America’s Religious Decline

Religion in decline in America says a massive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life - considered the most comprehensive report on religious identification of Americans in recent years interviewing more than 35,000 people across the United States - found 28 percent of adults say they have left their childhood faith for another religion or none at all. Counting people who shifted denominations, the change rises to 44 percent. According to the study the U. S. will soon lose its status as a majority-Protestant country standing now at just 51% of the churched. That drop from about 2/3^rd who said they were Protestant in 1960 has seen the number of those who called themselves religiously unaffiliated in the 1980s double to 16% now.In California 21% - more than one in five – call themselves unaffiliated and in Oregon that’s 27%. Religious scholars say the big reason is “rootless” people who have moved into the west abandoning not only their home and family and leaving their religion behind. Overall 28% of adults say they have left their childhood faith for another religion or none at all. The Catholic Church has faired the worst among all denominations falling to 25% from nearly one-third (33%), and it would be worse without a big influx of immigrations from catholic countries. Hindus have the highest retention of members at 84 percent. Jehovah’s Witness lose 2/3rds of those raise in the sect by adulthood. Overall mainline Protestant churches have fewer and older members, while nondenominational Christian churches are growing. Jews, on average, are also older than other groups and are literally dying out.Mormons and Muslims have the largest families. Black Americans are most likely to claim religious affiliation, nearly half of Hindus and one-third of Jews have postgraduate education. U.S. Buddhist adherents are made up mostly of native-born converts.

England’s Oxford University recently received a $3.7 million grant to find out whether belief in a deity is a matter of nature or nurture. Some believe the growth of humanism and secularism is contributing to the decline in religious beliefs leading to the rise in atheism and agnosticism or visa-versa. Others say a consequence is the vast increase in rudderless people saying they are depressed, using anti-depressants, addiction to prescription drugs and use illicit drugs.