Only One Out of Three People Trust Organized Religion

Organized religion, the institution we usually call the church, was among the most trusted institution into the 1980's. Now only about one third of the public considers it a trustworthy outfit.

The level of trust is still many times higher than trust in atheists. But, atheism and "no religion" are rising in popularity while religion is dropping. This is a lesson in how the public judges truthfulness.

We would all agree the publicity about sexual charges against clergy have contributed to this decline in trust. But it was happening before all this publicity. Surely the claims made by preachers about sin, life after death and invisible gods are at odds with the increased access to science based information on the internet. And then there is the prejudice against homosexual people which is at odds with the majority of the public. All this, to me anyway, puts organized religion headed for a cliff of increasing levels of distrust while competing views on the ascendancy. (I must note here I have been wrong predicting the future before.)

The goal of Christianity is to paint followers into a corner and block all the escape routes. If it can persuade its targets they are sinners they are half way home. The escape route of death is blocked by eternity in a fiery hell.  After closing the sale on sin it tells people there is only way to escape, by becoming or remaining a believer.

There are two ways this plot can go wrong. One is the mark realizes sin is something manufactured by the religion and not some standard everyone agrees on. The other is if the sales people are no longer seen as honest brokers.

We now know that both of things are working against the faith. To regain the trust of the public the faith needs stop making outlandish claims about it moral superiority.