Posted on 04/06/2014 7:35:23 AM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
Back in 1990, about 8 percent of the U.S. population had no religious preference. By 2010, this percentage had more than doubled to 18 percent. That’s a difference of about 25 million people, all of whom have somehow lost their religion.
That raises an obvious question: how come? Why are Americans losing their faith?
Today, we get a possible answer thanks to the work of Allen Downey, a computer scientist at the Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, who has analyzed the data in detail. He says that the demise is the result of several factors but the most controversial of these is the rise of the Internet. He concludes that the increase in Internet use in the last two decades has caused a significant drop in religious affiliation.
(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...
Sure....
Forgot to mention that this also includes any ideology, doctrine, dogma or orthodox convention including those in academia. Humans will start gathering data, analyzing data and drawing their own sentient, independent conclusion on issues and events free from from fear and emotional extortion.
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I don’t buy that premise ... Islam will strengthen because it has absolutes and other religions are becoming more and more squishy to the point of irrelevance ,,, take the Church of England as my #1 example.
I’m not buying. The primary hellraisers in Islam have access to and heavily use the internet.
I’m not buying. The primary hellraisers in Islam have access to and heavily use the internet.
The basic premise here is baloney. Most Europeans lost any religious identity long before there was an internet.
One of the signs of the approaching Judgment Day is “The Great Falling Away,” taught in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, so this should not surprise those waiting for the Savior’s return.
Like so many other things, the internet has convinced many young people that weed, gay marriage, atheism, etc. are ‘cool’. That’s my take anyway.
I think the media has been pushing ungodly values very strongly over this same time period. I think that is a more important factor.
I haven't lost my faith or religion, but my denomination (UMC) went down the liberal homofascist tube. Now I visit churches, and get involved in small groups for prayer or Bible study. I leave a check here and there. That is all. Maybe if I move, there will be a Bible-believing church in shooting distance that won't turn Communist in my old age.
Wrong.
History is replete with the blaming of outside sources for problems within. Teach. Lead by example. The problem is the individual, not the “outside”. The outside has been there for millennia and can be overcome.
Amen.
Any regime built upon coercion, peer pressure or, most importantly, tunnel vision, will eventually succumb to the pressure within any individual mind to experience curiosity and explore the world. The USSR fell, and rather quickly, after a generation of exposure to Western TV, more than any other factor, with the possible exception of the SDI program. The Soviets were whipped technologically. The Soviet bureaucracy was not providing the quality of life visible just over the border. A very important process of mind is the making of comparisons. Why else do dictators need closed societies?
>>I don’t buy that premise ... Islam will strengthen because it has absolutes and other religions are becoming more and more squishy to the point of irrelevance ,,, take the Church of England as my #1 example.
PFL
Asking this question here is the same as asking why fewer and fewer people in Russia declared themselves religiously affiliated after 1920. As the Eich incident shows, if you openly declare yourself of a viewpoint contrary to left wing academia, you suffer, and they make sure of it. There has been a concerted effort to destroy all religion in public life for at least 60 years in this country. What do you expect?
But the facts remain the same. This is contributing factor to the terminal decline of America, and all it will gain is a lot of people condemned to hell. Truth hurts. Some like it hot.
Are these the people we’re saving America for?
Good observation, but the Internet is quickly becoming “the media”. We see story after story on FR showing the demise of print media, for example. The same is true for the major corporate TV outlets. How many time have you complained about the lack of choice in your cable program lineup- paying for crap programs along with what you really want to watch? The Internet lets you customize your media feed, tailor it to your liking. There is a substantial pressure in psychology for the individual to do what he likes. It’s called “individualism”. This is what we built this society for and we’d better be prepared to roll with the evolutionary consequences.
The trick is to make sure we have a society that gets the chores done before this sense of personal preference takes over.
>>I think the media has been pushing ungodly values very strongly over this same time period. I think that is a more important factor.
I have to agree. If anything, Islam has thrived on the internet, allowing Jihadists to indoctrinate with web videos.
“Humans will start gathering data, analyzing data and drawing their own sentient, independent conclusion on issues and events free from from fear and emotional extortion.”
Have you met any humans?
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