Canadian Women leaving Christianity

[Cheese]

Churches come tumbling down!

Is Canada leading the way? Will we be a secular nation soon or are we already there?

Those who claimed no religion are:
1961 - 1%
1971 - 4%
2001 - 16%
with 35% in British Columbia.

Religious affiliation continues, but religious practice has declined significantly, with many Catholic Quebecers being content to send their children to Sunday School.

Catholicism is being maintained by immigration, but second-generation immigrants are just like any other Catholics. Mainline Protestant congregations are shrinking fast -- and are significantly older than the general population.

Most scholars of religion now recognize that adherence to the country's pre-eminent faith — 72 per cent of Canadians self-identified as Christian in the last full census year of 2001, down eight points from 1991 (while fewer than 20 per cent regularly attend services) — has not been following some decades-long trend of gentle decline, as many had thought.
Rather, church membership steadily climbed before the 1960s and then abruptly collapsed.

The United Church, Canada's largest Protestant denomination, had more children in its Sunday schools in 1961 (757,338) than its total membership in 2001 (637,941). Its decline began in 1966.

Anglican membership peaked in 1964 (1,204,601), then fell almost by half by 2001 (641,845).
The Presbyterians grew from 173,152 members in 1945 to a peak of 202,566 in 1964. The next year it lost 68 members, the following year more than 2,300 and, by 2001, membership had fallen to 132,659 — 40,000 fewer than in 1945.

[Tyler]

Come on secular nation!

Can't wait 'til those numbers are up in the 90% range

[The Goon]

Those British Columbians are heathens.

[Canada 02]

similar numbers down state side

1990 - 86% Christian; 8.2% non-religious
2001 - 76% Christian; 14% non-religious

http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/resea...y_findings.htm

in the past 6 years, the trend has continued

at the present time (2007-MAY), only 71% of American adults consider themselves Christians

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

The fastest growing religion (in terms of percentage) is Wicca -- a Neopagan religion that is sometimes referred to as Witchcraft. Numbers of adherents went from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. Their numbers of adherents are doubling about every 30 months. 4,5 Wiccans in Australia have a very similar growth pattern, from fewer than 2,000 in 1996 to 9,000 in 2001. 10 In Canada, Wiccans and other Neopagans showed the greatest percentage growth of any faith group. They totaled 21,080 members in 1991, an increase of 281% from 1990.

[foofighter15]

Sweet! One less reason a girl has to not sleep with me! wait..

[Ozy_Flame]

The best part is, soon we won't have to see any of the crappy infomercials of bad Christian rock albums, and no more Sunday morning Evalgelical TV!

[metal_geek]

Who said the news only reports bad stuff?...

This seems like a feel good story to me...
________
MEXICOCITY HOTEL

[llama64]

I find it disturbing that non-religious people are actually cheering. Seems relatively hypocritical to even care what the rates of religious membership are. Or is atheism the new "in" belief system?

This gets an empathetic "meh" from me as an agnostic.

[Claeren]

And a huge precentage of those that claim to be Christian are not truly Christian. I mean sure they want to be at a church on xmas, married in a church and have a funeral done by a priest, but beyond that they do not practice. And while i know in North America that is considered enough, by any other measure previously applied through the eons that is considered blasphemous.

If they were actually told that, that by any true measure of their 'Christiannous' they failed and by the measure of their own faith are probably in a lot of trouble with the big guy, they would probably end-up turning away from the church versus becoming truly pious.


Essentially, the only reason there are even that many Christians is because the church has never had a lower threshold for who is a Christian.


I would say it is currently no higher then 20%, and likely lower. And of those Mormons, Jews, Muslims and other traditionally minority faiths have a larger proportional membership then ever before. (Largely because non-practice is generally less accepted).


I am excited to see momentum building, but i do wish that people had a more informed and measured view on non-belief. A strong scientific and logical background leading to non-belief is a very different thing then pure laziness leading to non-belief.



Claeren.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Claeren

And a huge precentage of those that claim to be Christian are not truly Christian. I mean sure they want to be at a church on xmas, married in a church and have a funeral done by a priest, but beyond that they do not practice. And while i know in North America that is considered enough, by any other measure previously applied through the eons that is considered blasphemous.

/snip

Claeren.

Exactly, and that's why I declare my religious orientation as "Militant Lapsed Catholic." That's the accurate description for my religious orientation.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Exactly, and that's why I declare my religious orientation as "Militant Lapsed Catholic." That's the accurate description for my religious orientation.

Love it!

[Claeren]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Exactly, and that's why I declare my religious orientation as "Militant Lapsed Catholic." That's the accurate description for my religious orientation.

hahaha...


Sounds like my Family! Outside of me of course!



Claeren.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Come on secular nation!

Can't wait 'til those numbers are up in the 90% range

While I think the national average is ~50-65%, depending on where you go in Sweden, you can potentially find pockets of 85%+. They are, IIRC, the most atheist nation in the world.

[troutman]

100 years ago perhaps 1% of Canadians would have described themselves as non-religious. Today, between 10-20%. I think you can see where this trend is headed. Europe is already over 50% in some countries.

16% world wide.

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

Even in the US, those of "no religion" have grown from 8.4% in 1990 to 15% in 2001, with a numerical growth of 105.7%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...us_affiliation

What place for God in Europe?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0222/p01s04-woeu.html

Today, just 21 percent of Europeans say religion is "very important" to them, according to the most recent European Values Study, which tracks attitudes in 32 European countries. A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly three times as many Americans, 59 percent, called their faith "very important."


Although a Gallup poll found last year that 44 percent of Americans say they attend a place of worship once a week, the average figure in Europe is only 15 percent, although the picture varies widely across the Continent.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel2.htm

In Canada those with no religious affiliation has gone from 12.6% in 1991 to 16.5% in 2001.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Churches come tumbling down!

But it is impossible to refute or underemphasize the fact that religion was suddenly confronted in the 1960s by changes in the social construct of gender and a resulting severing of the centuries-old linkage between Christian piety and femininity.

Women — the traditional mainstays of institutional religion — in huge numbers abruptly rejected the church's patriarchal exemplar of them as chaste, submissive "angels in the house" with all of the social and moral responsibility for community and family but none of the authority.

Unable to find acceptable religious role models or religious ideals that were not painful or oppressive, they reconstructed their identities as secular and sexual beings.

The awakening of feminist consciousness doesn't explain everything.

[ernie]

I remember attending a Mother's Day service at my Grandparents Baptist church. The entire sermon was how the woman's place is in the home and that the father's place is to lead the household and make the important decisions. I thought my wife and my sister-in-law were going to explode they were so angry by the end of that sermon that people still preached that stuff. Now it was an old congregation so it may have something to do with it but still it was quite something. I don't think I've ever been to another church service since that time.

We've basically decided that attending an Easter Sunday or Christmas eve service with the family as I did with my parents growing up is rather hypocritical so we just don't do it anymore. Our kids will be exposed to the religions around the world, the religion our family typically observes and free to choose a religion if they so want. I just don't see myself doing it.

[Muta]

This reminds me of prophecies where the Believers will suddenly dissapear from the Earth, and the Non-Believers will be left to suffer through the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse (apprx. seven years, I think?), and the devil will rise to global power as a revered figure in a guise that fools everybody until its too late.

After which, the survivors of the Non-Believers will become Believers, Jesus will rise again, and the world will experience salvation.

....Or something along the lines of that. I haven't been drunk in a long time.

[someguy51]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

similar numbers down state side

1990 - 86% Christian; 8.2% non-religious
2001 - 76% Christian; 14% non-religious

http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/resea...y_findings.htm

in the past 6 years, the trend has continued

at the present time (2007-MAY), only 71% of American adults consider themselves Christians

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

I would have thought that Christianity was growing in the States. Or is it just that its in the news more since it has merged with politics?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by llama64

I find it disturbing that non-religious people are actually cheering. Seems relatively hypocritical to even care what the rates of religious membership are. Or is atheism the new "in" belief system?

This gets an empathetic "meh" from me as an agnostic.

Why is it disturbing? The reason people cheer is because many religions and religious people push their beliefs on to others.

The less of them, the less people will show up at my door trying to convert me, the less people will try to innact laws based on their religion, the less people will call me a sinner for doing something they dont etc. etc.
Plenty reason to cheer!

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Why is it disturbing? The reason people cheer is because many religions and religious people push their beliefs on to others.

The less of them, the less people will show up at my door trying to convert me, the less people will try to innact laws based on their religion, the less people will call me a sinner for doing something they dont etc. etc.
Plenty reason to cheer!

I don't disagree with you in that the reduction of faith based political action is worthy of cheering. Religion, belief and politics should never be connected in the same action.

All I'm saying is that to be atheist, one shouldn't really care what other people believe. Doing so is perpetrating the exact behaviour that most atheists find other religions at fault for.