Posted on 11/06/2017 6:42:17 PM PST by marshmallow
Most U.S. adults now say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values (56%), up from about half (49%) who expressed this view in 2011. This increase reflects the continued growth in the share of the population that has no religious affiliation, but it also is the result of changing attitudes among those who do identify with a religion, including white evangelical Protestants.
Surveys have long shown that religious “nones” – those who describe themselves religiously as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – are more likely than those who identify with a religion to say that belief in God is not a prerequisite for good values and morality. So the public’s increased rejection of the idea that belief in God is necessary for morality is due, in large part, to the spike in the share of Americans who are religious “nones.”
Indeed, the growth in the share of Americans who say belief in God is unnecessary for morality tracks closely with the growth in the share of the population that is religiously unaffiliated. In the 2011 Pew Research Center survey that included the question about God and morality, religious “nones” constituted 18% of the sample. By 2017, the share of “nones” stood at 25%.
But the continued growth of the “nones” is only part of the story. Attitudes about the necessity of belief in God for morality have also changed among those who do identify with a religion. Among all religiously affiliated adults, the share who say belief in God is unnecessary for morality ticked up modestly, from 42% in 2011 to 45% in 2017.
(Excerpt) Read more at pewresearch.org ...
This is going to work out well... /eyeroll
F.U. Pew!
Oh, that wasn’t very, ‘Christian’ of me, was it? LOL!
Pew wouldn’t know a Christian if we whacked ‘em with our Well-read, Highlighted and Post-It marked Bible! ;)
You nailed it with your list.
You can probably survive a generation or two w/o God. Forget about it after that. Once people are taught that they are nothing more than chemical reactions that achieved consciousness, the value of life will be less than it is now. They’d treat life in ways that would make Nazi medical researchers blush.
Watch Ravi Zacharias tackle that question. Short and brilliant.
IMO, if you don’t believe in a higher being, you have no moral compass.
Don’t know.
I know I did a lot of immoral things when i didn’t believe in God.
They were cut down dramatically when I started believing
Can’t speak for others.
Yeh it’s called spiritual ignorance due to the loss of Biblical education expunged from the modern era. Morality is based upon the Biblical laws and precepts. Those divorced from that absolute truth could falsely surmise that same sex marriage too is moral. Ignorant fools delusional to think they are morally wise and don’t need God. Morals don’t save us but the salvation through faith in Christ is what does.
Morality must be re-defined in order to consider a Godless man “moral”.
Logical fallacy. Morals must come from an objective source (God through the Bible). Otherwise there will s no true morality.
It’s not harder , it is impossible.
Outward “morality” means nothing. Sorry to offend, but if Jesus is not your savior and lord you can spend eternity without God. No God in this life, no God in the next.
17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
I guess they don't think that believing in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is necessary to get to Heaven either. Surface thinking on their part. Sad!
you know- they print these articles with glee- glee over people ‘losing their faith’ or ‘walking away from the faith’- and it pleases them to no end- they lust after a united states that is ‘free from the restraints of God’- and all the while society is becoming less and less civil, and more and more violent and immoral- hurting more and more people
Thus goes America
All people have and/or practice morality. It is based on what they themselves believe to be moral. There is no reward for being moral whether one believes in God or not. God doesn’t reward anyone for their actions. The only reward a person gets from God is thru faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and that reward is heaven.
Good acts = faking morality? While being a good person won’t get you to Heaven w/o accepting Christ as your Savior, it doesn’t mean that a person cannot be and behave every bit as morally as a Christian who boasts about his Christianity as if it’s a personal accomplishment instead of an incredible gift (truly faking it despite being saved...). I’ve known a few atheists who, on the whole, behaved every bit as good as, or even better than, a LOT of Christians...it grieves me that these good people will not gain the Kingdom of Heaven...
The actual tragedy of unbelief is just that, trying to be moral and a good person, without the hereafter of joy.
What about those billion Muslims? They believe in god right? They must be moral then.
I agree - there are a lot of genuinely good people that refuse to believe and it is tragic to know that so many of us who are saved but can’t act as good as they do will reap the rewards they ignore.
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