Americans leave religion through drift, not rupture.

[avatar4321]

Study Shows Americans Leave Religion Due to Drift, Not Rupture - washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR2009042701460.html?referrer=emailarticle)

looks like more people leave religion due to apathy than disbelief.

here are some more exact figures.

Pew Forum: Faith in Flux: Religious Conversion Statistics and Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.: Interactive Graphic (http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=415)

What was your reason for leaving/joining your religion?

[Trinity]

Study Shows Americans Leave Religion Due to Drift, Not Rupture - washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR2009042701460.html?referrer=emailarticle)

looks like more people leave religion due to apathy than disbelief.

here are some more exact figures.

Pew Forum: Faith in Flux: Religious Conversion Statistics and Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.: Interactive Graphic (http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=415)

What was your reason for leaving/joining your religion?

My reason....... I was born and raised catholic however I had the opportunity to experience many other religions and my conclusion is, religion is nothing more then a social gathering. Some people need that and I don't knock them for it. I however have discovered I do not need to attend church to communicate with god or believe. I am perfectly capable of doing that on my own. Without all the hoopla that I have seen in some churches.

Of course I have also experienced in many churches of different denominations those who are supposedly god fearing Christians on Sunday but run into them on a Tuesday in town and they are gossiping about who ever.....not exactly what I would call Christian behavior.

My beliefs I believe in God, but I do not believe in religion.

[Mr. P]

My reason....... I was born and raised catholic however I had the opportunity to experience many other religions and my conclusion is, religion is nothing more then a social gathering. Some people need that and I don't knock them for it. I however have discovered I do not need to attend church to communicate with god or believe. I am perfectly capable of doing that on my own. Without all the hoopla that I have seen in some churches.

Of course I have also experienced in many churches of different denominations those who are supposedly god fearing Christians on Sunday but run into them on a Tuesday in town and they are gossiping about who ever.....not exactly what I would call Christian behavior.

My beliefs I believe in God, but I do not believe in religion.

x2

Well put, Trinity.

[PostmodernProphet]

My reason....... I was born and raised catholic however I had the opportunity to experience many other religions and my conclusion is, religion is nothing more then a social gathering. Some people need that and I don't knock them for it. I however have discovered I do not need to attend church to communicate with god or believe. I am perfectly capable of doing that on my own. Without all the hoopla that I have seen in some churches.

Of course I have also experienced in many churches of different denominations those who are supposedly god fearing Christians on Sunday but run into them on a Tuesday in town and they are gossiping about who ever.....not exactly what I would call Christian behavior.

My beliefs I believe in God, but I do not believe in religion.

on the other hand, there are things that "church" can do that an individual can't......today there are huge numbers of Christians in Korea and China, Nigeria and Brazil because a hundred years ago missionaries were sent, not by individuals, but by churches.....today there are orphanages and hospitals, schools, etc.....built by churches, not by individuals......if no one goes to churches anymore, where will the missionaries come from?.......where will the Christian doctors and teachers for the next generation come from.....

you can communicate with God because you learned from stories and songs that were taught to you in a church when you were young......will your children be able to do so when they are your age?......

[Mr. P]

on the other hand, there are things that "church" can do that an individual can't......today there are huge numbers of Christians in Korea and China, Nigeria and Brazil because a hundred years ago missionaries were sent, not by individuals, but by churches.....today there are orphanages and hospitals, schools, etc.....built by churches, not by individuals......if no one goes to churches anymore, where will the missionaries come from?.......where will the Christian doctors and teachers for the next generation come from.....

you can communicate with God because you learned from stories and songs that were taught to you in a church when you were young......will your children be able to do so when they are your age?......

I disagree with the premise which is "One must go to know" that is indoctrination..one can know a God without that.

[crin63]

Personally from what I had been exposed to throughout my life I think/thought most denominations are/were whacked out. I didn't want anything to do with religion because of what I saw as the complete insanity of Pentecostals, Charismatics and 99% of Catholics. I watched as all those people lived like the devil and claimed to be Christians. There was no personal holiness. Catholic girls performing any kind of sex act they wanted to so long as they didn't actually lose their virginity was considered acceptable. People out drinking, whoring, stealing, cursing, smoking weed and all the while claiming to be Christians just made me sick and I wanted absolutely none of it. As far as I was concerned there was a serious problem with Christianity. There was no way that if God was real, that genuine Christians would act like that. It was a complete contradiction.

Then one day in 1994 God got a hold of my heart while I was walking around outside pondering my life and I was ready to even accept all that garbage if thats what it meant to be reconciled to God. I just could not believe that a real Christian would act like that and thank God I found out that real Christians don't act like that. Not that Christians are sinless but there some sins that just won't be found in Christians lives repeatedly. Anomalies can happen but they won't be the norm.

I started reading my Bible and praying for God to show me the church He would have me to go to and after a few months God did show me, I have been there ever since.

[PostmodernProphet]

I disagree with the premise which is "One must go to know" that is indoctrination..one can know a God without that.
/shrugs.....and I can learn electrical engineering by experimenting with twisting wires together by myself.......or I can read books and go to college......what is the dividing line between discipleship and indoctrination?

[Mr. P]

/shrugs.....and I can learn electrical engineering by experimenting with twisting wires together by myself.......or I can read books and go to college......what is the dividing line between discipleship and indoctrination?

Free will.

[PostmodernProphet]

Free will.

????....apparently we are not discussing the same thing, since in my mind free will has nothing to do with what we are talking about.......

let's picture a man who has been living in the mountains of Mongolia for thirty years.....he has an innate understanding of deity, but no religious documents or community of believers in any religion around.....

what are his odds of coming to a full understanding of that deity on his own through the exercise of free will?.......

how can one even be obedient without knowledge of the deity's will?......you could as easily claim that a child could be socialized without family or community, simply by exercising free will regarding what is right/wrong, acceptable/not acceptable.....

[PostmodernProphet]

"what is the dividing line between discipleship and indoctrination?"

it strikes me that we cannot exist in a vacuum....for two thousand years people have been considering the religion of "Christianity"......discipleship would be studying what they have considered.....now you can exercise your free will in accepting or rejecting the conclusions of that study, but it is silly to simply ignore the process......if I were as intelligent as Aquinas, or Calvin or Luther, or even Kuiper and Rushdooney, I could reproduce their investigations and arguments......or, I could study them and decide if I agree with their conclusions......

When Christ told his disciples the story about the shepherd and his 100th lamb it had a purpose.....the purpose is still here today.....saying that we should not tell that story or bring our children to hear it is a rejection of that purpose.......

[bullypulpit]

On my mother's side were hard-shell Baptists...My dad's were Presbyterian. I tried both...dabbled in Catholicism , Lutheranism, Unitarianism...Settled with Buddhism. But not from a religious standpoint, but rather a philosophical one. The practices quiet the mind, they give us some breathing room to experience the world as it has come to be with the running commentary in our heads quieted. But other religions offer that as well. It's just a practical philosophy for living.

[Psychoblues]

WTF?!?!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

:beer::cheers2::beer:

Psychoblues