Easter isn’t a holiday I celebrate much anymore. Not being devout, I don’t participate in lent, go to mass, or celebrate in a religious way. I do however, find the time to bite the ears off some dark chocolate bunnies and eat a hefty brunch of eggs and bloody mary’s.
It seems the trend in America is similar to my own experience. Gallup just released this poll data going back to 1948 showing an inexorable decline in the number of Americans who practice Christianity.
The percentage of Americans who identify with some form of a Christian religion has been dropping in recent decades, and now stands at 77%, according to an aggregate of Gallup Polls conducted in 2008. In 1948, when Gallup began tracking religious identification, the percentage who were Christian was 91%.
This poll shows a long and steady slide toward atheism, agnosticism, and general secularism; so does this mean that the religious right is correct in shouting “Christianity is under attack!” in this country, or does it show my and Gallup’s hypothesis, the further diversification of religion in this country is a result of other groups by definition have expanded (which coincidentally also contradicts the “We are a Christian Nation!” stance).
The Gallup poll shows the heaviest increase in no religious affiliation for the pollsters:
“Other” has been the lump group of all other religions including Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or other non-Christian religions. This group has grown from close to 0% since inception of this poll, to 7% today.
What this data shows is two things, there’s a growing of the base population in Americas that are of non-christian religious which most notably would be from immigration and reproduction of immigrants holding to these “Other” religions. I don’t believe there is significant conversion but, that theory really can’t be explored with the data presented.
The 2nd interpretation is there is a growing sector of non-religious practicing Americans, and this increase seems to be directly effecting the Christian population in this country, either through loss of believers or over time, families are dissolving their participation in religious practice.
Two social scientists at the National Opinion Research Corporation, Tom W. Smith and Seokho Kim, contemplating similar data from the General Social Survey in 2004, concluded: “In sum, an array of social forces from cohort turnover, to immigration, to reduced retention rates, indicate that the Protestant share of the population will continue to shrink and they will soon lose their majority position in American society.”
More details of how the survey was conducted and concerns in conclusions from the data are available on the link above.
For me, I don’t completely reject organized theism per say but I’m not practicing of any religion. I don’t go to church, mass, participate in lent or confession. Holidays such as Christmas, New Years and Easter are openly celebrated with family and friends more for the opportunity of communal gathering with said people than for their religious implications.
It’s widely known that the origins of Easter are deeply rooted in pagan customs. It was Emperor Constantine that made Easter the “official” holiday, replacing Passover. This Christian Biblical Church of God site has a full break down of the origins of Easter with sources, if interested.
Maybe more people are getting more educated on religion and making their own decisions about their faith and how much they are dedicated to one theology. I don’t need a religion to tell me how to live a good, positive and full life as I live by the golden rule and just try to do the right thing. Enjoy the time with your family and friends, and as long as you still have that solid base, you’ll be alright. Bring on the chocolate!
