GET FREE E-MAIL UPDATES: SEND US YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH SUBSCRIBE IN THE SUBJECT LINE
or subscribe to our
Twitter service

UNDERNEWS

Undernews is the online report of the Progressive Review, edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington during all or part of ten of America's presidencies and who has edited alternative journals since 1964. The Review, which has been on the web since 1995, is now published from Freeport, Maine. We get over 5 million article visits a year. See prorev.com for full contents of our site

December 27, 2009

29% OF AMERICANS SAY RELIGION 'OUT OF DATE'

Raw Story - A Gallup poll of Americans' attitudes towards religion released on Christmas Eve found significant recent increases in those responding either that they have no religious preference, that religion is not very important in their lives, or that they believe religion "is largely old-fashioned or out of date."

Only 78% of Americans now identify as Christian, while 22% describe their religious preference as either "other" or "none."

Most of these changes have occurred since 2000 and represent the first significant shift since a sharp decline in religious adherence during the 1970s. Over the last nine years, the number with no religious preference has grown from a level of around 8% to 13%. The number for whom religion is not very important has climbed from just over 10% to 19%. And the number who believe religion is out of date and has no answers for today's problems has jumped from slightly more than 20% to 29%.

These changes do not appear to have affected the majority of Americans who still consider religion "very important" in their own lives. That figure remains at 56% -- roughly the same as for the last 35 years -- while 57% still say religion has answers to most of the world's problems.

Labels:


2 Comments:

Anonymous the great devil polls his constituents said...

Since religion is an attempt to deal with morality. mortality and whether either of those matter, it's pretty much personal stuff. The kind of stuff on which a poll of other person's opinions doesn't really matter unless you're impossibly shallow and insecure, which is to say,American.

December 27, 2009 10:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A little proof-reading does wonders. Also, it helps to have a coherent point.

January 4, 2010 3:08 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home