The Most “Post-Christian” Cities in America

[SkepticThinker]

Excellent point. Also include, much to the consternation of atheists, the fact their beliefs are as much a religion as anything else.

What beliefs?

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Excellent point. Also include, much to the consternation of atheists, the fact their beliefs are as much a religion as anything else.

Religious believers will keep saying that, even thought it is patently false. Also, the fact that I do NOT collect stamps is NOT a hobby.

 

[Road Warrior]

I'm going to hypothesize the climate is a major factor as to why the Bible Belt is more prone to violence than other regions. Many of the Bible Belt cities are in the south where the heat there makes people loose their cool or more criminally active there than how they would act in a more mild climate.

Would that also explain the higher rates of violence, including domestic violence, among Latino cultures?

 

[Road Warrior]

What beliefs?

Their belief there is nothing beyond the physical. That we're all ambulatory meat computers simply responding to biochemical programming and of no more value than the current market rate of our basic components.

 

[Road Warrior]

Religious believers will keep saying that, even thought it is patently false. Also, the fact that I do NOT collect stamps is NOT a hobby.

First, I'm not a "religious believer". Second, what is patently false?

 

[Valjean]

Their belief there is nothing beyond the physical. That we're all ambulatory meat computers simply responding to biochemical programming and of no more value than the current market rate of our basic components.

Is this really what we all believe?
You believe in God because you believe atheists hold uncomfortable beliefs impugning your cosmic significance?

 

[Road Warrior]

Hence the higher rates of atheism among the educated classes?
True. Atheists believe in relativity, the inverse square law, natural selection and the coming sunrise tomorrow morning -- because they have strong evidence supporting these beliefs/expectations, but unevidenced, unsupported beliefs -- not so much. These are the domain of the faithful.

What evidence do atheists have for their beliefs/expectations? An absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

The most logical position is that of Agnostic: the "I don't know" position. Positing there is or isn't a god(s), afterlife or anything else beyond the physical universe is a matter of opinion, of faith, not fact.

 

[Road Warrior]

Is this really what we all believe?
You believe in God because you believe atheists hold uncomfortable beliefs impugning your cosmic significance?

Did you miss this post?:

.... Atheists, like Theists, vary in their beliefs but in general they strongly believe their beliefs.

Since you'd previously quoted it, I think you did not.

Interesting that you assume the position of speaker for all atheists....or was posting "we all believe" a mistake on your part?

 

[Road Warrior]

Wow. Way to undermine your own claims.

What claims are you assuming I'm making?

 

[Road Warrior]

I for one do not see any irony, nor the existence of justification that you seem to be claiming to exist.

But I do acknowledge that there may be a weird feeling on seeing certain words and attitudes turned on their heads.

I never expected you would.

 

[Valjean]

What evidence do atheists have for their beliefs/expectations? An absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

The most logical position is that of Agnostic: the "I don't know" position. Positing there is or isn't a god(s), afterlife or anything else beyond the physical universe is a matter of opinion, of faith, not fact.

Evidence varies with specific beliefs and, confronted with no evidence, the reasonable position would be to defer belief till more evidence manifests.

Atheists are agnostics, and withholding belief in God, or unicorns, or faeries, or Thor, till credible evidence is produced, is not a "belief."

 

[Valjean]

Did you miss this post?:
Since you'd previously quoted it, I think you did not.

Interesting that you assume the position of speaker for all atheists....or was posting "we all believe" a mistake on your part?

But our "beliefs" have nothing to do with theology. I believe zebras are mammals, I believe the climate is changing, I believe germs cause disease and that Earth is not the center of the universe. I can cite evidence for these beliefs.

True, there are many flavors of "atheist," but the one common connection is lack of belief in God, not belief that there is no God or that people are insignificant lumps of meat.

 

[LuisDantas]

What claims are you assuming I'm making?

Those of your previous posts in this thread.

 

[LuisDantas]

I never expected you would.

Indeed, you should not. I have a hard time imagining unwarranted, unsupported irony.

 

[metis]

California now has the world's sixth largest economy but it's supposedly "dying"? Please send some of that type of "dying" here to Detroit, eh!

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

According to the American Bible Society, the 20 most Bible-minded cities are : 1 Chattanooga, TN 52% 2 Birmingham / Anniston / Tuscaloosa, AL 51% 3 Roanoke / Lynchburg, VA 48% 4 Shreveport, LA 47% 5 Tri-Cities, TN 47% 6 Charlotte, NC 46% 7 Little Rock / Pine Bluff, AR 45% 8 Knoxville, TN 45% 9 Greenville / Spartanburg 44% Anderson, SC / Ashville, NC 10 Lexington, KY 44% 11 Springfield, MO 44% 12 Huntsville-Decatur-Florence, AL 42% 13 Savannah, GA 42% 14 Oklahoma City, OK 41% 15 Jackson, MS 41% 16 Nashville, TN 39% 17 Louisville, KY 39% 18 Wichita / Hutchinson, KS 39% 19 Baton Rouge, LA 38% 20 Grand Rapids / Kalamazoo / Battle Creek, MI

Reference: The Most Bible-Minded Cities in America | American Bible Society

In 2015, there were 775 homicides in the top 20 most Bible-minded cities. http://www.city-data.com/crime/

According to the 2010 Census count, these top 20 most Bible-minded cities as a group have a total combined population of ca. 6.347 million.

775 homicides out of 6.347 million inhabitants equals a homicide rate of ca. 12.2 homicides per 100,000 persons, the homicide rate of the top 20 most highly Bible-minded cities' population as a group is nearly twice that of the overall 2015 national homicide rate.

The top 20 most Bible-minded cities as a population group have nearly an 88 percent greater homicide rate than that of those top 20 most highly post Christian cities' population group.

I must do further research, because I just can't believe highly Bible-minded people as a group would be twice as homicidal as the overall general population.

Just shot yourself in the foot trying to make the "godless heathens" look bad, eh?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I suppose cultural differences, i.e. - American Mexican Hispanic culture, could partly explain why the southern states have higher violent crime rates than the northern states,

What the hell do Mexicans have to do with the Southeast??? They mostly live in the Southwest. The reason why the South has such a high crime rate is due to poverty and lack of welfare resources. The UN did a study and found that Alabama has poverty on the level of the third world in some places. California has a lot of poverty but they also have a lot of social programs trying to help people.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Their belief there is nothing beyond the physical. That we're all ambulatory meat computers simply responding to biochemical programming and of no more value than the current market rate of our basic components.

Those aren't the beliefs of atheists.

Atheism is simply a lack of belief about whether god(s) exist. That's it.
Other than that, atheists can believe just about anything. Some atheists believe in ghosts, some believe in nihilism, some believe in conservatism, etc., etc., etc. The one and only thing that binds atheists to each other is their lack of belief in god(s). But that's it.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

.

The Barna group, a Christian polling firm, has released its latest list of the most “post-Christian” cities in the country. It’s meant to serve as a warning, but it nicely doubles as a map of places you wouldn’t mind moving to one day. (Notice the lack of cities in the Deep South.)

To qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals must meet nine or more of our 16 criteria (listed below), which identify a lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. These factors include whether individuals identify as atheist, have never made a commitment to Jesus, have not attended church in the last year or have not read the Bible in the last week. These kinds of questions — compared to ticking the “Christian” box in a census — get beyond how people loosely identify themselves (affiliation) and to the core of what people actually believe and how they behave as a result of their belief (practice). These indicators give a much more accurate picture of belief and unbelief in America.​

In other words, these are the cities where religion is most likely to be considered an afterthought. 20 of them have a post-Christian “score” of 50% or greater — only 10 cities fit that description two years ago — and many are found in the Northeast and West Coast.

That list of criteria makes for a nice checklist, too. What’s your score?!

Do not believe in God
Disagree that faith is important in their lives
Have not prayed to God (in the last week)
Have never made a commitment to Jesus
Disagree the Bible is accurate
Have not donated money to a church (in the last year)
Have not attended a Christian church (in the last 6 months)
Agree that Jesus committed sins
Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith”
Have not read the Bible (in the last week)
Have not volunteered at church (in the last week)
Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week)
Have not attended religious small group (in the last week)
Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week and disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate)
Not Born Again

But at least it gives Godless Americans a goal. The highest market on the list, Springfield-Holyoke, Massachusetts, only has a score of 66%. That includes 87% of people who haven’t read the Bible in the past week, 65% who haven’t attended a Christian church in the past six months, and 47% who haven’t prayed to God in the past week.
source​

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The Pacific Northwest and New England are such beautiful places to live.

 

[SkepticThinker]

What evidence do atheists have for their beliefs/expectations? An absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

What would atheists need to give evidence for? We're not the ones making a claim.

The most logical position is that of Agnostic: the "I don't know" position. Positing there is or isn't a god(s), afterlife or anything else beyond the physical universe is a matter of opinion, of faith, not fact.

I'm an agnostic atheist.

Only hard atheists claim that "there are no god(s)." I agree that they would have to provide evidence for that claim. Most atheists don't say that though.