Post by j***@gmail.comI saw this ad from the TV program that featuring change of western
culture. The ad came to me with shock. Is it really that serious in
western countries?
There's some debate on this subject. Rodney Stark recently wrote a
book that looks at statistics in the US over time, and doesn't think
there's much decline. But his view is unusual. Here's a review that
will give you at least some of the data. It's from a "secular
humanist" group, but it will give you pointers to many of the data
sources: http://secularhumanism.org/greg-paul-baylor.pdf
My personal feeling is that belief is going down. Not so much the
number of people who will tell you that in some sense they believe in
God, but the number of people who belief in standard Christian
beliefs, and are actually involved in the practice of Christianity. As
far as I can tell, there's not much difference in actual belief and
practice between conservatives and liberals now, except that
conservatives reject homosexuality. Given their other beliefs, I have
to wonder whether the rejection of homosexuality is actually based on
the Bible. (Note: I'm not talking about conservative participants
here, who I believe are actual practicing conservative Christians. I'm
talking about the general mass of members of supposedly conservative
churches.)
The Barna Group has data that may be more reliable that Stark's.
Unfortunately much of it isn't online. They want you to buy their
books. Barna is particularly concerned that even people who are
nominally Christian increasingly aren't by their definition very
faithful Christians.
They are also concerned that youth aren't coming back to the churches
after college. There is some controversy about that data. There's a
pattern of kids not going to church until they are married and have
children. Stark claims this is still true, and thus that Barna's data
isn't that serious. Again, he's almost the only one who believes that.
As you may know, for the last 50 years or so, the traditional
"mainline" denominations have been declining, but conservative groups
have been growing. There's some concern that the conservative groups
are starting to decline as well. The Southern Baptists are particulary
worried about this. See
http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/04/the_end_of_the_beginning_1.html
Stark says this isn't true, but he's nearly the only one. What's not
so clear is whether the Southern Baptists are declining because the
Pentecostals are now taking over.
I think there's little question that there has been a much faster
decline in Europe.
Here are some summaries of US data:
Gallup summary of changes:G
http://www.gallup.com/poll/103459/Questions-Answers-About-Americans-Religion.aspx
Other survey data:
http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm