Many years ago, I gave up religion for lent and never looked back. I realized I was really not being honest with myself because I really didn't believe in a god, a Jesus or a devil so going to church was nothing less than hypocritical. It took me awhile to completely deconvert because that shit was ingrained in me since childhood (Catholic).
Fast-forward to the early 2000's - my 12 year-old stepson asked why we didn't go to church on Sundays like every other family. I told him we are non-believers and I had no interest in supporting any church or religion but if wanted to explore religious beliefs than by all means go right ahead and it was up to him not me or his mother to decide for him. He started to go to church with one of his friends and was pretty regular - until he graduated high school. The two went to different colleges and he stopped going and when I asked why, he said he never really believed, he was just going for the friendship. Just as I expected...
The trend for religiosity is trending downward in this country and it can't trend down fast enough for me.
Gary touched on this, but I made very clear to my daughter and step son (the other two stepkids are old enough to figure this out on their own) that there is a DISTINCT difference between "religion" and "god/spirituality". Throwing out the concept of "god" because of one church that happens to worship him/her is illogical. Hitchens repeatedly blurred these lines in his critiques; there are many examples of him refuting the presence of God because a man (as in human, as in prone to mistake and error) acted in some form or fashion. I know for me, I haven't attended an organized worship in a church in decades but I do believe in (a) god, and have gone to a church on off hours as a place of sanctuary (in other words, I'd be left alone to my voices, in a peaceful and relaxing setting).
I tend to think the trend is a misleading one, meaning, we're capturing the people like you that kind of were already there, but dragged feet on giving up the ghost, no pun intended, or were otherwise reluctant to identify as an atheist. We're still BY FAR a nation that believes in a god, even if there isn't a corresponding religious worship.
Giving up the ghost....I like that!
While I agree that there is a difference between religion and the concept god/spirituality, we can prove religion but we cannot prove a god or a spirit exists at all so I see no reason to believe. And as far as the trend being misleading, there is hard data out there supporting that trend. There are also non-believers that claim to be religious but in reality, don't really believe.
BTW - I loved me some Hitch!
Hitchens is entertaining, but I find his logic to be the intellectual equivalent to swiss cheese. I do love watching his debates.
As for the trend, we need to be more clear and more specific. The numbers regarding RELIGION show a significant drop, but the number of people that - generally and independent of any specific religion - "believe in God" is not changing at the same rate. As I said, the "trend", as evidenced by the
hard data, is misleading. I think it shows TWO SPECIFIC THINGS: the hard data shows the number of people interested in ORGANIZED RELIGION is dropping precipitously, and I think it's showing that we as a society are more comfortable in expressing our doubts about god. Perhaps in 20, 30 years that "doubt" will translate into outright denial, but right now, the hard data doesn't support that. In the past 15 years, the number of people CONVINCED there is a god has dropped about 15%. In the past 10 years the number of people that - yes or no - "believe in god" has only dropped about a third of that.
In the same time period, more or less,
church membership has dropped from over 70% to barely 50%, and those that have stated "no association" with any particular religion has increased over 100% (from about 10% of respondents to almost 25% of respondents. RELIGION, not GOD.