Current Event: Religious Disaffiliation

Topic: Why more and more people are becoming disaffiliated with religion

1. Why I Chose This Topic

I chose this topic because:
a. I think any sociologist would love to study this and find reasons why more and more people are choosing to not be affiliated with any religion.
b. It's interesting and relevant to me since I, personally, used to be religious but am getting away from that the older I get. I would also like to know what reasons are pushing people away from religion since I know many people who have been also.

2. Link to a Scholarly Journal

http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/73/2/200.short
I chose this article because it is from the Sociology of Religion in the Oxford Journals so I thought it was a very credible source. There are many statistics and relevant info to my post as well. For example, this article states that between 15 and 18 percent of Americans are now religiously unaffiliated, up 7 percent from 1991.

3. Visual Illustration



(Source: My America)
I chose this chart just to show the comparison of religions in the US. It's interesting that the Unaffiliated portion is almost as large as the Mainland Protestants portion.


4. Video Clip

http://youtu.be/YS38PaO-cHw
This video tells many statistics of religious disaffiliation between now and the past and why people have been becoming disaffiliated with religion. I like the fact that she mentioned serious issues being a reason that makes people become disaffiliated, such as gay marriage. I also enjoy at the end how she mentioned that there is a link to different religious facts in case a person watching is confused on what they believe  The girl hosting is fun and upbeat and puts things in a way that's easy to understand. I really enjoyed this clip and thought it was extremely relevant to this post.

5. Links to Scholarly Websites

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/disbelief/
This article I chose because it was very long and has a lot of statistics and reliable information on this topic. For example, the article states that in the last five years alone, those who claim they are unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all US adults. More than 13 million claim to be atheists and agnostics, which is nearly 6% of the US public, and 33 million say they have no particular religious affiliation, which is 14% of the US public. It is crazy how drastically these numbers are rising, especially recently. It makes me wonder how many people will be religious in another five, ten, or 15 years from now. This article also has many charts and graphs that show the statistics really easily.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-07-19/no-religion-affiliation/56344976/1
This is the article I fount that inspired me to do this entry on this topic. It is from USA Today so I knew it was credible information and a recent topic that has been discussed and studied. The article states that 19% of Americans, nearly 1 in 5, have no religious affiliation. This includes atheists, agnostics, and people who state they believe in "nothing in particular." Barry Kosmin states that he believes this is because young people are resistant to the authority of institutional religion and older people are turned off by the politicization of religion and people are simply less into theology than ever before. I think Barry's reason's are accurate, but I'm sure there is a lot more to it that sociologists would love to study. The article also says that 99% of Americans used to believe in God and now only about 90% do.

6. Quote

"Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief, or ignorance." -W. Clement Stone

I chose this quote because people will still believe what they want to believe is the truth and what anyone else believes shouldn't affect their choices, whether they are religious or not.




References:
Grossman, Cathy Lynn. (20 July 2012) Survey Finds 19% Without Religious Affiliation. Retrieved on April 24, 2013 from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-07-19/no-religion-affiliation/56344976/1.

"None's" on the Rise. (October 9, 2012) Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx.

Religious Affiliation in the United States. [figure] Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.1website.be/myamerica/php/americain.php?aID=21.

Stone, Clement W. [quotation] Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/disbelief/.

U.S. Religion Statistics: We Of Little Faith. [Video] Retrieved April 28 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS38PaO-cHw.
Vargas, Nicholas. Retrospective Accounts of Religious Disaffiliation in the United States: Stressors, Skepticism, and Political Factors. Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/73/2/200.short.