There's Something Religion Cannot Tolerate

[Will Campbell]

..........It's education:

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/09/survey-one-in-five-americans-is-religiously-unaffiliated/

By Dan Merica

Washington – The fastest growing "religious" group in America is made up of people with no religion at all, according to a Pew survey showing that one in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion.

The number of these Americans has grown by 25% just in the past five years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The survey found that the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing even faster among younger Americans.

Thirty-three million Americans now have no religious affiliation, with 13 million in that group identifying as either atheist or agnostic, according to the new survey.

Pew found that those who are religiously unaffiliated are strikingly less religious than the public at large. They attend church infrequently, if at all, are largely not seeking out religion and say that the lack of it in their lives is of little importance.

 

[Altfish]

Good news, but old news!

 

[jimniki]

Thank god for that!

 

[LuisDantas]

It is a shame, actually.

Not so much in itself, but for what it says about how the major religions have adapted (or failed to) to the current levels of education, questioning and knowledge.

Hopefully the current Pope and other people of good will and wisdom will manage to turn the tide at least a bit.

 

[Revoltingest]

Pew found that those who are religiously unaffiliated
are strikingly less religious than the public at large.

What a brilliant & unexpected discovery!

 

[Planets and the Sun]

Pew found that those who are religiously unaffiliated are strikingly less religious than the public at large.

I could have found this and I don't need a study, just common sense. If someone is not affiliated with a religion, they are probably less religious.

I don't know what this has anything to do with "religion not standing education". Maybe your education was what didn't stand religion, because if you learn about more religions than the very specific one(s) I suspect you're hinting at here, you'll see that many of them are neutral on or even encourage the pursuit of knowledge and education, instead of "not standing it".

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Pew found that those who are religiously unaffiliated are strikingly less religious than the public at large.

What a brilliant & unexpected discovery!

Who would have thunk?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I fail to see what this has to do with education. Some of the best schools are Catholic schools, for example.

 

[Revoltingest]

I fail to see what this has to do with education. Some of the best schools are Catholic schools, for example.

When I worked in Baltimore, an atheist friend sent his kids
to a Catholic school because of the state of public schools.

 

[Quintessence]

Old data, but I'd keep in mind that it's somewhat misleading to say the unaffiliated have no religion. PEW does great work, but the trouble with traditional surveys on religion in the West is that they're done with a strong bias towards Western forms of religion. Specifically, they tend to constrain defining religion to organized religion so they are poor at capturing other modalities of religiosity. Fortunately, PEW makes up for this somewhat by asking additional questions, and even the CNN summary wisely highlights that.

What we can say is going on here is that traditional models of Western religion - the organized stuff - are loosing power. Many of the people leaving that are going on to other modes of religiosity. Often they won't call it a religion for one reason or another; a large part of it is cultural bias in how we look at religion in the West, but there's also an emotional need to disassociate for some folks.

Also, your source says nothing about education, Will Campbell, so I'm not sure where in the blazes you're pulling this from. Frankly, I don't know of any religion that doesn't tolerate education, so I don't know what you're going on about here.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

When I worked in Baltimore, an atheist friend sent his kids
to a Catholic school because of the state of public schools.

Good. If I have the money when I have kids, I'm sending them to a Catholic school, too. Public schools are a wreck.

 

[Revoltingest]

Good. If I have the money when I have kids, I'm sending them to a Catholic school, too. Public schools are a wreck.

I even considered sending my son to a Muslim school. He was having trouble in the public schools (what a mess they are), & we had friends who set up a charter school. Ultimately, he decided to put up with public school.

 

[Triumphant_Loser]

I fail to see what this has to do with education. Some of the best schools are Catholic schools, for example.

I can agree with you on that one buddy... but then there's places like Bob Jones University. *shivers* :areyoucra

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I can agree with you on that one buddy... but then there's Bob Jones University. *shivers* :areyoucra

They're not Catholic. Lol.

 

[Thief]

Went to catholic schools.
Almost became a priest because of it.

oh well.

But I'm pleased to see stats in growing numbers!
As a rogue theologian.....maybe I won't be so lonely in heaven!!!!!!

 

[Quintessence]

Good. If I have the money when I have kids, I'm sending them to a Catholic school, too. Public schools are a wreck.

I'd be careful about generalizing. Because of the decentralized nature of this country's public education system the quality of public schools depend entirely on what district you are talking about. Where I grew up as a kid, the public school system was top notch. Granted, with all the changes recently, this may no longer be the case. T_T

 

[LuisDantas]

Frankly, I don't know of any religion that doesn't tolerate education, so I don't know what you're going on about here.

That is an exageration. There are those who claim religious reasons for discouraging people from learning. If I am not mistaken, some Muslims at least use that as a justification for keeping women away from schools.

 

[Quintessence]

That is an exageration. There are those who claim religious reasons for discouraging people from learning. If I am not mistaken, some Muslims at least use that as a justification for keeping women away from schools.

Sure, there are people who claim religious reasons for discouraging people (sometimes specific groups of people) from learning specific things or subject areas, but the OP wasn't specific, he just said "education." Education and learning in of itself is not anathema to religion in the least, especially considering that to have a religion involves, well, learning it? XD

I honestly know of no religion or society that discourages any and all education or learning. Any given society or culture will encourage education and learning in the things it values or considers norms and it will discourage the things that it doesn't. This happens regardless of whether or not the reasons go under the header of "religious" or not. Hence... I really don't quite get what the OP is going on about or what the supposed problem is. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Vinayaka]

Good. If I have the money when I have kids, I'm sending them to a Catholic school, too. Public schools are a wreck.

Here in Canada we have the myth of the Catholic schools being better. It's an overgeneralization, and most likely downright incorrect, as up to one third of our schools are Catholic, and there really is no significant difference. I knew substitute teachers who refused to teach in some because of the kid's behaviour. So I think it really varies form school to school, perhaps more importantly from teacher to teacher.

In the city I live in, for example, sometimes parents with unruly kids will get 'recommended' to a public school. That skews the stats. The school I taught in has 3 district programs for Special Needs. Of course we did worse for awhile on the achievement tests. Fortunately the government (in their infinite wisdom) eventually allowed exemptions. When you eliminate all the zeros the average tends top go up.

 

[Will Campbell]

Sure, there are people who claim religious reasons for discouraging people (sometimes specific groups of people) from learning specific things or subject areas, but the OP wasn't specific, he just said "education." Education and learning in of itself is not anathema to religion in the least, especially considering that to have a religion involves, well, learning it? XD

I honestly know of no religion or society that discourages any and all education or learning. Any given society or culture will encourage education and learning in the things it values or considers norms and it will discourage the things that it doesn't. This happens regardless of whether or not the reasons go under the header of "religious" or not. Hence... I really don't quite get what the OP is going on about or what the supposed problem is. Doesn't make sense to me.

Try Liberty Baptist which was initiated by Jerry Falwell or for that matter try any of them which talk about evolution being a "theory." Evolution happened and smart people know that it happened. After they dug up the 500th dinosaur skelton it became pretty obvious. Then after they found an early woman's remains in N. Africa which dated back a million years it kinda removed all doubt.