Most of the headlines regarding the recent Trinity College poll:� "The American Religious Identification Survey 2008," herald the demise of religion in the United States; a nation that boasts being the most religious country in the Western world. The poll announced that there are now more people than ever claiming "no religion." From 1990 to 2008 the percentage jumped from 8.2 percent to 15% nearly double the amount. And the number of people identifying themselves as Christian sank from 86 percent in 1990, to 76 percent in 2008, a ten point drop. It certainly does look like people are losing their religion.
We should never rely on polls to tell the whole story.
But hold off on those memorials for now. My take on the study is actually quite positive. If you include the numbers from the 2001 poll, the results may actually say something different. Most of the gains in the area of "no religion" occurred between 1990 and 2001. The numbers went from 8.2 to14.2. Less than once percent of the gains occurred between 2001 and 2008.This is also true for people dropping from the rolls of Christianity. That number went from 86% to 77% from 2001 to 2008. Again, it's barely a nudge from 2001 to 2008 (down to 76%).
What this tells me is that the exodus from religion and away Christianity was staunched in 2001. Perhaps 9/11 was the bench mark. It would be an obvious reason. But it also demonstrates that we should never rely on polls to tell the whole story. Did you also notice in any of the articles that appeared on Monday that there was an exponential increase in the number of Christians claiming "no denomination"? That number went from .1 percent in 1990 to 3.5 percent in 2008. Now that may not seem like a big percentage but translate that to the population and the numbers look like this: In 1990 there were about 194,000 people who claimed "no denomination." That number climbed to 8 million Americans in 2008. Two thirds of that gain happened between 2001 and 2008. Take all this information and couple it with the fact that religious books are flying off the shelves. How do you explain some 30 million copies sold of Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life"? Or how about this a few weeks ago, the No. 1 book on the atheist best-seller list was written by a Christian evangelist? The book "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think", shot straight to the top of Amazon.com's sales charts,knocking Richard Dawkins' "God Delusion" to the number no. 2 spot.[Source: Christian Evangelist's Book Ranked Bestselling 'Atheist' Item: Christian post.com Feb 14, 2009].
What I've learned about polls is that you can draw a variety of conclusions from them. The samplings are a microscopic representation of a country of some 300 million. And the kind of questions asked can often determine the response. Additionally, science and religion are destined to be at odds. Science is very good at observation, giving us answers to the "what, when, where, and how" questions. But science stumbles when it tries to tell us "Why?" That's where psychology,philosophy and theology are the strongest. Here's one last thing about the people who represent the percentages we saw in the ply our nature. And the difference between religious and non-religious people is that religious people admit it.
By: Fox News 3/12/09
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"the demise of Christianity"
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many times that's been predicted.
It was 25 years ago today that the atheist government in China announced that Christianity was officially dead in China.
“The missionaries are gone. There are no more Christians, and no worship of Jesus anywhere is this country,” stated an official of the atheist run nation. He too may have spoken too soon.
It is estimated that in two or three years, China will be the largest Christian nation on earth. We have some friends working in China and the information that they get from similar organisations show that ~ 22,000 Chinese A DAY are coming to Christ. This, in a nation where becoming a Christian guarantees persecution, harassment as well as the threat of imprisonment or loss of employment
October is missions month in our congregation and this weekend, we had members of China’s underground Church speaking to us. Courageous hardly describes the believers in today’s China. While China has given up trying to stamp out believers, it is still a serious offence to evangelise. While there are many hundreds of Pastors and many thousands of believers in jail for talking about Jesus, one of the surprising things that these men and women requested of us is that we DO NOT pray for the end of persecution. “Persecution, beatings, loss of jobs and having property confiscated serve three important purposes.
First, persecution spreads the gospel faster than anything else we have experienced. This has been true, down through history from the killing of Stephen by the apostle Paul and his group to this very day. Danger causes us to move into new territory where believers tell more and more people about Jesus.
Second, hardship teaches us to depend on Jesus for our well-being, and under hardship the presence of His Spirit is so very real.
Third, persecution keeps the Church pure. There are no hangers-on in the China Church. Believers know that they will suffer for the faith so no one joins us out of curiosity.”
Interestingly, at least for me is how Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens have all taken their dream for America and the world directly from the play-book of both atheist China and Stalinist Russia. In China it is illegal to teach anyone under 18 years of age about Jesus or Christianity. That is what these atheists have repeatedly stated as the solution for bringing about a generation of free thinkers in North America. In fact it is the failure of education to clearly announce the death of God in each generation that infuriates Sam Harris. His proposal for raising free thinkers is to outlaw thinking / talking / teaching about Jesus for not just his children but for yours as well.
After hearing from these men and women from China this weekend, I hope that the current crop of atheists achieve their goals. Right now, Christianity in North America exists from coast to coast but it is only a centimetre deep. Hopefully we are forced to understand the old line, “You never know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.