07:54 – The lead article on the front page of the paper this morning was about the rise of the “Nones”, even in the Bible Belt. In North Carolina, Nones were about 12% of the population in 2007. They’re now 20%, up by about two-thirds. In South Carolina over the same period, the percentage has nearly doubled, from 10% to 19%. And that’s in the Bible Belt. Elsewhere, the percentages and growth rates are even more pronounced. Nationwide, Nones are now the second largest group, only slightly behind Evangelicals, and far ahead of traditionally-black churches (AME, etc.), Roman Catholics, and mainstream Christian (Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.). And the Nones are growing fast, particularly among younger people, while the other affiliations continue to shrink as older churchgoers die off.
The article proposes various explanations, but I think the reason is simple. Few people have ever actually believed this religious stuff, but they went to church anyway because of social pressure and as a way of socializing with friends and neighbors. Nowadays, the social pressure to attend church has pretty much disappeared, while there are much better ways to socialize.
And the trend doesn’t just manifest among lay people, either. Most priests, ministers, pastors, and other church leaders are now non-believers. I remember reading an article from an official evangelical church publication a few years ago that said roughly 70% of Evangelical pastors were non-believers, but continued in their jobs because it was the only way they had to earn a living. They’re frauds, in other words, standing up in the pulpit every Sunday to preach about stuff they don’t believe. That’s true even among the elite. For example, I’ve met a lot of SJ priests over the years, and I’m pretty sure every one of them was atheist. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same is true of the pope. It’s no wonder that people have stopped going to church if even their pastors don’t believe the stuff they’re spouting.
Barbara and I finished final assembly on another batch of biology kits yesterday. Today, I get started on another three dozen chemistry kits.
12:09 – Oh, well. The house we were about to put in an offer for turns out to be a non-starter. No fiber, and Century Link, the cable provider, says his records show that even standard Internet is not offered there, let alone high speed. My guess is the high-speed Internet service mentioned by the owners is of the two-tin-cans-and-a-string variety, probably DSL. The selling agent told our agent that they had “3 MB” Internet service. My guess is he was confusing bits and bytes. So I told our agent to scratch that one and keep looking.