A new study finds that many young Americans are walking away from organized religion—not because they’ve lost belief, but because their values around authenticity, justice, and individual autonomy conflict with the teachings and politics of religious institutions.

Over the past few decades, the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated—often referred to as “nones”—has grown rapidly. In the 1970s, only about 5% of Americans fell into this category. Today, that number exceeds 25%. Scholars have debated whether this change simply reflects a general decline in belief, or whether it signals something more complex. The research team wanted to explore the deeper forces at play: Why are people leaving institutional religion? What are they replacing it with? And how are their personal values shaping that process?

  • bpalmerau@aussie.zoneEnglish
    1·
    9 hours ago

    Religious people seem to think so. But we can restate again: If your religion leads you to hate, your religion may cause you to act unethically.

    • MouldyCat@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      I was trying to make the point that there is no Good and Bad baked into the universe. There is no meaning to those words inherent to the universe - they are not like positive charge and negative charge.

      IMO what people generally mean when they say a person is “good” is the person makes decisions based on what is beneficial to society at large, while a “bad” person makes decisions based solely on what benefits them. The idea of Good and Bad, the idea you can judge someone as either Good or Bad, these are ideas which have arisen under evolutionary pressure, it’s a mechanism whereby you can enforce a particular behaviour across a community.

      There’s nothing magic about it. If a person is good, they help make their community stronger: if they are bad, they weaken it. People raised in a traditional religious household seem to cling on to the misplaced idea that there is an absolute Good and an absolute Bad sewn into the fabric of the universe.

      However, there is a way to determine more rigourously what actions are good and what are bad. It requires clear thinking, objective appraisal of the situation, and an unbiased enumeration of the choices available. Then you can hope to come to a realistic assessment of each choice, and finally make your decision.

      You won’t be certain, you shouldn’t be certain. You should be aware of the limitations of your understanding, and always ready to adapt to new information. And you certainly will not be influenced by what you might imagine the Devil would make of it all.