Word: religion
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...becoming unbelievers. In fact, although most Americans happily call themselves Christian, we are fast becoming a godless nation. Religious pandering—from Jimmy Carter’s born-again rhetoric to Bush’s compassionate conservatism—has masked the real story about religion in modern America: the gradual, but inexorable, rise of secularism since World...
...Cathy Young, a former editor of Reason Magazine, puts it, “40 percent of Americans do not belong to a church and do not consider religion a very important part of their lives.” Even more strikingly, a 2001 comprehensive poll of over 50,000 Americans found that the number of secular Americans has more than doubled to 29.4 million since 1990, and now exceeds the number of Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Buddhists combined. In fact, nonreligious or secular Americans outnumber adherents of every religion but Christianity. And the number of Christians is falling: Even...
This mixture of fear, disdain, and incomprehension might be a legacy of recent (until 2006) electoral defeats, but—in defiance of popular myths —Americans aren’t eager to impose religion via the ballot box. Most voters say that religion seldom or never influences their voting decisions, and voters are far more concerned about officials who pay too much attention to religion than those who pay too little (51 vs. 35 percent in a 2004 CBS/New York Times poll), as the Schiavo backlash reflects...
...religiosity engulfing a once secular republic,” as the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr. hysterically claimed. In fact, Bush has offered little more than rhetorical support to right-wing causes. Opening government funding to faith-based charities—probably Bush’s most dramatic pro-religion action—hardly marks a biblical deluge...
...Political philosopher Charles Taylor said Mohler's comments show he is capable of setting aside strongly held notions in the face of scientific evidence - which he called refreshing. "Both science and religion can be very much perverted by ideological beliefs. Both need to be purified," said Taylor, who on Wednesday was awarded the $1.5 million Templeton Prize for a career spent arguing that fields such as history, politics and economics pay too little heed to spirituality as a real force in people's lives...