Survey sees a drift away from religion in America

Survey sees a drift away from religion in America
The percentage of Christians in the US declined, while that of people with 'no religion' almost doubled.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the March 10, 2009 edition

Christianity's hold on many Americans is slipping, losing out not to other faiths but to "no faith."

Today, 76 percent of the US population call themselves Christians, compared with 86 percent in 1990, according to the third American Religious Self-Identification Survey (ARIS), released Monday by Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Among Christians, the survey confirms that many are shedding denominational loyalties for a more generic Christian allegiance.

One in every 5 US adults chose not to identify a religious identity: 15 percent chose "no religion" and the other 5 percent declined to name one.

In the traditional Roman Catholic stronghold of New England, for instance, the number of Catholic adherents fell by 1 million between 1990 and 2008, with most of those moving to "no religion." Catholics dropped from 50 percent to 36 percent of the region's population. New York state lost 800,000 Catholics.

"The decline of Catholicism in the Northeast is nothing short of stunning," says Barry Kosmin, a principal investigator for the ARIS surveys of 1990, 2001, and 2008. "There is a correlation between the decline of Catholic identity and the rise of 'the nones,' " as the survey dubs the "no religion" group.

In a major surprise, the Northeast now surpasses the Pacific Northwest as the least religious part of the country. The "nones" represent 34 percent of the population of Vermont, 29 percent in New Hampshire, and 22 percent in Maine and Massachusetts.

Nevertheless, Catholics maintained their one-quarter share of the population, thanks mostly to immigration in the South and West, particularly in California and Texas.

The "no religion" group has gained 20 million adults since 1990 and is the only group to have grown in every state, though at a much slower pace in recent years than in the 1990s. Only 10 percent of that group explicitly identifies as atheist or agnostic.

Denominational drop

During this same 18-year period, the number of Christians rose by 22 million, but their proportion declined. The survey found that most of that growth occurred among those who call themselves either nondenominational Christian, born again or evangelical Christian, or simply "Christian," declining to add a more specific affiliation.

Nondenominational Christians, generally associated with the rise of megachurches, increased from less than 200,000 in 1990 to more than 8 million today. Those opting for generic "Christian" account for 14 percent of the population. "Denominationalism, or Christian brands, have eroded since 1990 – even Protestant doesn't mean anything anymore," says Dr. Kosmin.

The evangelical or born-again label has spread to some Catholics and mainline Christians. "There's a kind of fashion for the term," Kosmin says. No definition was given for the label, but 34 percent of people identify as born again.

Mainline denominations (i.e., Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal) showed the greatest losses, declining sharply in numbers and dropping from 18.7 percent of the 1990 population to 12.9 percent today.

"It looks like the two-party system of American Protestantism – mainline versus evangelical – is collapsing," says Mark Silk, director of Trinity's Public Values Program.

As the US population rose by 30 percent between 1990 and 2008, Pentecostals (3.5 percent) and Mormons (1.4 percent) held on to their shares, while some smaller Protestant denominations grew slightly.

Non-Christian faiths recorded the fastest overall rate of growth (50 percent) after the "nones," but represent only 4 percent of Americans. The number of religious Jews (1.2 percent of the population) actually declined by 15 percent, with most of the loss involving young ethnic Jews choosing "no religion."

Buddhism rose to 0.5 percent of the population. The Muslim community doubled in the 1990s, but growth has slowed since; 1.35 million, or 0.6 percent of the population, now identify as Muslim.

New religious movements and groups such as Wiccans are also growing, and account for 1.2 percent of Americans.

Age and gender differences

For the first time, the ARIS 2008 survey included a question on beliefs about God, and the findings suggest some Americans may not share fully the theology of the groups with which they identify.

A little less than 70 percent believe "definitely in a personal God," with 12 percent believing "in a higher power but no personal God." Some 2.3 percent say there is no God, while 10 percent either don't know or don't think there is a way to know.

When asked about religious rituals, 30 percent of married respondents said they were not married in a religious ceremony, and 27 percent of all respondents said they do not expect to have a religious funeral when they die.

With regard to gender, the "no religion" group is the most heavily male (60 percent) among all the groups, while Pentecostals (58 percent) and Baptists (57 percent) have the highest female participation.

Age composition fluctuates considerably within religious groups. Baptists, Jews, and Pentecostals have the highest proportions of those 50 or over (more than half). Muslims and Eastern religions have the youngest, reflecting immigration. Today, 60 percent of Americans are under 50 years of age.

Americans' penchant for switching religions, revealed in a 2008 Religious Landscape Study by Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, makes it difficult to project trends into the future.

"When people grow up, will they really stay" in their group? Kosmin asks. And now that "a good fraction of the population is being raised outside the religious orbit," what does that mean for religious institutions?

ARIS interviewed 54,461 adults in either English or Spanish for the survey, which has a margin of error of less than 0.5 percent. It can be found at americanreligionsurvey-aris.org.







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http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p01s02-ussc.html

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Pastor Killed, 2 Hurt in Illinois Church Shooting

Pastor Killed, 2 Hurt in Illinois Church Shooting


Monday, March 09, 2009





An Illinois pastor was shot and killed, and two parishioners injured after an unknown gunman opened fire during Sunday services at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill.

The gunman walked down the church aisle and briefly spoke to the pastor before shooting during the 8:15 a.m service. Rev. Fred Winters used the Bible he was reading from to shield himself from the first round of bullets being pumped at him, a parishioner told FOX News.

The gunman's .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol jammed after the fourth shot was fired. The suspect then started stabbing himself with a four-inch knife, Ralph Timmins of the Illinois State Police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Timmins said the gunman slashed two parishioners when they tried to subdue him.

The newspaper reported late Sunday a source close to the case confirmed the gunman as Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, who developed mental illness after Lyme disease attacked his brain.

Rev. Winters was shot three times, and was pronounced dead at Anderson Hospital.

The gunman and one stabbing victim, 39-year-old Terry Bullard, underwent surgery at St. Louis University Hospital, spokeswoman Laura Keller said. Bullard was in serious condition, she said.

The other victim, Keith Melton, was treated and released from Gateway Regional Medical Center, spokeswoman Kate Allaria said. A man who answered the phone at a listing for Keith Melton in Troy identified himself as Melton's stepson and said Melton had been stabbed but was going to be fine.

Illinois State Police say they are 99 percent sure they have the identity of the suspect, but have not released his name pending possible charges. They have confirmed he is 27-years-old and from Troy, Ill.

The Rev. Mark Jones, another pastor at First Baptist, said he did not recognize the gunman, who Jones saw briefly before he pulled his weapon. Jones then went into an adjacent room and did not see the shooting, though he heard a sound like miniature fire crackers.

"We have no idea what this guy's motives were," Jones said outside the church. "We don't know if we'll ever know that."

Police said there were about 150 people in the church at the time of the shooting.

Linda Cunningham was sitting near the back of the church when the gunman walked up the aisle. She told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she figured the man was confused about what time the service started because of daylight savings time.

Cunningham told the Post-Dispatch she, as well as others, didn't recognize the gunman.

Some parishioners believe the gunman used church bulletins to conceal his weapon.

"All you could see was confetti" Cunningham told the Post-Dispatch.

The church has an average attendance of more than 1,200 and was officially organized on March 4, 1945, according to their Web site.

Click here to read more on this story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Click here to read more on this story from MyFOX2Now.com in St. Louis.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506820,00.html

Are We Alone in This Universe?

Are We Alone in This Universe?



The Kepler telescope, which launches this week, will search for habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy.
(Courtesy NASA)


Telescope to Search for Habitable Planets That Have Water
By GINA SUNSERI
HOUSTON, March 5, 2009—


Are we alone in the universe or is there life out there waiting to be discovered?

NASA is getting ready to launch the Kepler telescope on an ambitious, first-of-its-kind mission: to search for Earth-size planets in our galaxy, orbiting stars at the right distances to have water on their surface.

These planets are too small and too difficult to be seen with past telescopes. But they are precisely the kinds of planets on which life could exist.

Kepler is NASA's $600 million telescope, scheduled to launch this week from the Kennedy Space Center. Its potential is enormous, according to astronomer Debra Fischer of San Francisco State University.

"What excites me is for the first time, we are going to have a mission that can take a full census of the kind of planets that exist around other stars," she said. Jon Morse, NASA's top astrophysicist, believes Kepler will revolutionize what we know about the universe.

"Kepler will push back the boundaries of the unknown in our patch of the Milky Way Galaxy," Morse told ABC News. "And its findings may fundamentally alter humanity's view of itself."

Kepler's telescope will work by detecting starlight, and analyzing minute changes in brightness in the galaxy while scanning space for planets like Earth. Kepler will trail Earth as it orbits the sun, on a mission that will last from three-and-a-half years, possibly going as long as six years.

During the mission, Kepler will measure changes in the brightness of more than 100,000 stars, every 30 minutes, searching for "winks" in light that happen when a planet passes in front of its star.

That is how Kepler will know when it has found another Earth.

The Hubble Space Telescope, which has a different mission, can't do this.

"Hubble is really amazing for reviewing the structure of the universe [and] formation of galaxies," Fischer said.

"Hubble can't afford to do what Kepler is doing. Kepler has a smaller telescope and will stare at only one field, a large area of the sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra."



At Least Three Years to Find Another Earth
Fischer said that will take years.

"The hardest thing is going to be finding Earths around a star," she added. "If Kepler is flying for three years, an Earth in the habitable zone would take [a] year's orbit to spot, so it will take three transits in three years to detect another Earth.

Kepler may not find ET but it may find ET's home.


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