Polls show atheism on the rise in America

I am not mean, bitter or trying to convert n e one to each his own i dnt give 2 shits about anyone on here, much less a bunch of hopeless atheists. I guess evry1 thinks im so damn mean for calling the athiest hopeless.... well its a known fact, ppl have trouble accepting the truth....

All u hopeless atheists that dont believe in hell will when you're burning there 4 eternity...Wow how is it evn humanly possible to not blieve in him. Ur alive readin this i guess your own mortal greatness has blessed u w/ your life, health, evrything u have. Wow thats extreme. Atheists are hopeless and will believe in hell when they r burning there for eternity...

It's the douche style attacks and bible thumping in your face preaching that helped me escape the false promises and hopes. I no longer desire a crutch and wake up every day happy to help others without need for congregation. Complete freedom without worry. As for anyone attacking Delia...she is one of the nicest, caring and sensible people here on Current, maybe you should be at church, not online.

People don't trust religion because religion gives them empty promises that aren't demonstrable or empirical. After a long enough time modern day people realize that people walking in the deserts thousands of years ago were full of shit about a burning bush talking to them and stuff. Human nature is to lie about shit. And human nature is also to believe echoed knowledge. It grows on itself. Then religious people be all:

"God works in mysterious ways"

-Ok, prove it? God sure as shit didn't have any qualms about letting the WTC get destroyed on 9/11!

"Well God has a plan."

-God is starting to sound like a Bond villain if part of his 'plan' was to destroy the World Trade Center...

"Yeah, but Jesus loves."

-Well whole lotta good that does us now if the Towers are gone cus of his dad's plan.

"God and Jesus are the same entity."

WHAT?!?!?!?! You need to just stop talking, Seriously.

WOW!! XD Belief is a choice no person can make for another person. Even if you want someone else to tell you what to do...your personal truth can only be, what it is, not what you wish it to be. A poll can't accurately assess the state of things. If you look at this matter as a spiritual/psychological one, then you have to deal with the truth for each person, which has got to be one of the hardest things to really get from someone.

Religious views are just the picture on the outside of the box. The state of our culture/society isn't shaped by "religion" or non-religion so much as by each individual attitude. People claim on all sides to "know" the "truth" of life, after-life, history... That, my fellow humans, is impossible. When any person begins to truly believe that they "know" the answers, that person is doomed to be misled and to mislead others. Forward motion is achieved by curiosity, by not knowing and yet searching to uncover/discover how the mystery works and discovering new mysteries. Not all of them can be solved. Not all of them should be.

It is ghastly to think of the number of people trying to re-make/control/change other people's ideas instead of learning from the idea: what it means to each separate individual. We are unique as a species, vastly different from one body to the next but people on all sides are "hell-bent" on grouping us all together and making us all the same.

The true tragedy here, is self-deception/denial. So many people lie to themselves and hide themselves from themselves: belittle others because they themselves feel small, claim love when they are filled with hate because they refuse to be honest about who they are, suffering terribly and yet passing their ideals of suffering onto others as though it's "heavenly" bliss. This doesn't apply to just one group...it goes beyond the lines of religion. It is an individual perception of false projection as a means of redemption and it boils down to people not loving themselves enough to look in the mirror and accept all the parts of who they are. Instead painting some false picture and insisting that everyone else accept it. Demanding that everyone else accept it.

We are all liars, cheats, sneaks, haters, bullies, fornicators..."sinners" if you will and you know what, I'm okay with that. I am happy with who/what I am and I don't need a set of standardized rules to tell me what my individual beliefs are. That's what my brain and my "heart" are for.

I don't need someone else to tell me that there is or isn't a god. I don't need someone else to tell me that I do or don't have an afterlife and where it will or won't be spent. I don't need someone else's "direction" to find myself. The very idea is counter-productive. How can someone else tell you who you are or what you are/believe.

What IS helpful are ideas. Learning and understanding from others of our species and taking each person's perception into consideration while making OUR OWN individual discoveries.

Spiritual/Psychological belief cannot be indiviually formed in minutes, hours or even months or years. It is a lifetime process of taking experiences and forming them into a picture of one's life. It certainly can't be standardized...life is perception and no matter how many other parts of us are formed into identical copies, perception is one of the few things that can never be standardized...at least not without drugs, I'm pretty sure.

Stop looking for a cliff to cling to in the ocean. It is an ocean and no matter how much you resist it, you are an ocean dweller. Life is chaos and change in which we build small supports to remove ourselves from the chaos, which will eventually be washed away and we'll have to start again. It isn't clear and it isn't easy but if you are honest with yourself and others(as much as possible) then you can build supports that might actually stand up to the tides, hurricanes, maybe even a tsunami or two.

My Satan fish approves.

Burn in hell u stupid, hopeless atheists...is literally what u will do....better u than me tho, u lame devil worshippin assholes. i love God; he's great.

“God is, or He is not.” But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

atheism -- who is there to thank? if you're an atheist how do you appreciate things? just wondering because i really don't understand the concept.

I had a friend when I was younger that was borderline Catholic in California and he got mixed into Scientology, He lost all his beliefs in God, within 3mo his wife and babe girl left him and he lost his job. He then moved back to Mom and Dad's found a pt job and started drug use. I seen him last 8mo. after, he told me story's of his drug use how he felt lost without his family. 2wks later he took his own life. He left a note that said his belief in life was gone and he had nothing to live for.

I've wondered at times, since the cross was the device used for capital punishment by the Romans, if they had discovered electricity and Jesus had been sent to the chair...would Christians be wearing little electric chairs around their necks, or hanging from their earlobes, and giant ones on top of churches?...of course the Catholic faith would have him strapped in the chair and the head piece on.

Every one MUST read GOD IS NOT GREAT. By Christopher Hitchens. Become the educated non believer that America needs!

Atheism is such a dull term. I don't need a term to define my non belief in God. There is no atoothfarism or a asantaism. But, this is a good trend. Now one needs to be elected to office.

I believe in God because he has answered my prayers. Also I have been a witness to many miracles that have taken place throughout my life that cannot be explained other than a higher power. As much as I try I can't. Don't get me wrong, I have been skeptical at times in my life. I am not currently active in any organized religion. It's just that in my personal experiences God has answered my prayers and intervened too many times for me to deny the existence of a higher power.

Not everybody shares the same experiences. Even many in my own family do not believe in God. A few do. It should be a private matter. People should not mock believers or disbelievers. Respect should be had for all.

I have NEVER been against religion since the past 1 years. between death and these sick Christains and Israelies and other religions I am sooooooooooo sick of the shitl killing killling killling need I say more. If my kid want to beleive thats is fine but there is only my 18 year old that beleives there is a higher power and I think ist's because of his girlfriend. but that is ok. what ever makes him happy. I just choose that GOD is a fallesey.

I am finding that the term atheist is being utilized for both agnostic and atheist in the responses here. Either way, it is the failure to cherish the differences in others that causes the amount of suffering that we see in our world. And only by changing our individual ways of thinking will we be able to overcome suffering.

If only the whole world would come to this conclusion we would have a utopia here on earth. This is why we set our sites on the afterlife of our teachings in the promise of utopia. and this is not in reply of telcod.

Nobody setting very good examples (or principles) out there, I guess. More football, ipods, video games, politicians, real estate agents, stockbrokers, middle managers, board members, lawyers, and greed. Just what God had in mind. Nightmares.

This is fantastic news!
This gives me some hope for the future.

Atheist, Marxist, Hinduism, ect.... would not matter to me if you came and told me your 87yr. old crippled grandmothers house was falling in and could you help me, I would come running.

Good and evil, right and wrong are the basic teachings of religions, as long as we are on the good side and not do unto them before they do unto us it's all good.

and sanity delivers a devastating jab, how will god retaliate!?

While I find the article optimistic, I have to call BS on the premise that atheism is "on the rise".

I would suggest that there are plenty of people who have either an agnostic or atheistic understanding, but they still try to wrap themselves around a religious belief system, either out of formality, because they were indoctrinated to do so, or because they are afraid to be ostracized for expressing what they really think. They find it easier to live the lie and sustain it rather than take a risk and possibly losing friends or family members.

If it seems like atheism is "on the rise", then I would suggest that it is only because those people are starting to realize that they are not alone in their view.

There is a great quote from H.L, Mencken about religion... "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."

Oh, and for the record, I am a THEIST, not an atheist, even though I do work with atheists.

Everyone should have freedom of speech and people need to be more tolerant of eachother and their beliefs.

There have been some comments about atheists not believing in life after death.

Speaking as an atheist I think there could be some probability.

We've been learning in recent times that there could be an infinite number of parallel universes that exist within 11 dimensions. If given infinite time and universes could it not be probable that our conscious awareness could randomly reform every once in an extremely rare while?

Just a stretch of some scientific theory but it's worth pondering.

The majority of people that claim to be of the Christian faith, gives the religion a bad name.....They have no idea what it takes to be a true Christian...I can understand why any non believer wouldn't want to be a part of any organization that openly hate and judge thy neighbor. .....The word Christian means, to be Christ like, or a follower of Christ...............Jesus is the epitome of love..There is a higher power that is known by many names and does not discriminate against any of its creations.....Respect and tolerance of all mankind is the Christian philosophy.

We should turn a blind eye to what people believe and not associate religion to every thought before we can talk constructively and sensible about the problems of the world and it's peoples.

I think it's sad how people keep mentioning Atheism as the counterpart to Christianity. Atheism rejects ALL religions, not just the ones that have to do with Jesus.

My boyfriend is an Atheist and he is the most kind hearted person I know, so it always disgusts me to hear people talk about "Christian" behavior... as if goodness and kindness have anything to do with what religion you associate with.

funny how atheism has turned into a religion about hating those that believe in the lord. Do our mission trips and commandments seem that evil? Do we need to be stopped from singing and helping those in need? why do these posts keep popping up? Can we not just agree to disagree

yvesisaki; Thanks for that. I believe it's the church that distorts our faiths and drives us in that direction.

along the rise of atheism is the rise of poverty..crime..greed..narcassism..a faster rate of decline in our civilization..

our family is degenerating into a joke...our society is a collection of mindless hordes of people incapable to make a single coherent thought without crying for weed for relief..

we are becoming a society of whiners where we lost our cahones to fight for what is right and correct tyranny..

we are FUCKED!

I was just stating that it's not just religion driving killing and genocide across the world. I'm talking about the progressive thought running across our own country that is stomping out faith and under rhetoric separation of church and state. This is the verge religious persecutions, so belief should be first and foremost close at heart.

Religion is blind. Atheism is ignorant. And Magic Mushrooms were jussssst right.

The Marxism, Socialism and Fascism that killed millions did not have religion involved.

"Religion. The accepted insanity."

Well, I DO have a bumper sticker on my car that reads,

"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us in to buildings."

Believe me. I get harassed! Damn shame that we live in a theocracy.

das ist gut! ja!

"A group of people gather together, typically on a regular schedule, to dicuss their shared beliefs. Sounds like a religion to me."

So am I to believe book clubs are religions too? Or getting having movie nights with friends? Or political groups? Or...CURRENT.COM?

Haha..

I think this goes hand in hand with trust in our Government. " In God We Trust " does not stand for anything in our society anymore. How can we keep our patronage in God when the Government has undermined the whole belief in God and faith.

The definition of religion is: an institution to express belief in a higher power. A group of Atheist are not expressing belief in a higher power or deity.

LOL! Atheists are funny. A group of people gather together, typically on a regular schedule, to dicuss their shared beliefs. Sounds like a religion to me.
Lack of belief in a traditional "religion" is the same as a religion itself.
We all believe in something.

@rickm8

You hit on one of the reasons I actually prefer the term "atheism" when describing my view towards the supernatural.

I think atheism is "clouded with varying opinions" because it is not, in itself, a philosophy or belief system. If someone says they are an atheist the only thing I can safely assume is that they lack belief in god/gods/supernatural stuff. Any other ideologies an atheist might consider is up to them. Humanism seems a little more focused on specific issues like human rights, politics and social issues (which I like too, I just haven't really found any particular political label to be appropriate for me personally.)

atheism is too dark and clouded with varying opinions for me...

i prefer secular humanism...

I love it when people say that I'm atheist just to be "trendy" or "cool" since I'm a teenager. Bahaha. I don't have friends, and I'm not interested in being trendy or cool.

Bahaha.

Thanks for this excellent videos. I doubt it will change any minds but at least it expresses what many of us want to say.

It is an insult to atheists to say that they became atheist because of becoming disillusioned with religion. While this can be true many people have simply come to their conclusion after giving the matter a lot of thought.

I dont pretend to know the mysteries of the universe or understand the meaning of life. With that being said, i feel like a life rooted in logic and reasoning(a life without religion) has helped me to achieve much in my life. Now dont get me wrong i know a LOT of really smart and great christians and i know that things are never black and white. But i feel that there are sooo many fake christians in the US. The people that look down on others for not believing exactly the same as them. These judgmental christians also tend to be the most outspoken and honestly they make all christians look bad. Im talking about the people like Cindy Dupree and Debrinconcita who look at all non-christians as stupid heathens and devil worshipers. These same people dont even understand the basic principles of what makes them "Christian". By this i mean love thy neighbor, judge not lest ye be judged, turn the other cheek and so on. The real christians need to reign these people in and keep them from making all christians look like bible thumping crazies.

[Related] "Churches are becoming political organizations. It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this Government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave." - Robert Ingersoll 1879

The open availability to information has to be a contributing factor. When most homes had only the bible and maybe a few other books, now you have almost any source in seconds (almost a flooding of data). Critical thinking is still in short supply, most are still working on common sense.

One of my oldest childhood friends comes from a religious family, and he even had me accept Jesus at a young age. At the time, I really had no idea what I as agreeing to or what he was talking about. When I finally learned about what religion is all about, I dismissed it as silly fairy tales. My friend seemed genuinely upset when I told him I didn't believe, but it's not like we're going to stop being friends because of it.

I don't talk about my beliefs openly, my mother snapped at me and told me I didn't have a right to not believe in god. I was even asked recently "Do you believe in god?" and I replied "...not really", and my relationship with this person wasn't affected at all.

I think we shouldn't feel we have the power dictate what people decide to belief in, and we should just accept each other and leave it at that. Religion may have assisted humanity at one point, but now it's just a trivial debate and a concept that has been taken way too seriously.

I hope atheists overrun the country... so all these morons who take their mythology so seriously will get castigated, shunned, and humiliated for their voluntary ignorance... it should be an embarrasing thing to admit faith. and we should be praised when we admit we don't know something and may have learned something new... instead our new discoveries are put through their sieve of morality and ethics to be polluted with mythology and bigotry... damn I hate how science has been held back in the name of morality. all the more reason to castigate the faithful!