PZ Myers, who for the record I do think has a profound sense of humility and care for this planet and human welfare, once again acts not like a very good scientist with respect to what data regarding religion actually says. His quote from an article is titled with "Happy News!" I think for him this is another dose of wishful thinking on the overall effect of atheism on American religiosity.
New research shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church — or to participate in any form of organized religion — than their parents and grandparents.
"It's a huge change," says Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, who conducted the research.
Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small — hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans.
This does not show that "they are leaving the whole rotten shebang altogether."You need to compare these data with other indices such as belief in God, prayer practices, etc. That gap is more closely related to what Grace Davie argued is the case in Europe, namely, that generations following the post war generations are less inclined to associated with a "traditional" religious institution, but are not becoming less religious. Her term is "believing without belonging" and it is a trend also observed by Wade Clark Roof in his examination of post World War II "seeker" behavior among the religious. Triangulating this against GSS data among other indices shows this correlation and scholars like Wuthnow, Norris & Inglehart, Greeley & Hout among others generally agree with this.
This would all but eliminate the hypothesis that secularist activism is having the desired effect that Myers quite ignorantly speculates. Rather, this more or less supports Putnam's theory of a declining social capital which is why he might be so apparently gleeful at the report. And yes, it does make a nice advertisement for Putnam's new book. This is not to discourage Putnam, but to beg that if an atheist is going to be such a good little skeptic, that he would do well to be that way consistently.
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