Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents now spend more time with their kids than ever before. Rotary club vs kids sport? I’m picking sports any day.

Zero evidence to suggest your first sentence.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"What are your thoughts?"

My thoughts are that it's not exclusive to religious participation. Americans are leading increasingly lonely and isolated lives. They're not just not attending church, they're pulling back from Ruritans, ladies clubs, book groups, bowling leagues, golf leagues, yacht clubs, country clubs, DAR, union halls, VFW clubs and events, hunting clubs...

There is basically one exception. Those of us who have minor children and sufficient financial means spend a lot of our time driving and watching our kids play soccer or practice dance routines.

Pretty much anything that was once a staple of American working and middle class community life is struggling for membership or dying. Never before in the history of humankind have so many people been living alone. It's an enormous mental health problem that's rapidly worsening. So we spend a lot of time online in silo'd groups getting fed algorithms that are scientifically designed to make us angrier about whatever we're inclined to be angry about.

DCUM will love to snicker at the idea of churches declining. For our family, ours is a major source of community, friendship, service work, youth activities and friends, and so on.

Since when are DAR, yacht clubs, golf leagues staples of the American working and middle class? Even service clubs have traditionally been the purview of those with enough excess capital to fund them

The PP described a range of organizations where people formed bonds. I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood, and my parents were involved in community service organizations (and church). The point is that our rejection of institutions leaves a vacuum and impacts people of all economic circumstances, who now find themselves lonely and disconnected.

I don't know if it's rejection of institutions. I know that there were plenty of organizations in previous generations that were basically kept afloat due to women's unpaid labor -- from the PTA, to churches, to clubs. As a military officer's wife, I've heard lots of conversations about all the things that officer's wives used to do. Heck, I grew up with a dad who was a doctor and the 'medical auxiliary' (doctors' wife club) had a volunteer group that drove people to cancer treatment when they didn't have any family to help out. I work at a university and part of the reason your tuition is so high is because lots of things that were previously done by Professor's wives (like hosting socials, helping foreign students, etc.) are now done by paid professionals in fields like Student Services, International Student Organization, etc. A lot of churches are less active because there are fewer stay at home wives overall, and fewer who want to spend all their time doing unpaid labor that is usually unacknowledged and unappreciated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an atheist, I prefer if the main driver is logic that drives it down for all religions, and not just ones with whom I disagree politically or who I feel have committed civic transgressions. This means no specific hatred for any one religion.

I like to think the main reason is that people are learning more and choosing to not believe in things - religious or otherwise - for which there is insufficient evidence.

Seems far-fetched to believe that people are no longer believing in things for which there is insufficient evidence. What is your evidence for this claim? Seems like belief in things like conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and fake news is at an all time high, although I haven’t seen any research. That doesn’t even consider the recent trend of people’s belief systems shifting from religion-oriented to politically-oriented.

Anonymous wrote:As an atheist, I prefer if the main driver is logic that drives it down for all religions, and not just ones with whom I disagree politically or who I feel have committed civic transgressions. This means no specific hatred for any one religion.

I like to think the main reason is that people are learning more and choosing to not believe in things - religious or otherwise - for which there is insufficient evidence.

Anonymous wrote:What the article says for United Methodist and other mainline Christian churches is not true for fundamentalist evangelical churches. they are growing. from NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/08/22/1118734799/evangelical-christian-churches-gain-ground-in-majority-catholic-brazil

Anonymous wrote:Parents now spend more time with their kids than ever before. Rotary club vs kids sport? I’m picking sports any day.

Anonymous wrote:People are lonely because they’re antisocial now & won’t interact with people they don’t already know. For example, organic ways of meeting potential dates are now shunned, and dating apps are celebrated.

Anonymous wrote:As an atheist, I prefer if the main driver is logic that drives it down for all religions, and not just ones with whom I disagree politically or who I feel have committed civic transgressions. This means no specific hatred for any one religion.

I like to think the main reason is that people are learning more and choosing to not believe in things - religious or otherwise - for which there is insufficient evidence.