vast difference between those who "identify themselves as Christians" and those who are practicing Christians that actually pay a great deal of attention to the dictates of the leaders of their churches.

It seems that this is where the debate is focused, on who gets to claim those who do not attend church regularly and pay little attention to such things as tithing and proclamations of religious leaders.

And then there are those who seem to mold Christianity to their own peculiar beliefs, such as the opinion that somehow Christians should have a desire for "less government'. Jesus perhaps did subscribe to this, being as the government was a puppet regime of the Romans that was seen as unholy and an intrusion of an alien culture into Jewish society. Being against Romans in Palestine in the time of Jesus was like being against Russians in Czechoslovakia in 1968 or perhaps against the US troops in Iraq until recently.