In reply to katisara (msg # 559):

Now and again I run into people screaming that there is a tremendous rise in atheism within the United States, but this contradicts a large rise. A small one, yes, but not large.

The largest shift looked like the unaffiliated, which doesn't mean that Christians are diminished in numbers, but that churches are losing their congregations. That only applies to those religions on the front page chart. Other religions where on the actual report and seems to indicate very little shift for most other categories.

Since 2007 Atheists and Agnostics rose from 25% of 16.1% (all Unaffiliated) - so 4% total, to 39% of 22.8% (all Unaffiliated) - so 8.89% total.  Creeping up towards 10% - fairly significant - though not massive like some people might think.

I don't think the number of atheists is rising significantly--but they are getting more vocal. Twenty years ago, to be an atheist meant you were untrustworthy (in the public's eye). While this is still the case according to some studies, it has gone down by a good margin, which means atheists face less backlash for being open about their beliefs.

(And ultimately, again, I think this is a good thing for all parties. We grow through facing challenges; Christians benefit from someone saying "I think what you believe is wrong, and here is why".)

I have thought that one issue is an incomplete truth, your relationship with God is important.. But this still leaves the question of the Body of Christ.  "Where so ever two or more are gathered in my name.. this leads to the issue of what might be called a Non-religious Christian.  I don't want you to misunderstand, I can picture a household that is Isolated not only praying at a meal but treating it as a form of communion.  A household as a church, a forum, as a church, a..? as a church.

As our understanding of the world changes so to does our understanding of what God has always been telling us.  It is easy for us to understand the body of christ as a building and people being Together in it. Some have a trouble with even the idea of a greater church of their own denomination. Much Less a Body of Christ made up of all denominations. But adding all "unaffiliated" christians?
  But I have long thought that God's understanding would be prepared for our situation and our understanding to change from the beginning.

This is just me, maybe, but two days ago I reread the article and I was confused by some of the wording. It suggests that some atheists are lumped in with the nondenominational, but they definitely had another category specifically for atheism.

In reply to TheMonk (msg # 564):

The article lumps atheists and agnostics into the "unaffiliated" category, which makes it hard to tell. That group is definitely growing, but it's impossible to tell if that means there's more atheists.  It does mean that growing numbers of people are identifying as nonreligious, though.

The article laid out these percentages - so you're looking at around 12 million agnostics and atheists in 2007 compared to around 28.5 million in 2015.

Things have been quiet around here of late.

I picked up a copy of J.L.Mackie's Miracle of Theism. If anyone else wants to pick one up and have a reading together, I'll wait. I'm not likely to run out of books in the meantime :)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:16, Mon 08 June 2015.

I'd recommend it, but I can't follow through owing to my semester schedule. Should be a fascinating read.

Yeah, my schedule has been intense. Lots of work, a few things published, some travel. Not so much time for discussions :P

Quick heads up, I'm on travel this week, so I'm going to have to put off responding until I get back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...wLWeEmlBon3dgg6C0G6g

Yes, sometimes political correctness can go over the top. Yes, sometimes videos like that can be over the top too :)

Kathulous, are you a spam bot? ;)  Is that link to "luxury watches" or "cheap Canadian pills"?  Can you give us at least a word or two of context to let us know why we should click on it?

It's a video on how absurd political correctness can be, but it's no over the top that the video itself is absurd.

Surprised how good the production values were. But why was that guy so mean?? Should have trigger warnings.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:53, Thu 12 Nov 2015.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays :)

Same to you!  We had a great morning with the kids already!

We did ours last night, since grandma was hosting a Christmas eve party. Gifts were well received and much Christmas spirit was imbibed.

Priest gets suspended for using a hoverboard during the service.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/...erboard-mass-diocese

The Catholic church is just determined to keep itself back in the dark ages. I thought it was time to go Back to the Future!

Haha! Great find!

By the way, hello again all!  Long time, no chat!

In reply to Tycho (msg # 581):

Long time, indeeed. I thought maybe you'd all wandered away from rpol. All my active games are on mw now, and it was only by coincidence that I checked rpol the same day C-h Freese posted.

I was on RPOL and since it seems for many politics in the Union of the USA, is a wait and see.  I gave up on poking beehives else where and thought to poke one here. ;^)

So how has everyone been? It's been quite a while since. Tycho, are you chair of the Royal Society yet?