The ‘New Atheism’ revolution myth
November 7, 2008
Paul Copan discusses it at Parchment and Pen:
“The percentage of atheists in America revealed by, say, Gallup polls and the Baylor Survey, shows a tenacious consistency over the years: 1944: 4%; 1947: 6%; 1964: 3%; 1994: 3%; 2005: 4%; 2007: 4%. … Why all the hype about a surge of atheism? Well, what appears to be a rising tide of atheism in America is simply the result of an overrepresentation of New Atheism by the media.”
tags: atheism/agnosticism, trends
What has changed is the number of theists who take religious seriously.
hmmm …
Seriously. We had the Great Awakening in 1730s and 1830s and the arise of Fundamentalism in the 1920s. What was the religious boom in our age? The “New Age Era”, where they tried to make religion more “me” orientated.
Which, although makes me happy to show that naracists don’t turn to atheism, spawned the largest amount of pseudo-scientific garbage of modern times.
So in the US, alot of people treat religion as a choice, like your favorite color.
It is the one thing fundamentalists and atheists tend to agree upon- your decision about the nature of reality should not be based on what feels good, but on reality.