I see these numbers all the time, and I don’t know about the rest of the world but here in East Tennessee it’s very unusual to find a secular person. If you meet anyone and talk to them for 10 minutes, they’ll start throwing out religious buzz words.
I hope the numbers are correct, but I think they may be a little off.

Imagine no religion 🌬❤❤❤

I have no interest in religion- and I also have no interest in the religion/fixation of atheism. I have volunteered out of churches, where most of the volunteers were secular- and I will, at times, continue to volunteer. The Mennonites use their own money, from their stores, to provide for food and water projects around the world. Back before slavery was abolished the Quakers were housing runaway slaves in Philadelphia. I am not talking about the likes of "Mommy Theresa", whose objective was to make family poverty even worse, but there have been Catholics who have given their lives for justice. One priest went to the gas chambers with his Jewish orphans, so they would not be frightened.

I couldn't believe it; a few days ago, I got a letter in the mail from a Jehovah Witness. I do not know, or associate with fools like this. This LIT my fire! I want to know, if these ass holes have nothing better to do with their time than to celebrate their stupidity.

There can be no doubt that the rapid developments in technology in the past two decades has contributed to the decline in the ‘pie in the sky’ view that is promoted in most of the world’s religions. A promise of a rewards at some unknown postmortem date is repugnant to rational people. I have always considered the carrot and stick approach to be the worst and lowest form of education.

Encouraging trend for "Western" societies. I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm still concerned about the growth of Christianity and Islam and religious extremism in the rest of the world (in large part because of differential birthrates). But good news on any front is still welcome.

Encouraging write-up. Thank you

A note of caution, sorry.

Another reason for religion being so strong in the US for so long, is perhaps because of the perceived, though false, connection between atheism and communism. Which may have created a a large but quite artificial and quite fragile bubble of support for religion, which did not exist in most countries. With the rapid discrediting of communism as an ideology in most of the educated world, and the perceived, though false, end to the cold war, that bubble may vanish rapidly, bringing the US quite quickly back into line with the rest of the developed world.

Which means sadly, that the rapid decline in the US may not last. After a while, religion will still continue to decline, but only at much the same rate as it does in the rest of the educated western world.

Evangeloonies and the religious will really love this!! (Sarcasm).

There’s no turning back now.

Thank you for sharing this. It’s great news, and I hope the trend continues to move at a fast pace! We really need to do away with the magical thinking so we can hopefully save our planet.

Yes, but... I recall research done on modernizing countries that showed the populace turned to conservatism as a rejection of technology. This was before the internet, so it may be harder to bury one's head in the sand. I believe this research received a pejorative award from Senator Proxmire, but it proved all too accurate in essentially predicting the revolution in Iran.

In our own case, the US has been much more religious than other Western countries, so it has farther to go. My guess is we're approaching the sharpest slope in the change curve, and that's good. However, the shift could be jarring to many.

@HippieChick

Hooray! Thanks for posting this great news. My favorite part:

In the scientific 21st century, it’s less plausible to believe in invisible gods, devils, heavens, hells, angels, demons — plus virgin births, resurrections, miracles, messiahs, prophecies, faith-healings, visions, incarnations, divine visitations and other supernatural claims. Magical thinking is suspect and ludicrous. It’s not for intelligent, educated people.

Significantly, the PRRI study found that the foremost reason young people gave for leaving religion is this clincher: They stopped believing miraculous church dogmas.

IDK about this. I'm a HUGE fan of Voodoo

Sensing this, the theocrats are redoubling their efforts to reverse the tide of history that has turned against them. So no time for complacent self-satisfaction. Read a book like “The Power Worshippers” in order to get a clearer idea of what we’re up against.

TLDRA!

Factual history, science, and good ole common sense is putting religion where it belongs...... In the dustbin of history

Glad I'm on the winning team

I asked God in one of our meetings if religion would eventually cease to exist and he said ... "it could very well happen but it won't happen in my lifetime".