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They are still a flyspeck. Nones are growing, non belief is where the world is going.
US Christians numbers 'decline sharply', poll finds - BBC News
The number of Americans who identify as Christian has fallen nearly eight percentage points in only seven years, according to a new survey.
Pew Research Center found that 71% of Americans identified as Christian in 2014 - down from 78% in 2007.
In the same period, Americans identifying as having no religion grew from 16% to 23%.
Fifty-six million Americans do not observe any religion, the second largest community after Evangelicals.
Does this surprise our American members? What impact do you think this will have on Ameerica socially and politically in the future if this number continues to fall?
Also why do you think these numbers are dropping? Failure of the church or is it a disconnect with young people and organised Religion ?
That's exactly what I was saying. Not all Christians are like that, any more than all Muslims are trying to blow people up. But the people who do act poorly, unfortunately, make the entire group look bad.
So why not just live a good life for its own sake and not bother with the differences over who you think told you to do that? That's what all those non-religious people do. We just do good for good's sake. No need for myths or spirits or judgments or anything like that.
Only to dumb people who think that actions of a small minority represent an entire group
Muslims are a third of the world's population and growing. So your conclusion isnt supported by any sort of facts
That's exactly what I was saying. Not all Christians are like that, any more than all Muslims are trying to blow people up. But the people who do act poorly, unfortunately, make the entire group look bad.
immigration only accounts for about half the growth, also note that Judaism grew in size as well, so the logic of information leading to athiesm doesn't hold any water.
US Christians numbers 'decline sharply', poll finds - BBC News
The number of Americans who identify as Christian has fallen nearly eight percentage points in only seven years, according to a new survey.
Pew Research Center found that 71% of Americans identified as Christian in 2014 - down from 78% in 2007.
In the same period, Americans identifying as having no religion grew from 16% to 23%.
Fifty-six million Americans do not observe any religion, the second largest community after Evangelicals.
Does this surprise our American members? What impact do you think this will have on Ameerica socially and politically in the future if this number continues to fall?
Also why do you think these numbers are dropping? Failure of the church or is it a disconnect with young people and organised Religion ?
:shrug: broadly, the rate at which the mainstream churches are losing membership is the extent to which they liberalize. As churches cease to stand for anything, folks see little reason to stand with them.
You are NOT God, and have NO right to say who is, or is not, Christian.
No, but God certainly is. In case you haven't noticed, he left some rather specific standards, expectations, and instructions behind for those who agree to follow in his footsteps to live up to.
While we more conservative Christians can point this fact out to the more liberal variety who so commonly choose to ignore such instructions in favor of their own will ten ways past Sunday, it is ultimately God to which they will find themselves answering for their flagrant disobedience.
Just sayin'. :shrug:
Ah. So you speak for God, too.
The Bible is very subjective.
Why should I have to live life the way you think I should live? I won't tell you how to live your life, so why are trying to tell me how to live mine? I choose to live a life of faith. You choose not to. I'm not one of these people who is going to stand there, wagging their finger at you, because that is your choice on how to live. You shouldn't do it to me, either.
Doesn't terrify me at all. Having faith in something means that you believe in it, whether you can see it or not. I am a woman of faith. I believe that there is something waiting for me on the other side. If I am wrong, then I will never know. But if you are wrong, you will certainly know. :lol:
There is no need. He has already spoken for himself.
It's up to us to listen. :shrug:
No, it's really not, and no, it's certainly not "fallible." People just like to pretend it is, because it gives them an excuse to justify sin.
In any eventuality, if you want to go around flagrantly ignoring 90% of what God actually passed down to humanity (frankly, if you view that 90% as being 'fallible' in the first place, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to keep the other 10%), and the common sense interpretations of those words which have been accepted for millennia, that's on you. I'd simply give a bit of thought as to what the Almighty might happen to think of that decision when you meet him face-to-face.
US Christians numbers 'decline sharply', poll finds - BBC News
The number of Americans who identify as Christian has fallen nearly eight percentage points in only seven years, according to a new survey.
Pew Research Center found that 71% of Americans identified as Christian in 2014 - down from 78% in 2007.
In the same period, Americans identifying as having no religion grew from 16% to 23%.
Fifty-six million Americans do not observe any religion, the second largest community after Evangelicals.
Does this surprise our American members? What impact do you think this will have on Ameerica socially and politically in the future if this number continues to fall?
Also why do you think these numbers are dropping? Failure of the church or is it a disconnect with young people and organised Religion ?
Except you do in your own way "tell you how to live your life,"(below in bold) moreso than he did by asking you a simple question, which I also note you didn't answer.
Which is the same as the evangelicals' bullcrap, "you're going to hell, you atheist pig." So you typed it with more sleight of hand, but still says the same thing.
I remember a song by DC Talk "What if I Stumble"
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable"
That pretty much sums up my attitude. They claim to love thy neighbor, but the actions show different.
Personally, I consider myself a religious person, but do not affiliate myself with religion. Organized religion is, in my opinion, one of the problems we are having. More of a groupthink, where if one person thinks something is wrong, then everybody else has to think it's wrong too, or they aren't as good a Christian as the other person.It's been going up and down for a long time. What it looks like to me is the number gets closer to 80% when times are hard or scary, then declines closer to 70% when things seem better.
If you look into more specific and detailed surveys, about a third of those who self-identify as Christian are really "non-practicing" anyway, and that's where most of the variation occurs.
I don't foresee any major changes in society or politics unless it drops well below 50%... and I doubt that will happen any time this century.
BTW a lot of those saying they have "no religion" aren't atheist or agnostic necessary, just not particularly attached to any specific organized religion. AKA "indifferent", 'too busy', "whichever way the wind blows".
What in the world would they be scared of? :roll:
Hogwash. That just tells me that you are one of those people who thinks that a liberal person can't be a Christian
That is part of the problem. Too many people trying to play God, and too many people saying, "You can't go to Heaven because of so and so." You are NOT God, and have NO right to say who is, or is not, Christian. When you do reach that lofty position, let me know. Until then, you are perpetuating the problem.
:shrug: then either your reasoning skills are poor, or you are out to seek offense. My father, for example, is a lifelong liberal (two time Obama voter), a minister, and probably the single biggest influence on my faith and how I approach theology.
As far as my justifying sin, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. When is the last time you ate shellfish? Probably recently, since you live in Charleston. When is the last time you talked back to your parents? Or even had bad thoughts about them? When is the last time you ate pork?
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