Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations?

[Zzyzx]

Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations (particularly among younger generations)?

New Pew survey finds self-identified US Christians dropped 12% in a decade, as number of those claiming no religious affiliation surged

Over the last decade, the share of Americans who say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month dropped by 7 percentage points, while the share who say they attend religious services less often — if at all — rose by the same degree.

Empty Tomb, a Christian organization based in Champaign, Illinois, that researches religious giving, says the decline is longstanding. According to its research, Americans gave about 3% of their disposable income to churches in 1968, and less than 2.2% in 2016.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/decline-o ... oll-finds/

The number of Americans who call themselves Christian declined from 77% ten years ago to 65% in 2019. What is worse (or better), the absolute number of Christians declined. In 2019, the country had thirteen million fewer Christians at one hundred sixty-six million.

Protestants have nine million fewer members, two million less born-again’s, and seven million less non-born-again’s. Catholics are down by two million. Mormons were up slightly, but their % remained the same at 2%.

People who identified themselves as atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” increased by twenty-seven million to sixty-seven million people. Today, 17% of Americans say they never attend religious services up from 11% a decade ago.
The data also shows a wide gap between older Americans and Millennials in their levels of religious affiliation and attendance. People born between 1928 and 1945 describe themselves as Christians 84% of the time. Baby Boomers only 76% of the time. In stark contrast, only 49% of Millenials describe themselves as Christian. Four-in-ten Millenials described themselves as “nones,” and one-in-ten identified with non-Christian faith.
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2020/06/u- ... apid-pace/

[Willum]

[Replying to Zzyzx in post #1]

For many reasons expounded in these topics on this site.
A god is unnecessary to explain anything.
A god does nothing for morality.
Believers are just as flawed , or worse, than nonbelievers.
We have religious institutions, and the Bible itself failing on morality, unless it is embellished.
We have no evidence or indicators of any god.

[brunumb]

[Replying to Zzyzx in post #1]

I think we owe a lot to the information revolution. The hypocrisy, lies and deceit demonstrated by so many in the upper echelons of religious groups are harder to keep hidden these days. So many sects seem to be havens for sexual predators based on the testimony of those who have successfully broken away and have had the courage to share their stories. When donations are clearly going to buy jets, cars, build shopping malls and elaborate mansions, while supporting lavish lifestyles for the hierarchy rather than going to help the poor and needy, is it any wonder they are in decline. The internet has made it much easier for the truth to be revealed and shared with a worldwide audience and the younger generation is being reached like never before.

[1213]

Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations (particularly among younger generations)?
...

Sorry, by what I see, USA and most of the other “advanced nations” are really banana republics. Modern western people are so weak that they flip instantly, if someone dares to disagree with them. So sad that nations that previously, when they were mostly Christian and were advanced and intelligent, act now like they are insane, support fascism, are against freedom of speech, limit normal life because of flu… …difficult to see why you think they are advanced, unless you think advanced in becoming totalitarian communist state. Watching USA now is like watching the born of the planet of apes.

[Zzyzx]

Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations (particularly among younger generations)? ...

Sorry, by what I see, USA and most of the other “advanced nations” are really banana republics.

Opinion noted. Definition of Banana Republic: "any of the small countries in the tropics, especially in the Western Hemisphere, whose economies are largely dependent on fruit exports, tourism, and foreign investors." https://www.dictionary.com/browse/banana-republic

Modern western people are so weak that they flip instantly, if someone dares to disagree with them.

OH? Evidence for "most" flipping?

So sad that nations that previously, when they were mostly Christian and were advanced and intelligent, act now like they are insane, support fascism, are against freedom of speech, limit normal life because of flu…

Characterizing Covid-19 as 'flu' indicates level of comprehension.

…difficult to see why you think they are advanced, unless you think advanced in becoming totalitarian communist state.
Watching USA now is like watching the born of the planet of apes.

Many nations have made mistakes and corrected them -- Germany and Japan included. November 3, 2020 will affirm or refute the US doing the same.

[DavidLeon]

Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations (particularly among younger generations)?

Ahhh, the implications. Looking for the Science Utopia. The more one sided your perspective is the more predictable the outcome. History repeats itself. Our little rebellious atheists are growing up. All full of vinegar. Not a clue. As they get older their thinking will become a replica of the old guard.

Americans trust in faith leaders and pastors fell to a record low of 37%, ranking below multiple medical professions, teachers, and police and just above journalists.

Americans are among the most stressed in the world. 55% say they experience a lot of stress every day, among the five highest rates out of 143 countries, statistically tied with Iraq!

In a recent survey of 2,500 congregations, more than half of the members said they did not believe their church was spiritually vital.

3 out of 4 Christians (74%) seldom have a “spiritual conversation” with anyone.

13% of Americans agree that Muhammed was the holy prophet of God, even though Muslims comprise only 1% of the U. S. population.

Atheists and Agnostics scored 15% higher on their knowledge about religion than Evangelical Christians taking the Pews Religious Knowledge Survey.

Source

As for myself, the decline of Christianity couldn't come fast enough. But I have faith in the Bible that says it will happen. The only trouble with that philosophy is that Christianity hasn't cornered the market for vile, greedy, ignorant and corruptible practices. It seems to be prevalent in all manifestations of the workings of mankind and so history repeats itself.

[Aetixintro]

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Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations? The answer is evil, plain and simple. When people experience too much evil, they lose faith in all there is.

[DavidLeon]

.
Why is Christianity declining in the US and other advanced / technological / educated nations? The answer is evil, plain and simple. When people experience too much evil, they lose faith in all there is.

Perhaps, but I don't think so. People are evil. They gravitate towards evil. The implication is clearly being made in the OP that the advanced, technological, educated nations are rising above the dark evil past. But how do those advanced and educated nations fare on the evil scale? How do they use their technology? Warfare? Porn and video games?

Look at the history of the medical profession in the USA. It comes from the robber barons and through political corruption robbed us of a dozen or more successful cures for cancer, for example.

[Difflugia]

Ahhh, the implications. Looking for the Science Utopia. The more one sided your perspective is the more predictable the outcome. History repeats itself. Our little rebellious atheists are growing up. All full of vinegar. Not a clue. As they get older their thinking will become a replica of the old guard.

A bunch of youthful rebels that ultimately return to orthodoxy? That hardly sounds like atheism. That sounds much more like the myriad of young Christians that lack the experience to understand the doctrinal nuance of larger organizations. They think that there's a way to "just believe the Bible" that keeps most of the doctrinal comfort in which they were raised, while surgically excising the inconsistent flaws. Many eventually begin to see that the doctrinal inconsistency is rooted in Scriptural inconsistency and the various organizations, having been down that road, no longer think so differently after all. They then return to find the comfort that they missed, often without even realizing it.

Some, though, find their comfort in that very apartness and cultivate it. Their increasingly Byzantine doctrinal complexity coupled with a narrow, black-and-white rigidity provides both clarity and identity such that over time, their church's congregation converges toward the perfect size, that of a single member.

[DavidLeon]

Ahhh, the implications. Looking for the Science Utopia. The more one sided your perspective is the more predictable the outcome. History repeats itself. Our little rebellious atheists are growing up. All full of vinegar. Not a clue. As they get older their thinking will become a replica of the old guard.

A bunch of youthful rebels that ultimately return to orthodoxy? That hardly sounds like atheism.

We aren't really debating here are we? Just trading vaguely insulting jabs? You can already see it happen in militant atheism. I don't think it applies to the average non-militant atheism.

That sounds much more like the myriad of young Christians that lack the experience to understand the doctrinal nuance of larger organizations.

I think they must understand it pretty well if they are wisely avoiding those large organizations like the plague. They also see the same in non-religious organizations. That may be wishful thinking on my part, I don't get out much these days.

They think that there's a way to "just believe the Bible" that keeps most of the doctrinal comfort in which they were raised, while surgically excising the inconsistent flaws. Many eventually begin to see that the doctrinal inconsistency is rooted in Scriptural inconsistency and the various organizations, having been down that road, no longer think so differently after all. They then return to find the comfort that they missed, often without even realizing it.

No. They are, ideally, aware that the doctrinal mutations they were raised on are as insignificant as the alleged scriptural foundation, which is nil in meaning to them anyway. So, unfortunately the Christian child sees the blatant hypocrisy of their parents and congregation elders and goes off to sow his or her wild suggestive whirligigs or what have you, then when it comes time to start a family they go back to that familiar spiritual void that was their foundation.

In my day at least that's what they did. I don't know what the kids are doing these days. Don't care. If they want to be idiot Christians or idiot Atheists it makes little difference. They are in the same sinking ship of fools. As far as they're concerned it's all the same as long as they maintain the idiot status of the masses. Same as the dark ages, only now with cell phones.

Some, though, find their comfort in that very apartness and cultivate it. Their increasingly Byzantine doctrinal complexity coupled with a narrow, black-and-white rigidity provides both clarity and identity such that over time, their church's congregation converges toward the perfect size, that of a single member.

Maybe your criticism is myopically focused on the opposition. The Christian. Atheism has a collective sense of the nondenominational because it has no room for division. Free thinking seems to only imply free from thought.