In a survey in 2008, it has shown a tremendous increase in atheism in Americans.
The numbers of people who identify as "Atheist" are few in America. They are a small minority, or so I thought.
In past surveys, only a very few participants idenitified themselves as an atheist, slightly more identified as agnostic, but the percentage combined was always marginal. It was rarely as high as %10. This was always troublesome for atheists.
Recently, the survey was done again, but this time modified to remove labeling. It was a direct question, "Do you have any belief in a God or Gods."when the labels are removed, and participants are asked directly about their belief in a God, %18 of them denied any belief in God. A similar Question was posed to Americans in 2006 and 2008. Between the two years it raised from 2 million to 3.2 million people identifying as atheist. However, when the new survey was put out, the number of people that claimed no belief in god rose to 40 million.
This makes me wonder, why is there such a significant change in the numbers. It may very well be that the original survey held positions for specific religions, and that there are religions who have no god belief, as such they are atheist religions, but they don't feel that the term "atheist" applies best to them. The other is just a general fear of labels, and that few were willing to admit that they were the atheists that some communities dread.
Dr. Nigel Barber, a Psychologist analyzed the data from the new survey,
"Atheists are heavily concentrated in economically developed countries, particularly the social democracies of Europe. In underdeveloped countries, there are virtually no atheists," he stated.
When asked about why he feels that non belief is on the rise, he responded by stating the four reasons he thinks are primary.
1. Religion is popular in areas of public fear, this fear is shrinking
2. Large families are less valued as they use to be, so marriage is seen as less vital, so the religion seems to be ignored there as well.
3. People tend to use church as a sort of group thearapy, and that is rapidly becoming obsolete with modern communication such as actual therapy and internet chat.
4. And the last one, is that people just like getting together, which yet again, there are other ways that are making a better option.
There is argument against these reasons, but the facts still remain, Its on the rise, for better or for worse, there is not much we can do about it.
To see the report from the survey and other Articles ive Written
http://rlwoodsiii.blogspot.com/to see the original article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-m...