U. S. is Playing Catch Up to the Western World in Religion Decline

Polling organizations seem to like, or make money, polling about religion. The results keep telling the same story, religion is declining in the U.S. But new aspects of the decline continue to show up. The dean companies for polling, Gallop, says the U.S. drop in the importance of religion is among the most dramatic in the world. While Europe is more secular than the U.S. the U.S. is chasing and gaining. 

The Gallop article is not about the secularization but about the spike in the decline of Christianity. The link also discusses the growing variety of religion in the U.S. and the growing ethnic diversity of Christianity. I think it's safe to say that when new groups move into Christianity, or any other faith, the focus and direction change. The many Muslims I know in the U.S. say they have little to nothing in common with the violent factions in the Middle East.

An increase in the rate of leaving Christianity has been predicted by secular observers for quite a while. As younger generations who by majority say they do not believe more into adulthood the acceleration is inevitable. That is, unless there is some reversal which has not happened and there is no evidence it will.

It's quite silly to argue, as some do, that the U.S. is "a Christian nation." The founders went out of their way to make certain no religion was to be named as the National Religion. Perhaps most European countries, which were dominate Catholic a few decades ago, might claim they too were founded to be Christian. Today, the majority is not. It's of no importance whether the earliest people intended them to be Christian or not. Today they are not. The U.S. in polling close to majority not Christian.

Watching the decline in Christianity is a form of entertainment. All the sermons I have endured and scorn heaped on those of us who do not believe are simply amusing recollections.