Maps and Graphs About Religion in America (That You Need to See)

[@wojtek987]

In Poland religion was super important during 1980s because of John Paul II and his role in trying for independence from the Soviets. Poland after the war used to be almost entirely Catholic. It's not surprising to see the elderly going to church multiple times a week. The youngest rarely even attend what is effectively "Catholic lessons" (30-70% depending on the region and school). Generally the older the person the more religious. Parents tend to be firm believers and children are often completely agnostic calling themselves Christian just because that's a big part of being Polish and they just don't care enough to find out anything about religion and what they really are. Poland also has separation of church and state only on paper. In practice the church tells who to vote for (all churches agree with the current ruling party and the ruling party agrees with the church)

[@WhoTheLoL]

Polish viewer here - I pretty much agree with this comment, it nails all the most important points. One thing I would dispute is that about parents and children... I find a terrifying amount of young people to be indoctrinated pretty well.

[@emilwandel]

And the rest of Europe is afraid for the human rights in Polands because of that.

[@justynagorczynska6427]

Helo fellow Poles 👋 also had to add 2 cents, hopefully Drew will read our comments: It is not necessarily a thing of not caring enough to find out anything about religion, I’d say. It is more so the fact that not only having “religion classes” twice a week in school for 12 years (and let’s be honest if the parent is religious, they will not allow the child to opt out of them) gives you false sense of “knowing” both the bible and the history and culture around Catholicism, which in Poland is almost synonymous with Christianity. It is also the case of current government stifling secular publications about religion as much as possible. It leaves us with bookstores’ “religion” sections where shelves are overflowing with catholic publications and one or two books about other religions (with a critical view on them ofc) or one Dawkins’ book. I haven’t seen Hitchens’ books in paperback in a while. If someone cannot speak fluently in English, then they are left with couple of books and old websites plus a few channels of angry or annoyed KZbinrs who remind me of the infamous atheist KZbinrs from a decade ago

[@indetermite]

So, pretty much a theocracy?

[@Leszek.Rzepecki]

@@justynagorczynska6427 Hello, my parents were Polish refugees in WWII, and devout Catholics. I was raised Catholic in UK Catholic schools, and still managed to become an atheist fairly early in adulthood. Took a while, but by late teens, early twenties, I'd arrived. I think what turned me against religion was on the one hand, a science education, and on the other, realisation that Christians weren't perfect people. In fact, they could be very irritating people, best avoided. I just realised I didn't need a god to have a valid view of the world. So I did without.

[@johnfinnell758]

As a recently retired Catholic priest, I am happy to have discovered your channel and grateful for your overview and insights. I relish opportunities to listen to those who are not Catholic and not religious. My understanding of Jesus, at least as the 4 canonical Gospels present him, is that he was sharply critical of the religious establishment of his time and most of his criticisms could apply to all of our religious establishments today. At the same time, he did not advocate a revolt or abandonment of Jewish teachings, but rather an appreciation and application of their foundational values. He is portrayed more frequently away from temple or synagogue, meeting ordinary folks "where they are at", listening to them and responding to their needs although he does show up and participate in religious institutions at appropriate times}. Not once does he scold the ordinary folks or tell them to go home and get their act together before he has time for them. All of this guides me to value organized religion enough to dedicate my life to serve in it, but also to keep a critically reflective stance about everyone and everything in it.

[@tpxchallenger]

Nice to hear your insight, Padre. I'm Anglican myself, but back in the 1970s I attended a Catholic High school in South Bend, right across from Notre Dame. It was a pretty progressive school and not at all like the cliche Catholic schools with nuns rapping knuckles with rulers. I loved theology class. One year was with an old school cassock wearing football coach priest, the other year a groovy nun who wore jeans. My understanding of Jesus is much the same as yours. Take care and enjoy your retirement.

[@rebeccadubois8270]

Try the atheist experience channel. Ex preacher group called the clergy project It's awesome

[@muffinmanwolfe1737]

Sir, I personally am an agnostic, but seriously, your comment is fantastic! And I truly do thank you for your acceptance as well!

[@TheUprightLuthier-1959]

Welcome John, You're in the right place. Catholics are basically Agnostic. Jesus was LITERALLY a scarecrow, designed by Rome to keep the bullies in power and the ignorant in fear. He never existed, not even a regular guy. Mohamed, and Buddha both existed. Even Santa Claus is based on a real guy. Jesus is entirely fictional. OH, and pay no attention to those identifying as Agnostic. They are Atheists but with a low IQ.

[@darksu6947]

​@@personmcmann60 The children's area, lol.

[@deadtornadoYT]

Hey! First time viewer and Utahn here. Our religious statistics have definitely changed a lot especially the last decade, seeing as we have a lot of non-religious people moving in for work related purposes. Along with this, a lot of my generation starting to leave the church, and Salt Lake City becoming a fairly large city. We are still really religious compared to many states, but these trends seem to be changing quite fast.

[@r.pres.4121]

I have heard that Provo is changing demographically as well due to its growing much larger over the past few decades.

[@acerimmer8338]

Grew up in Utah. Myself and pretty much all my friends that grew up Mormon have left the church. We're all 30-somethings that have degrees, all have different reasons for leaving, but all agree that it's a miserably controlling religion.

[@thomasedavis]

It's my experience that the more controlling the church (Mormon, Catholic), the more desperately the young people within the church crave sex. As a young man, I was never more relentlessly pursued by women than I was at parties for Mormons and the Irish.

[@leahjackiepeah4130]

Hey you know doctor who? It's totally based on Jesus Christ and so is Santa Claus. By the way Jesus is more scientist then all your atheist who used to be Christian. Just wanted to let your know. Jesus has a TARDIS and a spaceship that works unlike your dreamers the dude has a working one. By the way you will see it soon.

[@skippyuber6072]

@@r.pres.4121 yes but circa 2021 it still was the most highly lds populated County

[@MrWill9894]

New Englander here! A lot of people in my area (especially those of Irish, Italian and Portuguese descent) consider themselves culturally catholic, regardless of how *religious* they are. When I was a kid we went to church maybe, like, 5 or 6 times. But when I told my mom I’m an atheist when I was a teenager, she seemed upset. For all of 5 minutes.

[@annachristinanotyet4678]

lol @ the 5 minutes.

[@TheMasterpikaReturn]

This seems consistent with my experiences in Italy, where people are "religious", in air quotes, and they'll still say they're catholic, but apart from the old generation most people don't really care

[@1113-f7o]

Wasn't there a lot of French Canadian immigrants to New England during the Industrial Revolution?

[@MrWill9894]

@11 13 this is also true, forgot about French Canadian immigrants. My grandmother was one of them, in the 1920s or early 30s

[@Marchant2]

I'm also from NE and religion is not a major deal, at leas where I come from. I left the church there, and no one seemed to care.

[@victoriandino]

My 85 year old grandparents are atheist, and have been for most of their lives, so they’re really breaking the mold.

[@ZealousWins]

Based

[@samuelfraley8737]

Are their children?

[@victoriandino]

@@samuelfraley8737 yes

[@garywilliams4214]

I’m 74 and a life long atheist as well. I wonder if the higher percentage of atheists in young people will continue as they get older, or if religiosity increases as people get older and closer to death?

[@stale.baguette]

W grand-parents

[@leefi1]

The fact that Oregon has a low church-going populace (and few Republicans) and a high proportion of atheists, is one of the reasons that despite having never been to Oregon, we sold our home in Houston and moved to Portland. It is an amazing city, populated by kind people who value your character more than your fashion choices. Houston is all about status and upward mobility. Portland is sure of itself. I think that our lack of religion makes us a kinder, gentler place.

[@musicauthority7828]

That sounds good. I'm glad to see that Oregon is heading in the right direction.

[@bmprimer7809]

hahahahaha all i hear from the towns where i live (still in oregon) is how horrible portland is, and how crazy it's residents are. i'm glad to hear it's getting better, and hope the city is still as pretty as it was when i was there last

[@ranelgallardo7031]

Houston is religiously diverse

[@oneoftheninetynine3953]

Wish I lived there instead of the central oregon coast where it is extremely shut down and conservative.

[@dmike3507]

Few Republicans... maybe only around the Portland area. Oregon is not much different from other places, in that as soon as you get into the rural areas it's heavily Republican. It's even a tad more conservative than Washington.

[@Leszek.Rzepecki]

Speaking as a 67 year old atheist, atheist since late teens/early 20s, and a follower of your channel, I guess I'm an outlier in both senses. Being atheist at my age, and following your channel at my age. I guess some of us just don't fit the mould.

[@LuigiGodzillaGirl]

My grandmother was born in the mid 1910's, and she identified as Agnostic toward the end of her life.

[@darlenegriffith6186]

@@LuigiGodzillaGirl Was your grandmother Christian before she started identifying as agnostic? I am in my late 60s and started doubting my faith within the last 2 years. I was raised in an atheist/agnostic home and became a Christian at the age of 20. I was very strong and devoted in my faith for the majority of those years until recently. The issue of divine hiddeness and the morality of the God of the Bible are the two main issues that have led me in this direction.

[@michelekendzie]

I'm a 50 year old atheist raised in a household that barely mentioned religion (in San Diego, where religion rarely came up except on Saturday afternoons when my best friend had to stop playing because her family went to church those evenings) and I've been following several atheists on KZbin for a few years now.

[@LuigiGodzillaGirl]

Most of my family were Methodist for most of my childhood. While I know my grandma attended church on a semiregular basis for most of her life, I don't know much about the extent of her faith, nor am I entirely certain on which of the many possible factors played a part in leaning toward agnostic; or if she was always agnostic, and I just wasn't aware until the last few years of her life.

[@eatshitlarrypage.3319]

That just means you're a badass grandpa. Nothin wrong with that at all.

[@AardvarkDK]

11:09 Here's a story from Denmark - hope I remember it correctly. A few years ago an American sociologist wrote a book about religion in Scandinavia. He did field studies and asked people: "Do you believe in God." Most would say no, or something like "Weeell, there might be something out there." He would ask people "Do you believe in Heaven/Hell/an afterlife", and basically everyone would say no. He asked them "Do you believe in Jesus Christ", and they might say "I suppose the stories are vaguely based on a real person, but obviously he wouldn't have been the son of any god." And, of course, hardly any of them ever went to church - except for Christmas-time, and that's just out of tradition. And then he'd ask them "Do you consider yourself a Christian?", and a surprisingly large number would say "Sure." And he'd go "But... how? You don't believe in God or Heaven or Jesus Christ and you never go to church - how can you consider yourself a Christian?" And they'd say "Well, I try to be a good person and think of people who are less fortunate in life than myself." So while Danes are technically atheists or agnostics, many of them consider themselves Christians because they think that Christianity is purely a question of behaviour, not belief. This is probably very, very different from certain American types of Christianity.

[@namechangerfre7296]

Are you thinking of 'Society Without God' by Phil Zuckerman? A great read, very interesting.

[@AardvarkDK]

@@namechangerfre7296 I think that was the one, yes.

[@AardvarkDK]

@@nomadpurple6154 That sounds familiar. :)

[@Katt1n]

I'm pretty sure I'm a member of the Swedish church despite never being religious.

[@rlud304]

Wish I lived in Denmark

[@vohbovohborian28]

For Europe, take into account that many countries like Germany and Belgium have high degrees of recent immigrants. If you were to limit it to people that have lived in Belgium for 20+ years, the numbers would be crazy low. In my village, it is DEFINITELY less than 1%. We have 7000 people here and when I peek inside the one church during a mass, there are less than 20 people there.

[@lashids]

Not poland tho. Poland didn't accept refugees. The peeps here are just catholic psychos

[@florallyclover]

yes i’d say the same about the UK, because a lot of the immigrants are muslim, hindu, sikh, or christian, which probably prevents from showing the true picture of how british religiousness is in high decline through the generations.

[@tinyspiderqueen2355]

As a former southern Baptist I can certainly see why it’s in decline. Being 3 and hearing a grown red faced man screaming about hell fire and damnation while other adults cry and scream and run around the building can be a traumatic and unwelcome experience.

[@Mister_Listener]

Sorry to hear you were abused by religious people like that. They are not permitted to be kind to their neighbors, it makes me sad.

[@nickryan3417]

@@Mister_Listener It's simple - they are not christians. They are whatever radical nonsense and hate-filled excuse they are, and what they do preach is incredibly distant from what christianity purports to be.

[@jas9574]

You're not exaggerating are you? What the hell? People down south get a bit crazy about their love for jesus. Personally, I used to be mormon but became atheist, living in Minnesota and then North Dakota. Just about all the people in my church were very decent people. No ranting of hellfire or all the hysteria. Glad you distanced yourself from that.

[@tinyspiderqueen2355]

@@jas9574 Unfortunately I’m not exaggerating at all. Yeah they can be crazy. I spent a good 30 years terrified I was going to hell before I finally realized hell isn’t even real. Never going back, I’m much happier now.

[@jas9574]

@@tinyspiderqueen2355 Speaking of the happiness aspect of being religious or not, I always internally cringe a bit whenever people question atheists hapiness because they don't believe in god. If we're unhappy, it's because stuff in life is stressfull or feels unfair. The fact is is that it's not us who are unhappy particularly because of a lack of belief in god, it's just them who can't comprehend being happy without their god and assume that that's the cause of our unhappiness.

[@WinterWitch01]

Lifelong Utahn here, and Mormons are definitely waking up. Yes people are moving here in droves, that helps increase numbers, but those ex-Mormon videos you’re seeing are opening more eyes than you might think. Young people aren’t turning to religion the way their parents did.

[@bees4839]

✋Exmo that left this year with my family. Several of my friends left with me. The exodus is huge right now

[@downsjmmyjones101]

I think Tiktok is full of ex-Mormons and ex-evangelicals.

[@kyriepierce7501]

This is exactly it! Utah is in a really strange place with religion the last several years with people leaving the Mormon church in droves. Growing up I only had a handful of neighbors that weren’t members but now I have friends and old neighbors leaving the church left and right. The broader access to church history and more people willing to speak out has had a massive impact.

[@Tallone55]

It's hard to overstate the impact that having broader access to church history has had when compared to other churches. Because the founding of the LDS church is much more recent and the religious canon is so thoroughly standardized, it's a lot harder to sit on the fence regarding specific doctrinal and historical claims the way you can in a church which doesn't police its own teachings as closely.

[@jonathanbauer2988]

yea I also live here & have witnessed like half my highschool class leave the church since graduating 4 years ago

[@jeremybutler7236]

I am a Southern Baptist pastor and I believe that there are many reasons. One reason is the growth of non-denominational churches, the change in culture in the United States, and many other things. I would say the biggest reason, from what I have seen is that churches started to do a better job of keeping membership records. I enjoy your videos. It would be interesting if you interviewed a pastor or Christian leader for their thoughts on this as well. Or maybe a roundtable discussions of various religious leaders.

[@christominded4726]

No matter what their reasons or how they approach the question, agnostics and atheists are fundamentally different, but also non-exclusive. Many people who adopt the label of agnostic simultaneously reject the label of atheist, even if it technically applies to them.

[@Miki_Naz]

Guy from Poland here, 22 years old. Situation with religion here is kinda unique, with long history. In a period when the rest of Europe began Secularization, our country wasn't on the map, since our occupants didn't like religion and persecuted it, clinging on to it became part of keeping our national identity. Later both during ww2 and during communism, church was helping with fighting the oppressors, and believing gave us hope, later John Paul II becoming a pope yet again linked religion with patriotism, so after the fall of communism in 1989, our country began with a huge Credit of trust towards the church. Right now a lot of young people are leaving church, but since there are a lot of old people here, church still has A LOT of influence. Cross is in every institution right next to national emblem, religion is taught in schools by a priest or a nun (it's not mandatody but 90% of primary school kids go, when i was in school it was closer to 99%), you baptize your children even if you are not a practicing Christian, because it's not worth fighting with your religious grandma or other family members over it. Not to mention catholic church has a lot to say in our politics (like our recent banning of abortion in 2020), since our ruling party is catering to the old people, and it's pretty good tactic for them to do what church wants in exchange for them saying during mass how good ruling party is and how bad and immortal opposition is. Thus separation of state and church exists only on paper.

[@kanapkazewszystkim]

I couldn't agree more. Also it's worth to mention, that percentage of "practising catholics" like we call it here deacreases every year. Now it's not 44% but 37%.

[@codexcodex2026]

One correction is needed in the above respect, as some of the statements are simply not true. Abortion is NOT banned in Poland. There is no abortion on request - granted, however, it's fully legal in case mother's health is in danger or in case of rapes. In those cases, termination is being done in hospitals and is being funded by the state. Again, abortion is NOT banned in Poland. Also, from the practical perspective only - I think - ppl may go to the neighboring countries to terminate a pregnancy, which is a short distance/cheap trip. Regardless of the above, Poland adopted conservative approach with respect to this topic for last 30 years or so. Currently app. 50% Poles seem to be pro-life & 50% pro-choice. The younger the person, the more pro-choice he/she is.

[@TheCrimsonPope]

@@codexcodex2026 abortion is effectively banned. Not legally, but effectively, yes. Which is confirmed by cases where the life of the mother, or the child, or both, is threatened but doctors won't abort because the law is not clear, or rather the legal situation isn't, with the govt controlling the courts. So women die even though abortion would have saved their lives. Does that sound like a legal abortion? :/

[@codexcodex2026]

​@@TheCrimsonPope Questions: (1) how many cases do you know where life of a mother, or the child, or both was threatened & doctors refused to terminate a pregnancy. Approximate number please, (2) how many cases do you know where mother died due to the above, (3) is the law in Poland clear with respect to pregnancy's termination? Yes or no please, (4) what do you mean by "legal situation" (you effectively claim that rather legal situation and not the law itself relating to abortion in unclear in Poland, so, please define what do you mean by “legal situation”), (5) how exactly govt controls courts in Poland, (6) assuming that govt controls the courts in Poland (which you need to demonstrate, see point 5 above) - how the alleged control of the courts impacts actions of the medical staff. Please present some examples of cases. Thanks!

[@TheCrimsonPope]

@@codexcodex2026 nice try ;-) I'm not doing your work for you.

[@KillmanPit]

Hey! Viewer from Poland here! So religious landscape in Poland is both simple and complicated. It's simple because it's so predominantly Catholic that it's basically synonymous with Christianity here. It's also very complicated because Poland has had a difficult history. It has been a European superpower for about 300 years and then completely disappeared from the maps for 150. During that time Catholicism slowly intertwined itself with patriotism and the very idea of Poland. So much so that even when Poland was under strictly atheistic soviet regime the church survived. And that's because it was basically impossible to get it out of people's minds as a shorthand for being a patriot. And during this time still church was seen as a place of free thought and free speach. A sentiment only emboldend by a Pole being chosen to be a pope (John Paul II). About this time church also became synonymous with anti - communism. After Poland got independent once again in 1990 church still has its very privileged position it owes its admitedely pro-polish and pro-freedome past. But it's slowly wailing as more and more scandals arise as well as more and more secular youth getting to voting age. Its very slow though. We never really had a separation of church and state. "religion" is tought in public school and its basically just Catholic catechism made into school curriculum. And although it's not mandatory it is counted for your average which matters for your high school admission (and being an easy way to raise that average it still rocks a solid attendence even though more and more people are more and more secular). Complicated stuff. A lot of interesting history. Cheers.

[@MatsAtheist]

The Soviets were not an atheist regime, atheism is just about not believing. It's not an ideology. It's like saying that the Soviets are an anti-unicorn regime. It was about a forced ban to have no faith.

[@colatf2]

The church has deep roots.

[@f.michaelbremer-cruz2708]

Thanks for this comment, as it does help the reader understand how Catholicism and concepts of Patriotism could become entwined so thoroughly. As the older generations fade away and the Church's scandals become impossible to ignore, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Not just in Poland, but on a Global scale, to Christianity as a whole.

[@kaylamarie6878]

I feel like this sentiment is synonymous with the way north american religion has been playing out. If you disagree let me know your thoughts

[@KillmanPit]

@@kaylamarie6878 It's not quite the same. In US there has always been a strong separation of church and state. Even very religious people often feel like state should not go to your home and check your religion. Because Poland had no state for so long, church became almost synonymous with Polish state. It had organisational structure, inteligencia, off the grid school system. For almost 200 years Polish "state" was church. The official state was the oppressor. No wonder it's very hard to disentangle them now. There are some interesting parallels though. For example, for the longest time, the Polish army motto was "honor and fatherland", which was changed in 1943 (during nazi occupation) to "God, honor and fatherland". And since has been falsely claimed that it has been Polish army's motto since medieval times. The myth got so deep that it got propagated even in some historical movies about XVI century. Which feels simmilar to american "in God we trust".

[@musicauthority7828]

WOW Oregon is sounding better and better all the time. I like these statistics by geography videos keep them coming as much as possible thanks.

[@louderthangod]

There’s a thing a dog trainer told me about called the extinction burst when a dog is parking to get your attention, they’ll be loudest right before they stop. The escalating aggression of religious groups in politics despite general shrinking numbers and poor recruitment with young people so I’m hoping this is their extinction burst before their numbers get too small to influence anything.

[@Albinojackrussel]

Huh I've only ever seen that term applied to abusive humans. Basically an explanation for why leaving an abuser is the point at which they become most dangerous and aggressive

[@taynahibanez9952]

I don't think that is ever going to happen, but maybe we are lucky.

[@thefisherking78]

God I hope so but I'm not getting my hopes up

[@fepeerreview3150]

Let's pray that you're right.

[@atherosclerosisheo3379]

Seems to me the escalation of aggression came from the fiery but peaceful "summer of love" cause a crackhead died from overdose.

[@shoesncheese]

I'm a 47 year old agnostic so at least some of us are out of your standard demographic. I want to say I always appreciate your kindness. I've never heard you belittle someone's belief or lack of belief and that's a rare thing to find on KZbin. I'm editing this to add that your videos are the only ones I feel comfortable sharing on Facebook because my religious and secular family and friends can all watch and not feel attacked while still learning something.

[@renejean2523]

So you are agnostic, but that doesn't address whether you believe in any gods or not. You either do or you don't. If you do, then you're also a theist. If you don't, then you're also an atheist. There is no halfway position.

[@shoesncheese]

@@renejean2523 Incorrect. I believe something we would consider a god is possible, but there is not sufficient evidence for such a thing. The God of the Bible does not exist. But some other godlike thing might.

[@renejean2523]

@@shoesncheese - That's just speculation. Whether it's possible or not is irrelevant. Atheism and theism address what you *believe* today. So, you are either a theist/deist, or an atheist.

[@shoesncheese]

@@renejean2523 there aren't thing in this universe where you can just shrug and admit you don't have enough information to believe one way or another? Do aliens exist? Probably. Will we ever know for sure? Probably not. Do I believe in aliens? I believe aliens are possible and reserve absolute judgement because the universe is both larger and older than our brains can conceive. You can counter with "well you're just being wishy-washy. You believe, you just don't want to admit it for fear of looking foolish." That's definitely possible. I'd really like to believe that we are not alone in the universe. But I cannot live my life expecting someone, god or extraterrestrial, to appear in the sky and lift us up to their level or destroy us for reaching. We must live our lives in a way that takes responsibility for our actions. No one is coming to judge us. And if something does come to judge us well, mea culpa. I'd still rather be in a world where we provide our own meaning and where we understand how small and vulnerable we are and work together.

[@renejean2523]

@@shoesncheese - I think I'd agree with what you say there. The difference is that pondering the chance of aliens existing in the iniverse is reasonable. We do have one example of a planet that's absolutely *teeming* with life, so it's natural to contemplate the possibility of more elsewhere. However, we have *zero* examples of any gods, so to believe in a god or gods is irrational and without good reason. Aliens and gods are not comparable concepts, is my point.

[@saronicle]

If you’re wondering why Utah was blank in the salary graph it’s because all LDS church positions are unpaid. There are reimbursements available for certain things like church activities, but everyone earns their money through jobs like cashier or dentist.

[@therealdia]

I was wondering if he was going to mention the big hole in the map 😂

[@apophenic_]

Citation needed

[@katemueller1359]

well, and bc the higher level clergy get "living stipends" which are untaxed and equivalent to upper middle class incomes and higher

[@AChickandaDuck]

One reason for weekly church attendance to be down in Utah is that during Covid they started offering online church services for the first time ever. A lot of Mormons felt that pressure to go every single week lessen, and attendance is down just about everywhere.

[@ryanthomastew]

Agreed; the pandemic really accelerated a preexisting trend happening in Utah already - Mormons leaving their faith at greater rates during the digital era. As the pandemic allowed Mormons to stay home from church and its rather regular activities, hey had more free time. This allowed mormons to spend more of that time with family, friends and some found they liked that better. This also allowed more time to openly study Mormon history and come to grips with modern antigay policies as well as its racist, misogynistic and sexually abusive history. Couple that with the ever growing ExMo communities online from r/exmo to the ExMo KZbinrs and TikTokers, we can see strong growth in those communities while getting leaks from Mormon leaders that attendance is down across the state.

[@beastshawnee]

And being home they had time to discover Mormon stories and Nuanceho

[@aazhie]

@@ryanthomastew great to hear. The one core value Mormons have that I generally thought was cool, was that they valued being good to family. Better to send time with your loved ones than in church not helping anyone

[@Veles_38]

Polish guy here(sorry if i screwed up english a bit), so imagine you have a country that was under comiunuism and one of the bigger factors of getting the hell out of that system was having the first polish pope - John Paul II, church in general was seen as rebelious and against the authoritarian goverment. The majority of adults living in here are a bit older (wich usually comes with being a deeper beliver bc of living through the pope stuff and overthrowing comiunism) and a really big chunk of young adults emigrates bc of polish shitty (in my and i guess theirs opinion) political, economical, so on so forth landscape. Poland and Hungary are kinda like the red states of EU, we sure have bigger cities with progressive ppl but there's a lot really conservative guys living in here

[@janstrzakowski6598]

Hit the nail in the head in my opinion. Trzymaj się :)

[@Veles_38]

@@janstrzakowski6598 pozdro, Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz

[@tunahan4418]

I do know Poland is divided in half but is it divided religiously too? Like the West is more democratic and progressive and east more conservative no?

[@Veles_38]

@@tunahan4418 Kind of, west and bigger cities are more progressive wich often comes with having way more athiest but in general in Poland there is no other way of beliving in god than Catholic, what's funny polish priests often say that the current pope and in general the church out side of Poland is weak and corrupted, but answering stright to the point in Poland around 91% of ppl identify as belivers so most of polish ppl agree that there is a Catholic god and everything srrounding this view

[@Leszek.Rzepecki]

I was born to Polish WWII refugees in the UK, and only speak English. They were, of course, devout Catholics, but I managed to become atheist anyway. It had nothing to do with my roots being Polish, of course, Poland is a predominantly Catholic country still. But not all of we Polaki are doomed to be believers in Catholic Christianity. I didn't even think very highly of the Polish pope. Whatsisname, I forget. Wojtyła? Called himself John-Paul II. Being Polish doesn't mean we have to be gullible.

[@electronmess]

😄 I find the Czech Republic - as an undefined hole where researchers didn't even bother to measure church attendance - to be HILARIOUS. And yes, it makes complete sense. Cheers from a Czech fan, Drew!

[@dfwdfw9544]

Oh. That flew right past me. I thought the hole was Switzerland. I wasnt looking very carefully because apparently Britain sunk into the sea after Brexit.

[@deafleppard1812]

You do know it’s because Czechia isn’t an EU country

[@MarxismLeninismMaoism]

@@deafleppard1812 Czechia is part of the EU

[@electronmess]

@@deafleppard1812 Czechia's part of the EU since 2004.

[@montanahelton1272]

I really want to move there for awhile! My ancestors migrated to The US in 1878 and I’m very interested in their culture.

[@hellohsaytin6813]

The "How important is religion to you?" May have some skewed results, because even though i am a firm Atheist, i would not say that religion is not important. I think it is extremely important to discuss religion and bring attention to the ridiculous hypocrisies involved. So i would say that as an Anti-theist, i find religion as a topic very important indeed.

[@WCM1945]

I feel, too, that many atheists feel they need to keep it to themselves, and will report as being religous. It is a matter of self-defense in some areas.

[@OhWell0]

@@WCM1945 If my family knew that I'm agnostic, they would assume its an LGBT/ democrat thing and kick me out. That's the courage and love god has filled them with.

[@amberbydreamsart5467]

Yeah, I was thinking this. It reminds me of the question structure for it on okcupid, but for theirs it's two separate questions, what is your religion and how important is that to you, which is honestly a very good way of gauging how it interacts with their life! but when you just ask 'how important is /your/ religion to your life' then a dedicated wicca priestess is put on the same level as an evangelical christian, which doesn't tell you too much about the society you're looking at imo

[@chrissears9912]

Well said. I totally agree

[@furiousapplesack]

@@amberbydreamsart5467 I had completely forgotten until I read your comment that I actually went out on a date with a wicca adherent through OKCupid many years ago. Ah, good times. Better times, really.

[@SKO_PL]

I'm from Poland and I'll say a little bit about my personal experience. I grew up in a quite Catholic household in the countryside. I went to a Catholic school because it was like the best school in the area. I was pretty devout myself, I remember caring a lot about not eating meat on Fridays, praying everyday, etc. With the help of content from the internet, including yours, I became atheist myself at 17 but parents made me go to church every Sunday until I was 18. Now I'm 21, I live in Warsaw, proudly atheist, exploring things about myself I had never imagined possible! Thank you GM Skeptic, for all the work you do and for making me feel included

[@isabellalucia7820]

Out of curiosity, and given the comments above, how is there any information on how atheism correlates with denomination, education, English language acquisition and/or class in Poland?

[@SKO_PL]

@@isabellalucia7820 I'm afraid I don't really get your question. 'HOW is there any information on...?' Well, idk, people do statistics?? Also, 'how atheism correlates with denomination' sounds nonsensical - atheists don't have 'denominations' Regardless, I was just talking about my personal experience so I might not be the best source for these kinds of stats... Of course, I FEEL like atheism correlates positively with education, English language acquisition and perhaps class but I'm no statistician.

[@epcQuest]

@@isabellalucia7820 I think I understand your question. The majority of religous people in Poland are Catholic. From the people I have met there is certainly a corrolation between education and English language acquisition. Firstly people who do not attend some form of Religious schooling are less religious (go figure right?) and those who go onto higher education are generally even less so. Secondly those who speak English from a younger age are exposed to more external media and again tend to be less religious. Fluency I would argue is the biggest factor, lets be honest these are not easy topics (hence why humanity as been killing each other over them for thousands of years) I hope that answered your question!

[@epcQuest]

@@SKO_PL Czesc! Not Polish but I live in Poland. Having spoken to many people about this issue I think a large part part of it comes down to Communisum, not just that religious expression was largely limited but the Catholic church also played a large part in the Solidarnosc (solidarity) movement. Due to this many people feel that expressing an anti church sentiment (which I'm not saying Atheism is - just how people perceive it) is basically the same as being anti Polish or pro Communist. This coupled with the things you mentioned (such as attending Catholic school) and the large emphasis of family and family gatherings (which normally occur after church) this leads people to have a higher rate of proclaimed religiosity. However due to the high rate of higher education in Poland (as it's free) leads many younger people to move away from these controlled environments to larger cities and this usually leads to less adherence to church doctrine or an out right rejection of them. Miłego dnia :)

[@andywilson5234]

I was going to like this, but the counter says 69 and I didn't want to ruin it.

[@neitan6891]

Proud Oregonian here! A lot of the state is actually very religious and conservative outside of the Willamette Valley cities (i.e. Eugene, Salem, Portland). But the younger generations are generally less religious than older generations, even in more rural areas. Oregon has always seemed very polarized to me with vegan off-grid hippies on one hand and evangelical fanatics on the other. Both groups are pretty self-righteous and judgey, though, so I see them as two sides to one coin; both camps are pretty fundamentalist.

[@Demopans5990]

At least the hippies open interesting stores and are somewhat pleasant to talk too

[@escabasket153]

I’d rather have one side wanting extreme universal healthcare, abortion rights and supporting free college vs the alternative.

[@neitan6891]

@@escabasket153 Yeah, I agree, but I wasn't really talking about the political aspect, more like the judgement for not composting your own poop.

[@lennomenno]

Fundamentalism-anything is never a good thing 😎

[@sayandebhalder1618]

Bring back the wild wild country osho in oregon

[@sagemodead9877]

Being an atheist in KY is a lot of fun to say the least. A majority of mine and my wife’s families are always preaching at us, because we don’t attend church. They don’t even know we’re atheists yet, I can’t imagine the reaction whenever they hear that.

[@zeno1750]

I feel you, from south MS here

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

ok, what do they think WHY you are not attending church?

[@gshenaut]

I'm an atheist in my 70s, and have been one since elementary school. For a while I wavered between labels, and it was actually in discussions in the old usenet groups such as those under soc.religion back in the 80s that I became fully comfortable with “atheist” (while also becoming aware of gradations even within that label).

[@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181]

The east coast Catholics essentially adopted that trend from us Canadian Catholics... My Italian side of family always joked, "how do you tell a good catholic from a bad one?" "They go to church on Christmas and Easter, or they don't." That's all? "Yup, all you need to do is remember Jesus's big days and your pope." 😅

[@musicauthority7828]

My mother was full blooded Italian, and I was born in New York. and I was baptized at birth Catholic. I now live on the West Coast and I'm an Atheist. and I can tell you there's no such thing as a good Catholic. in fact there's no such thing as a good person from any religious denomination.

[@madixjensen7070]

@@musicauthority7828 as a agnostic person born and raised in Utah i can say that there are quite a few people who are both religions and good people although I will agree that a lot a people use religion in extremally bad ways that are against the very principals of that religion but i don't know many Catholics

[@dannaalquati]

I want to make a tiny correction 💕 the Europe map only shows Western Europe, statistics for church attendance are probably far higher in Eastern Europeans Countries

[@suzanne2]

The map goes east until Poland and Romania. More far east will be the former Soviet countries and (I haven't checked it, but ) highly doubt that there is much church attendance among them, considering atheism was the official doctrine of the Communist Party.

[@lightningmonky7674]

I hate that the soviets conflated atheism with their regime. Stalinism was the national religion

[@marvinhacking5777]

@@suzanne2 I thought since the fall of the soviet union , there has been a resurgence in religion ? Primarily Orthodox Christianity , which is what was predominant prior to communism. But that is just the seems to me method .

[@rilmar2137]

@@marvinhacking5777 Almost 20% Ukrainians described themselves as not religious. In Belarus it's up to 40% (but there's a significant data sdiscrepancy). In Lithuania around 10%. In Estonia around 70%, in Latvia over 40%

[@marvinhacking5777]

@@rilmar2137 So not a 100% which is what they would have claimed during the soviet union ?

[@tandemdwarf745]

With Oregon (as an Oregonian), the state has a very, very pronounced rural urban divide. The Willamette valley is full of very non-religious cities and towns (Eugene, Portland, Salem, Corvallis, etc) and is where 70% of the state lives. By contrast, Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon are very, very staunchly conservative (believe me, I've been there multiple times). I'm guessing this is why atheism as a percentage is so high but everything else is more mixed.

[@sleeplesshollow4216]

Or as we Oregonians like to call the territory east of the mountains: The Wastelands.

[@DataPilot370]

Oregonian here, too. I would argue that the rural/urban divide is even more pronounced. I work in ultra-liberal Eugene, but live in conservative rural Lane County. My 30 minute drive from home to work feels like travel to an entirely different society.

[@kaitlynnp582]

Washington is very similar. I grew up on the east, rural side, and now I live close to Seattle. It's so different. I don't plan to move back lol

[@bevsputler5455]

Lived in Oregon 21yrs some of the most beautiful areas in the country…very little pressure to believe in Fundamental Christianity! Sort of live & let live~💙~

[@danpatterson8009]

Same in CA. Probably true for any state with large cities.

[@TheSkeptic_1]

As a native Portlander, I can attest to the ease in which it is to live in that city under whatever religious view (or lack thereof) one has. It is one of the many things about Portland that make it good. Also, I miss the food.

[@munchkingod6]

Some of the correlations make me wonder how things were asked. A lot of conservatives will say they like good things in abstract (like debt free college) but in practice when it comes to the policy needed to make it happen they oppose it. If the questions are phrased in ways that don’t require a comment on a specific policy but rather let’s them answer on an abstract level it could be impacting results. Ex: if you ask any conservative “should poor people die because they can’t afford medicine” most of them will say NO, but if you ask them if they support any specific policy that would ACHIEVE that goal they oppose it.

[@jonathan4189]

It’s hardest for me to comprehend when it comes to environmentalism. Hardcore conservatives who are being shafted by cooperations and their party’s “business friendly” policies that destroy their land and livelihoods. Yet they would rather watch their farms disintegrate than admit they want to preserve the environment.

[@theoc007]

There is a better option to force the big pharma to lower prices, it was actually one of the things that Trump did but it was ignored by the media (only reporting was from foreign news sites and cnbc). We aren't monsters you guys always watch news about thats racist thats terrible, oh my god they are after our bodies... Most of us just want smart policies that don't throw money at the problem, even if we do throw money we want coverage that doesn't bankrupt, which was suppose to happen after replacing medicare with coverage for all pre existing conditions.

[@johnnypopstar]

Sample sizes and/or prank answers are a concern too. Highlighted with that "4% identify as agnostic but claim to know a god exists" part. Given those things are complete opposites you've either got such a small sample size that a few mis-clicks have completely skewed the numbers, or the polls got polluted with prank votes. Or, I guess, "abject morons who don't understand the meaning of words" were overrepresented in the polling sample.

[@jonathan4189]

@@theoc007 I read about and celebrated the Rx price controls. It would be hypocritical of a liberal to say they didn't like a liberal policy just because a conservative passed it. Sort of like how the original Obamacare was cooked up by the heritage foundation, a conservative think tank and championed for 15+ years by the likes of Bob Dole, Orin Hatch, and Mitt Romney as the Republican solution to health care issues. Then when Obama tried to get them to pass their own plan, those same people called it the end of the country.

[@munchkingod6]

@@theoc007 see… y’all always say that, but you always vote for the people who aren’t doing that. Keep in mind, my view of conservatives is shaped by my family who are all conservatives who sound exactly like you here. My issue is that in practice the conservative movement in the US consistently ACTS to make the world worse and opposes making things better in any way. When your politicians DO allow something to be done that’s not terrible it’s consistently done in the least effective and least helpful way. Understand that our criticisms of the movement are rooted in fundamental truths about who y’all elect. If you don’t like it, *stop electing them.*

[@christianfernandezcarrillo]

The graph titled "there is systemic racism in policing..." ties very well with something you said on a video about christians being of the strong opinion that punishment is always required. Very interesting!

[@jeremyserwer2586]

Evangenitals are the party of Sadism

[@VesperAegis]

A psychology study also showed strong correlations between conservatism and being orderly + conscientious which sometimes borders on an authoritarian mindset(I'm not saying fascist, just a tendency in one direction on the spectrum); conversely this could lead to an intolerance for any type of "ne'er-do-well." If you couple this with dichotomous binary thinking about Good Versus Evil battles being prevalent in the world it's easy to see why this might be the case.

[@DUDEBroHey]

That's bullshit. Policing serves the state as do atheists. The state is secular nonsense. On this earth a Christian should an anarchist because idolizing government is a disobedience to God.

[@DUDEBroHey]

@@VesperAegis except conservativism is anarchy.

[@VesperAegis]

@Silver You're conflating a 4-dimensional political spectrum with individual liberalism and conservativism as ideological leanings. Authoritarianism and socialism are on two different axes, as Stalinism/Tankies proved versus nascent and early Marxist-Leninism(or more generally, democratic socialism as it's currently conceived in countries like Sweden, Canada, Denmark, France, and arguably to a limited extent Japan). Having an equity-driven ethos doesn't necessarily have to involved any other liberty-abdicating factor within governance, but equality, tolerance, and refusal of xenophobia are hallmarks of left-leaning ideology. Beyond that, I'm not sure where you get the idea that the psychological dichotomy I presented is made up. This has been demonstrated by a number of different studies. It's not a fait accompli by any means, as every individual is different, but these were markers that were found. The oddball fact about liberal openness to experience is that you can practically(almost) judge a person's ideology by whether they enjoy foreign films or not. Educational attainment and the amount of literature read also seem to be hallmarks of liberal or left-leaning persuasions. All I'm saying is that these are correlations rather than died-in-the-wool aspects of people of different ideological persuasions; but it should be alarming in light of Former Guy's xenophobic, uneducated, amoral demagogic leanings.

[@brandynstanton4121]

I'm heathen, and my sister is Druid. Paganism is on the rise, but as yet, is still largely ignored.

[@anotherhuman8173]

I stinkin' LOVE demographic maps and charts. Endlessly fascinating. Thank you for uploading this!

[@prettyevil6662000]

"There's not a lot to do in..." Well that comment hit hard though for the wrong state. I live in SW Missouri. I legit went to church a few times just because I was bored and it's what my friends were doing. Then I got there and remembered why I didn't go regularly - it was more boring than being bored at home.

[@v0id_d3m0n]

💀

[@lightningmonky7674]

Is it really that boring??

[@AdmiralBison]

Well I imagine these days, many kids that go to church are sitting quietly with their heads bowed down...playing a Nintendo Switch. So there is that at least.

[@jodilynnt9418]

Fascinating statistics! We’re in our 60’s. And, for many of our friends & family here in Oregon & Washington attending church & church events has become more about our socializing, not necessarily about religion like when we were kids. We’ve retired to a diverse small university town where many don’t attend church at all. But, we support our neighbors church events for fun attending fund raisers, dinners, etc. to socialize. Pacific Northwest is no longer the multitude of bigoted, small-minded churches of our youth & we’re truly thankful for that fact.

[@skyearl1816]

Hi there! I am studying Political Science and wrote my undergraduate thesis about Atheism in US-Politics and used a lot of Dr. Burge's data. Even tweeted at him after I got my grade and thanked him for his work, he was really nice! In my research I focused on the discrepancy between the non-religious in the general American population and Congress. According to the data, about 25% of of Americans do not consider themselves to be religiously affiliated (which includes ~4-5% of Agnostics and Atheists respectively), while there are 0% Atheists in Congress! Well, at least none that are outspoken. For my thesis I interviewed a Congressman, Rep. Jared Huffmann, who calls himself a Humanist and he told me that he knows of at least dozens of closeted Atheists in Congress. When we apply the % of the general population, there would have to be at least a 100+ Members of Congress who are secretly Atheists/Non-believers, but who won't admit it. The reasons for that I discussed in my thesis, it is a really fascinating topic!

[@skyearl1816]

Oh, and I even mentioned you @Genetically Modified Sceptic, in my thesis at some point, when I talked about the influence of social media on the Atheist movement! :)

[@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic]

Incredible! Is it accessible online? I’m sure some of us would like to read it.

[@skyearl1816]

@@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic I am not published, but I have uploaded it to my google drive (I took the liberty to remove any personal information about me): drive.google.com/file/d/1LHXj2zi0vij2sSkm6TrzQkuw44DOvQG2/view?usp=sharing Have fun reading and feel free to share your thoughts! :)

[@BlueSparxLPs]

It really does just track logically that anyone running for office or currently sitting in office would present as religious (or at least never as Atheist). Being Atheist is probably the biggest thing that would prevent someone from being reelected.

[@skyearl1816]

hello again! (with some delay). I just noticed KZbin taking my comment from a year ago down, because it included a link to dropbox. So yes, it is totally accessible for people to read! Feel free to connect and I can forward you the thesis :)​@@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic

[@scottpeugh7066]

The Southern Strategy that combines racism and with religion and patriotism is probably why the evangelicals ran screaming for the Republican Party, started by Nixon but completed by Reagan, the house I grew up in switched Democrat to Republican during this time specifically because of the racism part of the triangle.

[@scottpeugh7066]

@@shockcat5988 huh?

[@steakfilly5199]

From my experience in the south I haven’t encountered many racists, but I don’t doubt they’re there

[@BleedForTheWorld]

There's also the issue of abortion when it comes to that triangle. When conservative Republicans lost the moral and legal argument against integration of black people, they started talking about abortion. They all did this for power and they never apologized for their racism.

[@norml.hugh-mann]

@@steakfilly5199 im sorry but as a southerner I think yoir full of crap aboit not seeing racism. U must be a troll

[@jonathan4189]

@@norml.hugh-mann or racist 😬

[@shaunnashandro]

It would be interesting to see a salaries chart with stipends included. The Pastor at the church I worked at in Austin was pulling in $100,000 per year, but he also had a housing stipend and they actually were paying for his house (the mortgage - he owned it!), and related expenses.

[@Dee-jq2ob]

This is what’s wrong with religion and it’s leaders

[@johngurvan8279]

Like politicians just in it for the money.

[@ashton7742]

If I had a nickel for every Atheist creator I watch that also live in the same city as I do I would have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice.

[@cherrycolareal]

@@irascibleeukaryote 🤷

[@scerdy3]

Fascinating stats. Surveys and questionnaires on beliefs always show some weird results because people are often confused about their own beliefs and also their beliefs are situational.

[@WCM1945]

Very true. It probably comapres to hearding cats.

[@jessrose4301]

Was raised without religion in NY but then moved to a small town in NC in middle school. We had a quiz on the ten commandments without going over them, one of the only quizzes I ever failed. My teacher was shocked and asked about it. I told him I had never been to church and he looked at me like a demon.

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

You are lucky he didn't try an emergency baptism Ned Flanders style :D

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

Was this a _public_ middle school in NC?

[@jessrose4301]

@@bartolomeothesatyr oh yeahhhh. Complete shock to the system

[@amandamorrow2341]

I'm a longtime watcher and I really love almost all of your content but this is one of my favorites. More like this please 😁 Keep up the great work, you are doing so much good for the world. I deconstructed in deep red north dakota and now live in Oregon 😁

[@eatshitlarrypage.3319]

Hey, welcome to Oregon! I hope you're enjoying it in our lovely state.

[@amandamorrow2341]

Indeed I am! Been here 4 wonderful years ❤️

[@Toto-cl8rw]

Interesting demographics. Being a child of the 50’s and early 60’s there was never a mention of religion at all in any discussions I had with anyone. My friends and myself found that religion was not important as a topic . It almost seemed to be a taboo topic, so no one raised the topic. This lasted most my life, so it is no wonder I am a non believer.

[@41-Haiku]

Where did you grow up?

[@caveot7672]

That sounds so nice. Being a child of the 2000’s, I can’t really bring up many topics of conversation because religion will always pop up. I scarcely talk about my views on abortion or lgbt rights because I don’t wanna spark an argument with my Christian friends. One of my friends is a far right evangelical (contrary to me being a very progressive atheist), and I can’t even talk about movies with him without it coming back around to religion or politics in some way. Crazy how much the world can change.

[@Tiny_Koi]

There was never a time in my childhood where religion wasn't brought up. I was taught to fear my parents and fear God. Needless to say I'm now an adult with extreme anxiety so.... LOL

[@thunderbird1921]

That's kind of surprising considering how strong Eisenhower was emphasizing God at the time. Maybe it was more of a doctrine thing is why they didn't discuss it.

[@Toto-cl8rw]

Canada

[@elainedavis4226]

One factor to consider in the 2008 - 2020 attendance change, nationwide churches were NOT allowed to have services in 2020 due to c/vid. It was May/June 2021 before churches in Tennessee were allowed to worship inside their sanctuaries with many restrictions imposed. In Tennesse singing wasn't allowed until July 11, 2021. Can you imagine a worship service without singing? In contrast, Nevada gambling casinos remained open with little to no restrictions.

[@timdowney6721]

As to Poland, the Catholic Church was influential in the Solidarity movement against Soviet oppression in the 1980s. Churches can be factors for good, but the more fundamentalist, the worse they are. That seems to hold across different religions.

[@chiaraimpeduglia1308]

Greetings from Italy! Here we have a situation similar to Polish, and I agree with you that religion in itself does a lot of good, but going too extreme causes damage. I think it becomes a matter of power more than one of faith.

[@slevinchannel7589]

@@chiaraimpeduglia1308 Schools s-ck, a Fact explored in the GOP-Videos of "Some More News"!

[@hypnoticmoai6509]

Weird but true fact, Poland is one of the most religious countries, while The Czech Republic is the most atheist, yet they both border each other and have very similar history.

[@elifern889]

It's probably cause of John Paul II. But also historically, Czechia was a hotbed of religious warfare, while Poland was much more tolerant of different beliefs. So maybe that's why also, I don't know.

[@majdavlk649]

@@elifern889 i remember a history class where the teacher said that clergy never held much power or land in bohemia, even before hussites

[@masterzoroark6664]

@@elifern889 Yeah, and Soviet's booting hard on religion and church- many subversive movements in Poland used to congregate in churches. And there's story of Popiełuszko- a priest murdered for being against the Soviets

[@codexcodex2026]

However, our southern neighbours have the greatest knedle on Earth :)

[@js66613]

But, despite being considered atheist, from my personal experience a lot of Czechs actually do think there is something/someone (force or person) out there and do adhere to some of the traditions just out of habit... so they're more "atheist compared to America/Poland" and not so much proper atheistic... personally I see them more as "casually christian", rather than "atheistic" as a nation, on the whole. There will be some people who are atheists - I am one myself - but I would say most hold some degree of belief in the supernatural/mythical. I mean, walk around in the "wrong" clothes and you'll get asked if you're a satanist, a lot of people still pray before christmas dinner, may occasionally attend church service though it's more casual, believe something is out there, be fond of angels and use devils and hell to scare their kids into good behaviour once a year... (and yeah, that last one is personal experience.)

[@ralphlivingston894]

Wow, I haven’t checked for a while but your channel has exploded with subscribers… Good for you… Congratulations

[@RobertTempleton64]

I think that the 1% who call themselves atheists but believe in a god are those who are maybe more against the institutionalized versions and are perhaps deistic or think there is a god but not as represented in any religion (a more amorphous, unknowable thing). That's my take on that anomaly.

[@falconJB]

When you are looking something as low as 1% there is a good chance you are just looking at people that accidently selected the wrong answer.

[@angelaschone2847]

If you are deist you aren't atheist, that is just to not know what atheism means

[@robertmiller9735]

Apologists frequently call not very devout Christians atheists; maybe those are people who believe that?

[@quill444]

We acknowledge the power of prayer, and then pray for others' prayers not to work. - j q t -

[@lightningmonky7674]

It's that or they have to be trolls. My mind usually goes to trolls, stats will always have some kind of human fuckery

[@TommyCrosby]

Curious how two of the most non-religious states border my Canadian province of Quebec that is becoming quite secular in recent years. Edit: 9:10 again, pretty much every Catholic people I know isn't practicing it these days. I wouldn't be surprised that religious minorities coming from recent waves of immigrants like muslims are actually more active in numbers than the Catholics.

[@TommyCrosby]

@@Dark_Detective yeah, huh, the real reason this law is so controversial (and against our own charts of liberties) is that Catholic people (still the high majority of Quebecers) don't really have specific clothing items to wear anyway besides a cross pendant or something like that and if you don't actively practice your religion, you won't have much issues to not wear that cross at work. That's why this law is seen so xenophobic because it's the immigrants (and let's not forget the first nations) that have religious dogmas concerning the clothing and thus they are the ones really targeted by this law even if the law is the same for everyone without any exclusion for Catholics as you wrongly mentioned.

[@TommyCrosby]

@@Dark_Detective of course it does. The law ban EVERYONE working in as a public servant or a job representing the government from wearing ANY symbols that are known to be linked to a religion.

[@coopergates9680]

@@TommyCrosby That is overkill, wearing a religious symbol that isn't overly discriminatory or hateful (like a swastika) isn't forcing religion on someone else or pushing religion into law, it's just showing identity. Some people even wear those symbols who don't subscribe to such religions

[@randomrandom450]

From Quebec too. I've been from the very few people who were raised in what I can only call a catholic cult. So it's mostly why I'm looking into atheist youtube for comfort. But Quebec has been working on separation of religion and state for a while and I think it reached the line where it's now more about xenophobia or more precisely islamophobia. I'm obviously all in for separation of church and state, I'm all in to not have religion propaganda anywhere in public, specially in government offices, but let's be honest, no catholic has a problem with not wearing a cross around their neck or anything like that, it's a ban on hijab. While I'm not a fan about hijab as an idea (I do see it as a sign of women submission and anti-feminist), I still rather go by "hate the message, not the messenger", specially if it's something they wore all their life, going on without it must feel like going to work without pants for a lot of us, so banning it means banning them to find work in government establishments and it does fuel the "us against them" mentality. People don't sympathies with their enemies, so positioning us as enemies is not the way to go.

[@perryelyod4870]

Meanwhile in Canada, the Maru polling firm, on behalf of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada did a survey of 5,011 Canadians over the age of 18, in August 2019, titled 'Church and Faith Trends' Over half of Canadians identified as atheist in it's broadest definition. The number of evangelical affiliates has been down by half in the last 25 years, and only one-tenth of the population attends religious services (all affiliations).

[@klyok]

My Polish teacher once told me that going to a church is much more a social event in Poland than religion one comparing to my country. E.g., it's a place where you socialize with other people, even if you're atheist. Of course, the church has a lot of power in Poland and promotes all the bad things you would usually expect from it, but it's not as powerful as you would derive from the statistics about church attendance.

[@Tiewaz]

Being in the over-half-century half of life now, I think it's honestly habit for the older generation to identify to a religion. Whether or not they attend services is a whole other topic. It was just easier to say you are something than have to argue against social norms. What I'm interested in seeing is if the percentages/numbers track as those in the lower age groups migrate up the chart. Do they become religious as they get older or will the number who claim affiliation with a religious institution begin to dwindle?

[@hellohsaytin6813]

I feel that most people will not convert to religion in their later years, and this will cause their children to be raised less religious, and so on. I feel that there still is this stigma against saying one is Atheist, and as more and more younger atheists become older atheists, and the current older religious people are no longer here, the stigma will slowly change. Eventually the idea of believing in supernatural entities will be viewed as ridiculous by the majority.

[@idrabohm3678]

@@hellohsaytin6813 I really hope so. It's insane that not believing in any religion comes with such stigma.

[@Inspirement]

As someone living in Sweden (as you saw in the video, basically the whole of Scandinavia was just draped in that under-2-percent blue), and I think (haven't looked it up before commenting so if you know something I don't, please educate me, everyone else treat this as speculation) that this is pretty much what happened here, only earlier. Very few people care about religion nowadays, and it doesn't have any bearing in at all really in the social or political landscape. I couldn't tell you what, if any, any of the polititians religious views are, and it doesn't matter, because it shouldn't matter. So I think (hope) that the same thing will happen in the US and other places in the world too. I see the trend, and I hope it keeps going until its logical conclusion. Religion is really nothing more than a leftover from an earlier age when people didn't have the scientific tools to properly describe the world around them. As a human let childish beliefs give way to education and learning, so does humanity need to let religion give way to scientific discovery and exploration. We are a little bit ahead of the curve compared to some places, but I'm glad to see that it looks like we're all on the same path.

[@Extinctanimals22]

I honestly feel similar as an agnostic deist in rural Missouri. Unless it is a friend or family member I trust I don't tell anyone I'm not a Christian. Of course I have enough knowledge of Christianity to pull it off easily.

[@Tiewaz]

@@Inspirement I know as a child, religion really puzzled me. My dad apparently never really went to church. My mom had been raised Roman Catholic but several incidents in her childhood (not sexual abuse far as I know) had soured her toward it and I never went to church at all. She still had an 'emergency Catholic kit' (literally a cross with a compartment holding holy water, candles and whatnot. I guess for last rites? Dunno.) My brother and I had crosses in our rooms, but that was the extent of it. I went to a few services with friends as a child and really sounded like hypocrisy. Preaching love and tolerance but certainly not practicing it. But I can see the community aspect. One of my coworkers only really goes to her church for that. She helps out with the Easter candy making and sales, helps out with the kids, etc. But I don't know she actually attends services. I think if people could figure out how to have community things beyond emergencies or helping the poor/needy, that would go a long way to replacing religion. (I, unfortunately, am exhausted of people. Don't want to be, but I just don't have the energy.)

[@heathersmith8549]

Very interesting. I recently watched a video that ranked the top 10 least religious states (based upon church attendance and those who did not believe in a higher power). And the top 5 listed were all from New England.

[@eronpowell6008]

An ex-mormon here: Mormonism is going through a rather rapid decline. Just anecdotally, almost all of my parent's adult children have left or are no longer going to church (there are 8 kids in total and 5 have left so far.) Several of my friends have left, many of my cousins, and I know that the church is losing I think around 50% of youth now. It used to be that the church could count on sending people on missions and they wouldn't leave after but alas, I served a mission and here I am. Most of us that leave feel very angry at the dogma we were fed and the amount of work we were required to do. After we leave the LDS church, we usually leave religion altogether (probably a product of being taught the mormon church is the only true church) and so there is a strong anti-religious counter culture in Salt Lake City. It's kinda like a progressive island in the state surrounded by more conservative, religious people. Basically in Utah you either have strongly religious people, or strongly anti-religious ex mormons. Of course, there are more and more people moving here from out of state but if you spend any time in Salt Lake City you are likely to run into loads of ex-mormons like myself with little respect for the church they grew up in.

[@elifern889]

Can you explain what Mormonism is? I always hear about it online, but the only thing I know about it is that it's like Islam. With Joseph Smith being Prophet Muhammad, the Book of Mormon being the literal word of God, and everything is finalized with Joseph Smith's death. It seems that you have very negative emotions towards Mormonism, but can you try to give me an unbiased summary on the religion?

[@eronpowell6008]

@@elifern889 I’ve actually gotten over the major anger I had at Mormonism. It’s just another religion but sadly it’s pretty dogmatic compared to some others. It does bring a lot of people a lot of happiness though. There are some people I converted to Mormonism on my mission that are still Mormon and very happy so I’m glad it’s working for them. Mormonism basically is any branch of Christianity that affirms Joseph Smith as being a prophet (like you said) and believes in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon isn’t the Bible- it’s its own thing and Mormons believe in both the Book of Mormon AND the Bible. The main Mormon branches also have other scriptures they believe in bringing the total volumes they hold as “word of God” to 4. The Book of Mormon is an alleged account of ancient Native Americans who saw the risen Christ and believed in him. Joseph Smith claimed to be led by an Angel to finding the book and was given holy instruments to translate it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the church I grew up in) was a branch that followed Brigham Young to Utah after Joseph was murdered. They are the largest and richest branch of Mormonism today. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, abbreviated LDS church, teaches that several times over the course of human history people stopped believing in the right form of Christianity and “fell into apostasy” (fancy language for not having the proper authority to do God’s will.) Jesus was the Christ and died for our sins and was resurrected. Jesus, to members of the LDS church, is not God but is actually his Son- just like we are God’s sons and daughters. Jesus lived a perfect life and established a perfect church with 12 apostles. After Jesus’s death and resurrection, Peter became the prophet and the apostles carried out God’s will and had the authority to run the church. Eventually though the apostles were all killed or went into hiding so the true church was once again lost. Many people tried to find the truth but couldn’t. According to the LDS church that changed in 1820 when Joseph Smith prayed and asked God which church was true. He was told that none of them were completely true but, in time, he would be led by god to establish the full, complete doctrinal truth and his only true church. Part of that included calling 12 people to be “modern day apostles” as well as having a prophet. The LDS church still has a prophet and 12 apostles. There’s a lot, lot more but I already typed an entire essay. Hopefully that helped give a brief overview.

[@eronpowell6008]

@@elifern889 if you have any more questions I would be happy to answer them!

[@elifern889]

@@eronpowell6008 Wow, it seems like there is a lot of connection between Mainstream Christianity and Mormon Christian. So why do a lot of people say Mormons are not Christian? Also about the anger part, I can totally understand. I was born into a Muslim family, but never really accepted anything into the religion. When I grew up and had a mind more of my own, I did some research on Islam and was totally shocked on how so many people can be duped into believing an obvious fraud and had a zealously against Islam. As I got older I did get more unbias on the life of Muhammad and Early Islam and I view it more as an extreme offshoot of Judaism with some Arab Paganism mixed in there. Except circumcision, that shit is so barbaric and always hated it. Even when I was "Muslim" I thought circumcision was a disgusting and evil ritual that altered the male form in order to mark members of its faith.

[@eronpowell6008]

@@elifern889 It’s really hard to take an honest look at a religion you grew up in. That’s really commendable. I had a similar experience with Mormonism but mine was more centered on if I could trust my feelings and later learned about all the bad stuff Joseph smith did that was hid from me as a kid. Really crazy stuff. Mainstream Christian’s don’t consider Mormons Christian because of the thing I talked about with Jesus not being God the father. In mainstream Christianity Jesus and the Father are one and yet distinct (I still don’t understand it.) Joseph Smith sought to unwind the confusion around the trinity by stating that Jesus actually is just another child of God like you and me but that he was so perfect that God made him an assistant God. He was also perfect enough to be able to atone for our sins. Christians view this as blasphemy because it means there is more than one God and that Jesus is not one with the father. That’s why Christians say Mormons believe in a “different Christ” and thus aren’t true Christians.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

Others have somewhat explained the Poles, but to add some historical context, Catholicism has always been a big part of Polish culture and identity, as a sort of "screw you" to the Orthodox Christianity of the people who have been the most oppressive of them (Russia), while also using it to tie themselves to the West (and especially to the other Western Slavs, the Czechs and Slovaks). Lots and lots of Poles sort of re-joined the Church after the fall of Communism, especially because the Pope was Polish. Among the younger 2 generations though, there are a lot of people who aren't actually religious who attend Catholic church, because it is such a cornerstone of the culture. To add to this, the Poles are taught to be very reverential of their grandparents and great-grandparents, and so often attend just for their sake. New Mexico's drop in attendance can largely be explained by younger Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans etc turning away from the Catholic Church, and more towards a more..."personal" faith, which usually means they are fence-sitters who don't want to make their abuela cry. It also seems we in Colorado are sort of rubbing off on them, turning them more blue and secular. Go us! And most of NM's white people are Southern Baptists, transplants from the Bible Belt. They offset the Catholics a fair bit, NM has a small population so the population of white folks in Santa Fe and ABQ definitely change their religious demographics. I've got family down there, when I was a kid, it was like going to Texas. Now it is...changing. Rapidly.

[@nenmaster5218]

The GOP, Stastistics and systemic Issues are mentioned by Drew here, and later also that many young Peoplee are in his Fanbase. All this gives me the Urge to recommend 2 Educational KZbinrs to his Fans in specific: Cody Johnston and Second-Thught are, in my Opinion, the 2 Top 'Issue-listing'-kind of KZbinrs who are not mainly Atheist-Channel. Despite being Atheists and huge LGBT-ALlys, i think many here never heard of them?

[@codexcodex2026]

Just a minor correction - Poland was baptized via Catholic Rome in 10th century due to political reasons, reasons being Germany (Holy Roman Empire to be exact, which was - in fact - not holly, not roman and not an empire in that era :) ). So Catholicism in Poland has nothing to do with Russia, there was no Russia back then and so on. The rest of your remarks is on point Sir! ;)

[@Nick-hi9gx]

@@codexcodex2026 Ah, someone I can teach some history to, wonderful! So Poland was made Catholic due to the growth of the Cyrillic (would become Orthodox) "reformation" of the Church of Constantinople and its Patriarchs. Essentially, the soon-to-be divided churches were struggling for dominance over the northeast of Europe religiously, having already sort of split the SOuthern Slavs. The Holy Roman Empire (they were indeed an empire at the time) were growing in religious power, and the Roman Catholics wanted to stop the growth of German Catholics, instead tying the Poles to Rome more than their neighbors. BUT at the same time the Rus were becoming a power, and were beginning to adopt Orthodoxy in a pretty significant way. So it was ALSO a way to keep the Orthodox from gaining more power up there. Same reason the Baltic Crusades took place, honestly. The Poles were Catholic for a long, LONG time before it because central to their culture as a part of the "we aren't like the Russians or those EASTERN Slavs!", you are right. But in the 19th century, when Polish identity was being almost erased, the Poles began to double-down on their Catholicism, hoping it would help connect them to the Western powers who would protect them, especially the Catholics in Germany. The exact opposite happened and Prussia was like "We will just take you, thanks" and Russia was like "No, they have some Orthodox transplants, give us half!" and so they did and used the Catholic/Protestant split as a part of their justification

[@codexcodex2026]

@@Nick-hi9gx You have an impressive knowledge Sir! I will come back to you in the above respect soon (it’s like 1 a.m. in Poland now ;) ). The issues I miss in your remarks are these: dude called Mieszko I (our 1st historical ruler, not king yet, however, he "baptized" Poland through marriage with a lady from Bohemia) and Saxon policy with respect to Polish & Prussian territories. Those are the circumstances that - in my view - decided that Poland is a Catholic country. Also, you are right. Later on the religious differences between Poland/Lithuania and Muscovy/Russia played a significant role.

[@Mcfreddo]

You do great work man. You're a gem. Intelligent and very articulate.

[@corv1da3]

Ay, Oregonian Atheists represent! As someone who lives there, I can confirm that once you get out of the cities it gets waaay more conservative and religious. My small town alone has a huge Mormon population, tons of churches (with three of them like 100 feet from each other) a Jehovah witnesses Temple Hall, and tons of confederate flags. One neighborhood I walk through had a house with a confederate flag across from a house with a BLM flag. Yikes lol.

[@Laeshen]

I know over in Southern Oregon there are 2-4x as many churches as there are fast food franchises in towns and the like

[@B-rad1]

The Portland Metro area is such an enigma. Newberg and West Linn are basically the poor/rich version of the same people. Hillsboro and Beaverton are a strange mix of humble and pretentious. Oregon City is like the suburban version of the Breakfast Club. Troutdale is nice enough but requires going through Gresham to do anything, and who the hell invited Canby to this party?

[@cale___]

Washington state would have a higher percentage, but the Eastern part of the state.

[@seraphonica]

Having spent a few years living in South Dakota, I would remind you that there is a relatively large population on reservations there - while they're mostly not atheists, they're also largely either members of native religion or a hybrid of native religion and christianity. However, the christians have been trying to grind that down, for sure. In the four years I lived on the res, I got door knockers about once a month from one denomination or another. If I remember right, same goes for Oklahoma, which explains how they edge out Texas, I suppose.

[@WCM1945]

I have a stepdaughter who moved from Al to Id for the purpose of recruiting for another SBC church there. She is a narcissist who thrives on being a "leader". She is also a schoolteacher there. Dangerous and spiteful person who turned against her own mother.

[@sam5992]

The Christians metastasized there long ago while they were plundering and murdering them at the same time.

[@SeptemberMeadows]

I'm from eastern Washington State, USA. I've been an atheist from my first memory but didn't know the term atheist until I was 13 years old. I'm pushing 60 now and am so appreciative that the world is crawling out of the mud.

[@Fade2GrayOG]

I'm one of those evil California atheists that moved to Texas. Half of the folks I interact with on a regular basis are from other states, so yeah Texans probably aren't changing so much as the overall demographics are shifting.

[@atherosclerosisheo3379]

Dont california my texas tho

[@Cecilia-ky3uw]

While I agree with your atheism, I ask that you do not implement the bullshit policies California has, they have ended up with absolute disaster.

[@enomiellanidrac9137]

"Lots of people thought that atheist and communist were the same thing" I think I haven't heard something so USA like in quite some time.

[@RhythmAddictedState]

As someone who isn't from the US, I can't get over how brainwashed a lot of Americans are by McCarthyism still. Conflating dictatorships and the Soviet regime with Russia, communism, socialism, progressive views, leftist views, healthcare, atheism, even homosexuality... Insane. And then the same people will tell people from other countries that THEY are brainwashed. Genuinely terrifying.

[@InciniumVGC]

They're not, but without religion most people fill that void with something else like extremist political ideology, so the correlation between atheism and far left political views is strong.

[@justanotheryoutubeaccount2270]

@@InciniumVGC Why do you think irreligious people have a void that needs filling? Maybe that could apply to some people who were really heavily invested in religion and left the religion later in their life, but there are lots of other things to spend one's time on other than politics. Folks who went to church every Sunday only have to find like a couple of hours worth of other things to do instead.

[@Katt1n]

@@InciniumVGC It's definitly not a question of filling a void, but I do think that religious communities prevent people from becoming isolated and thus religious people are less prone to being radicalized.

[@Demopans5990]

@@Katt1n Its is closer to religious communities allowing for more homogeneous thinking. It can fall to extremism just as well as individuals with the right people at the helm and with any lack for accountability, just as the Taliban and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard demonstrate. Both started as rather innocuous independence/guerilla movements based on Islam until the extremists took over

[@mosienko1983]

Yet another excellent video! I love stats and these were very fascinating and extremely well presented. My father was Russian (grew up under the Soviet regime) and was atheist. My mother is Japanese and has traditional beliefs but they aren't very important to her. I've been atheist all my life, which made things uncomfortable for me sometimes, growing up in California, but not too hard to handle. I live in Canada now and the vibe here was always much freer. Thanks for all that you are doing!

[@guthrie_the_wizard]

I’m in Jacksonville, FL. It’s still really the Bible Belt. 😔 Thanks for all the work you do promoting reason and empathy.

[@noonyakaleka2098]

Further south it is not. I'm in West Palm Beach, FL

[@LightLock]

Drew, you are a huge inspiration for young atheists everywhere who are afraid to let those closest to them know they don't believe. You're the reason I was able to tell my mother and friends, not my father yet, but one day. Thank you so much for all that you do.

[@emperoraxel]

Find Christ.

[@dr.OgataSerizawa]

@@emperoraxel Why? Is he lost??

[@vanitas.]

@@dr.OgataSerizawa Yeah, he doesn't know how to come back home

[@DonsStudios]

@@emperoraxel Pretty sure the British Museum has him

[@Lucas-sl6df]

@@emperoraxel why not find any other religion? Why not be zoroastrian? Why Christ specifically?

[@ChristianLehrer]

Thank you Ryan! The video is accurate. You might find some of The Pew Studies going back to 2014 interesting as well as they track the decline of the Catholic Church in the US. Want to Thank you for your kind words at the end to the clergy who are among the lowest paid professionals in the US. I left a better paying position in higher education to continue to serve as an Episcopal priest for a part time salary. You comments on New Hampshire made me chuckle as it is a very expensive place to live, especially housing!

[@icedragon149]

I am an Atheist from Louisiana, and I went to church as a kid, but it never felt holy, and it felt boring on the outside was never interesting. Edit: I do not support China's genocide. I believe everyone deserves to be on equal footing and that extremists on both sides are the worst type of people.

[@WCM1945]

I'm sure you feel ike "the" atheist from La.!

[@carter2865]

Not disagreeing about the China thing, but why did you bring it up? Just seems random and unrelated.

[@dyjaun94]

@ᗩᒪIYᗩᕼ people use the two terms interchangeably. I’ve found that most people identify as agnostic, but will just say they’re atheist in conversation to make it easier bc there’s a number of atheists that are truly agnostic since the reason they identify as such is through a sort of scientific method and with there being no proof either way, and no real way to say a figure of such designation actually exists or not, people tend to be more agnostic then atheistic bc they can’t back it with tangible facts.

[@icedragon149]

@@carter2865 Just because if you ask me, I do not want to be mixed up with them even though it is nothing against the Chinese people aka I'm not racist. Just do not like the Muslim genocide there.

[@carter2865]

@@icedragon149 Did someone ask you? Who then deleted the comment. Why would I or anyone ask you on a comment with nothing to do with China, genocides, authoritarianism, or anything related to it.

[@logan666]

Yes! Datavis is such a good way to get these points across! Thank you Drew!

[@maciejrokita1367]

Hi Drew! I appreciate Your channel very much - thank You for the good work You put into every single video of Yours! In Poland, where I live, the Catholic Church had assumed the mantle of opposition against the communist regime. It was in many regards the only large and organized enough institution to make a dent in the system, be it in a less formal manner - in social interactions rather than actual representation in the monopolised one-party politics. After 1989 it was generally understood that the Church could - and in many a mind even should - cash in on that and that is exactly what they've done - big time. The newly democraticized 3rd Republic of Poland had signed the so called Concordate with the Holy Chair - an international treaty quite beneficial to the Varican. And although the Constitution from 1997 stipulated a division between Church and State, in reality the former has enjoyed almost unhinged political power as kingmakers of sorts in the Parliamentary elections. To nobody's surprise successive ruling coalitions offered the Church a whole litany *chuckle* of state sponsored measures towards proliferation of religion and Church authority as a token of appreciation, beginning with an abortion "compromise" making it barely possible to terminate a pregnancy and certainly not ending with state sponsored religion classes in schools. By and large the current liberal voter population, based mostly in larger urban centers, demands a true division of power and wants to rid the state of religious influence, while voter in less densely populated areas are quite happy with the ruling pro-church party.

[@cineblazer]

Can confirm that in America lots of Mormons are leaving the religion, more than were leaving ten or twenty years ago for sure. The church is growing in poorer countries and shrinking in richer countries. Source: I left Mormonism (and theism in general) over the past year Additionally, regarding your surprise at Utah not being totally dominated by Mormons population-wise: that percentage is dropping. In recent years Utah's started becoming an tech startup hub (there's even an area near Provo nicknamed Silicon Slopes) and as such there are lots of non-Mormons moving to the state. Salt lake city historically has been mormon dominated but is now well under 50% mormon.

[@timdowney6721]

Three decades ago, I would go to SLC a couple times/year for business. It always had to me an intrusive, creepy vibe. The closest I’ve been since is Moab/Canyonlands/Bryce Canyon trips. I’m glad SLC is uncoupling at least partially from the LDS. Before the lake dries up and toxic dust moves in.☹️

[@B-rad1]

@@timdowney6721 I've heard people describe LA as superficial, judgemental, and pretentious, but it doesn't even compare to the SLC suburbs.

[@JM-us3fr]

I suspect that one of these days a politician will go up on stage and blatantly accuse the Mormons of being a cult. Mormonism tries to cover up so many stories and they've influenced so much politics that they will eventually make themselves public enemy number 1.

[@misterrea861]

Hang in there, slick, it can be a tough road. I hope if your fam remains Christian, yall can at least still have civil and enjoyable holidays together.

[@cineblazer]

@@misterrea861 I have a very supportive family and while they remain in the church they're definitely progmos and I think very highly of them. I got very lucky to be in the situation I'm in and feel pretty happy with where I am.

[@fiery.spirit]

As for the people in Utah who attend church at least once a year, there's a lot of pressure to attend for family events, like baby blessings, missionary farewells and homecomings, baptisms of children, etc. The whole family doesn't necessarily believe, but if your sibling or friend from high school is leaving for 2 years to be a missionary, for example, you might go to their farewell speech at church.

[@Rose-Dew]

The statistics are interesting to see, especially combined. And nice to see a bit of Europe included.

[@SpencerTwiddy]

Loved this style of video! Reminds me of Drew Durnil's content

[@raymondcarty4325]

The 25% of Ireland is literally just old people. Almost every old person goes to church and it’s extremely rare to find someone younger than 60 that attends church regularly in my experience. Just the other day I met a woman who was around 70 and she told me that that week was the first time ever she missed Mass.

[@Salt_Master_Queue]

6:08 As an active Mormon under the age of 25, I can agree. There is a huge push for people around my age who want to get married, especially after the whole mission thing. It irks me to no end cause I wanna make sure that I *know* that I am ready, even if that takes me another 5+ years.

[@dabordietrying]

yep! exmormon in utah, I'll be 20 in Feb. i know so many people here who are mormon and are pregnant or have a kid. or both. people that are my age and younger. i remember in highschool seeing people getting pregnant and posting their baby bumps. its just like. sheesh. y'all are still babies yourselves?? like i respect y'all but it's just crazy. y'all have a life to live still. money to make. an unstable economy. its just scary, idk

[@darksu6947]

Is the magic underware comfortable? I'm think of converting if they are.

[@apophenic_]

I'm sorry for your brainwashing.

[@paulthompson9668]

10:48 You would agree that there is systemic racism in policing in the United States that must be addressed. Drew, can you do a video on that using the same objective approach you always do with links to your citations?

[@trishapellis]

Upvoting this not because I agree with your sentiment (because I'm not sure from your phrasing where exactly you lean but at face value I think I disagree) but because if seeing a video made by Drew with evidence might be able to settle your mind, I definitely want that video to be a thing. Might you be willing to post some of the concerns that primarily make you lean in the direction you are leaning so he might know which concerns in particular to definitely address?

[@fresholiveoil6490]

That's an interesting thought. I definitely believe there's problems with policing; however, I don't think it's mostly a matter of racism (though in some cases that sadly exists). I suspect it's more because of the belief that government is the ultimate standard for right and wrong. If as a policeman one believes the government (might) is always right, he will end up abusing power. But if you can prove that it's mostly racism, I'll listen.

[@paulthompson9668]

@@trishapellis I repeated Drew's position that he "would agree that there is systemic racism in policing in the United States that must be addressed." In your reply, you said "at face value I think I disagree". Are you saying that you disagree with Drew? Now, to answer your question, my concern is that I have been presented with insufficient evidence to form any conclusion with confidence. Those on the right have been unable to convince me that acts of racism in the US are isolated, and those on the left have been unable to convince me that acts of racism in the US are systemic.

[@ricga6795]

I agree with you too, upvote. It feels like at these topics drew is not as sceptical as he is with believers and other topics. Thats sad to me, i like him for beeing sceptical of stuff, not for his ideological stance.

[@trishapellis]

@@paulthompson9668 My apologies, I tried to stay intentionally vague to avoid getting raged at, as has happened to me (and probably to all of us) before on the internet. I understood your initial post to mean that you disagreed with Drew (The combination of repeating his phrase where he "would agree that there is systemic racism [...]" followed immediately by a request for sources to back up this idea sounded skeptical towards the initial idea in my mind), so when I said "I think I disagree" what I meant was I thought I disagreed with *you*. To make everything abundantly clear: I agree with Drew that there is systemic racism in the US police force that needs to be addressed. From the way your original post was worded, I concluded that you believed the systemic racism thing was not real, so I said that "at face value", meaning, as far as I was able to infer from what you had written, I disagreed with your position. Either way, I agree that a video in Drew's usual style and with his usual rigorous research and links to sources would be a good thing for everyone.

[@ellie8272]

As a Canadian, seeing statistics this high feels surreal. I would be absolutely terrified living in a country that heavily religious

[@jennw6809]

It is terrifying! Growing up in an atheistic family, for much of my life I didn't realize how religious our country was becoming... I live in Washington State, as far from the south as you can get. I'm actually shocked at how religious we are in this state, and that we aren't as atheistic or nondenominational as Oregon or California. I feel like religion doesn't play any part in my life, but I have always noticed that there sure are a LOT of churches around even here, if you look. I'm agahst at what's happening in politics. For many years I've heard people make jokes about immigrating to Canada and now I really want to.

[@ellie8272]

@@jennw6809 If you can I really recommend it. It's very nice her for many reasons

[@TheSkyGuy77]

Its not terrifying Its just a culture thing. Most will leave you alone tbh

[@ellie8272]

@@TheSkyGuy77 Are you a minority?

[@jennw6809]

@@ellie8272 Maybe someday! You're sane up there! ❤

[@russepperson5833]

Cost of living in MONTANA is definitely not low. Moved here eleven years ago from TN and I would say COL is approximately 30% higher or more. I have been in ministry the last eleven years. Thanks for your work in putting this information together.

[@dmike3507]

From what I've seen cities in western Montana are receiving a huge population influx that's driving up prices, maybe eastern Montana is still cheap.

[@OwOraTheWitch]

When it comes to millennials and zoomers I think the reason they have about the same amount of people who don't find religion important to them could be because more zoomers have been getting sucked into new agey spiritualist religions like Wicca or other pagan religions because of their prevalence on TikTok and other social media. So theres still been a lot more people leaving organized religion, but they've just been replacing it more with unorganized religions. At least that's been my experience with other people in my age group.

[@Demopans5990]

It could also be gen z learning more about the world through the internet which does well to bust bubbles sometimes. But I'd partly agree - organized religion is declining in general everywhere

[@SirB0bby]

That's partly true. As a 20 year old exmormon raised in Utah. The main reason I left the church was due to the amount of hatred and unacceptance from Mormons. I think as the U.S. gets more secular and more humanistic, the more we will see decreased church attendance.

[@Bolsonaro_em_Haia]

About your question around 9'20", and coming from a Brazilian perspective: it is not unusual for largely Catholic communities to have low church attendance. For many people Catholicism is nearly as involuntary a legacy as their own native language. You are expected to acknowledge and show a measure of respect for both, but sometimes it is just way too obvious that there was no choice involved, and therefore commitment is hardly expected. As a matter of fact, communities with high percentages of Catholics tend to be slightly confused about the role of the church, and sometimes treat it as an extension of civil government. One of the reasons why Protestants have been gaining so much ground in those communities is because Protestant churches are smaller and often are or at least seem to be more interested in hearing and giving voice to individual, particularly motivated worshippers.

[@sofiatgarcia3970]

Interesting video Drew. At 65, I'm outside your regular demographic but I watch your channel religiously. (pun intended). How I present myself to others depends on who they are, and I tend to use both the terms agnostic and atheist, but most often simply say I'm a non-believer.

[@stevenscott2136]

I do the same. It's an irrelevant distinction anyway, since all three terms mean exactly the same thing to a religious person, and who else would you be telling?

[@Metaflossy]

I moved from Utah to Alabama and it seemed like there were a lot more atheists/agnostics in Utah, at least in Salt Lake City at my work places / schools it was 50% mormon and 50% atheist. Now that I'm in Alabama, pretty much everyone around me except my boyfriend is religious, and it feels very difficult and intimidating to open up about myself to anyone for fear of being judged. I have no problem making friends with religious people, but chances are they believe other things that make me afraid be myself.

[@MarikHavair]

There are two things you need to learn. 1: Everyone is judging everything about you all the time. 2: Nobody gives a shit about you or what you do unless it inconveniences them. 3: These are not contradictions because the conclusion of 99.999% of #1's judgements are that you're completely irrelevant and not worth further consideration. 4: This formula is universal across all peoples cultures and creeds.

[@Rickywwx]

You're afraid of being judged by those who profess to follow teachings like "Judge not that ye be not judged?" Say it ain't so? Jesus called them hypocrites. Today we call them narcissists. I don't mean to be too harsh here; I know a LOT of absolutely fantastic religious people. I consider myself *somewhat* religious, but "fantastic" maybe not so much. Just wanted to point out the irony here.

[@AzureKnight2]

The swap of the Evangelicals from Democrats to Republicans in the 70's isn't surprising at all. That's the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act being passed by LBJ, so the Dixiecrats (which we probably most of the Evangelicals) jumped from the Democrats to the Republicans. The parties basically switched voter bases. And you also have the influence of the Southern Strategy as well. And yeah, then Reagan and the Bushes really drove it home that the Republicans are a Christian Political Party.

[@guymontag349]

Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich were also largely responsible for evangelicals becoming more political and moving to the far right.

[@AzureKnight2]

@@guymontag349 Absolutely. The whole thing was intricately tied together to both gain political power for Evangelicals and to build an intensely loyal voting block for the Republicans.

[@eds1942]

And Christian media played into underlining that from the early 80’s on.

[@taranbaze1448]

81% of Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act.

[@eds1942]

@@taranbaze1448 You’re thinking about it from the wrong perspective. The party name doesn’t really matter. It’s the ideology of the party’s members, normally of the party leadership that do. In this case, the southern conservatives (who had been Democrats until then) switched parties because of the their own party’s role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act and calls from certain members of the Republican Party (Republican’s like Nixon). By the time Reagan came into office, both parties had changed ideologically, with the Republican’s being solidly conservative. And thanks to the conservative side of the media since around 1980 (back then, that was spearheaded by TV Evangelists), that conservative lean has only strengthened over the decades. On the other side, the Democrats couldn’t find a solid position and message until Bill Clinton came to office in the 90’s. And now we have generations that don’t remember or know about the post-Civil Rights Act ideological shift. And it’s only been until maybe this past decade that the average American cared much about the politics to the point that there’s been this constant political discourse. Even 10-15 years ago, it was still considered common respect to keep our political views to ourselves to avoid needless and unproductive arguments and offense.

[@Scorpius65]

New subscriber and funny thing an atheist from Oregon. I have been catching up on some of your videos and you seem to be a very intelligent young man. Have to say these graphics are pretty spot on. Haven't always been an atheist. I take that back I probably have been just was taken down the wrong path. Sort of like you, mine was down a christian cobblestone known as Jehovah's witnesses by way of Mom. But from the earliest I can remember I could not believe in such stories that had no substance or reality. The one of Noah's ark really was too much for me to grasp even at such a young age I knew it was impossible for such thing to happen. I was one to keep my mouth shut throughout life but just roll with the punches my best friend my entire life since first grade is a Mormon. Not only that he's a Mormon Bishop right now he came from a family of mormons like most of them do. Throughout life we've had long talk soon religion different viewpoints we have never been at odds we've always respected each other's views tell recently when I decided to let my true colors fly. Cuz a little bit of ripple in my family too letting them know that I do not believe in a god and I don't think I ever did. I just wish I would have came to the realization to have done this a long time ago instead of at the age I am now. Didn't have a way of listening to a person like you when I was a kid they didn't have computers back then. Much less KZbin. I've had to do all my research on my own. Archeology anthropology ancient languages yada yada yada pulling everything together. Anyway just wanted you to know I commend you for having this channel letting someone else out there have a chance to do something about his life before it's too late and I don't mean that in a bad way just want people to be informed of the truth of matters. Take care I'll be watching.

[@Alan_Duval]

Such good timing. These graphs will be excellent to illustrate some of what I'm writing about, now, regarding Roe v. Wade. The switch in evangelical voting patterns was down to Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, which was, itself, due to Paul Weyrich landing upon the idea to use abortion as the wedge issue because segregation didn't play so well anymore on the national stage. Additionally, I'd wager that, when Evangelicals were majority Democrat, they merely "leaned" Democrat, but now they tend to be "fervently" Republican.

[@iinathaniii2]

Here in Oregon I can say it makes sense we have more non religious people going to church. I went while non religious, and I saw teachers and others there I knew weren't religious, we have a good sense of community here and I imagine a lot of people go to church for family and friends. At least from my experience church here seemed much less judgemental and negative as many ex Christians say.

[@kerrynight3271]

I'm an elderly atheist, and I'm close friends with a young woman who doesn't really believe anything, but isn't against the idea of there being a god. She is in a very tough situation and I've actually encouraged her to attend church in order to make some decent friends. I am friends with some absolutely lovely Christians. If all Christians acted like these folks do, what a wonderful world we'd have.

[@jeffreyb8770]

This is a tough topic! How can God hear 8 billion prayers simultaneously, half of them asking the opposite what the other half asks? He answered mine, so I'm 'stuck' believing. One interesting thing, we're asked to be patient while waiting for answers, so maybe God IS busy answering them!

[@Stoneeeeemo]

loved this very informative, you should do a world version of this if you ever find the time to!

[@M4ttNet]

Having lived in Oregon for 4 years (in Eugene, OR) I can understand why they both have the most agnostic/atheist but also not the lowest church attendance rates. I was in the "liberal Christian" stage of my deconstruction when I lived there and at least in Eugene there were some "very" liberal Christian churches that made attendance a lot more tenable for people who are falling off the bandwagon. For example a church where the pastor and proponents embrace the historical Jesus scholars (one I attended was a friend and attended trips to Jerusalem with the Jesus scholar Marcus Borg for example) and don't always believe in a divine Jesus.

[@ea5145]

it's pretty well documented that abortion brought evangelicals to the Republican party. it originally wasn't a huge issue, but it was intentionally weaponised by the Right to expand their base. There are documented meetings of republicans in that era sitting down and trying to come up with something that could rile people up. obviously it's not actually one single issue because politics and trends are complicated, but that is the main contributor.

[@falconJB]

Evangelicals didn't really start caring about abortion until the 70s when they largely had to drop pro-segregation as their wedge issue.

[@ea5145]

@@falconJB yes, after segregation started to become really unpopular, republicans had to find a new wedge issue. They settled on abortion, among a few other things, and decided to consciously make it a religious issue as well in order to intertwine politics and religion. It stuck really well, clearly. A lot of that forced birth stuff is self driven among religious ppl, but I don't want us to forget that politicians disingenuously cooked this up for their own personal gain. That "babies" were never the issue

[@Cecilia-ky3uw]

@@ea5145 E A, well babies are now the issue and they have some point to make. I dislike the strawman of "well origins of the idea" and for that matter the origins can be argued about, well origins of the idea is like saying hitler had a good idea, so that good idea is bad, or hitler had a decent idea, but that decent idea is bad, or even hitler had an idea we can consider about, but because he is hitler, the idea is bad, you get the point.

[@ea5145]

@@Cecilia-ky3uw I wasn't making a pro-abortion argument. I was explaining the strategy Republicans used to expand their base, because GMS asked in this video. I don't think what I said is an effective argument against the pro life movement either. But, completely separately from this situation, I do think encouraging people to ask "Who is benefiting politically from my position, and why? Are my politicians being honest about their positions or trying to manipulate me?" Is a valid thing to do when paired with an actual argument. But yes, it is not an argument in and of itself. .... But I wasn't making that argument :)

[@Cecilia-ky3uw]

@@ea5145 i can understand that.

[@colederusha1747]

The age thing could also come down to being scared of mortality. The closer you get to death, the scarier it is not to be able to escape nonexistence.

[@kerrynight3271]

I was so proud of my brother. He, like me, was an atheist, and when he was literally 12 hours from dying, he laughed when offered a visit from a chaplain.

[@10thletter40]

​@@kerrynight3271 Idk if I'd necessarily be proud of that, but I guess it is nice he kept true to his beliefs.

[@TheCognitiveDissident]

As a young native Utahn and Ex-Mormon myself, I can attest that there is a surprisingly large number of “inactive” Mormons in Utah, who are still counted as members on official Church records, but who simply have stopped going to church entirely. Many of these people may still identify as “Mormon” to some extent, despite lack of faith or church attendance, because the term “Mormon” is for many of them, more than just a religious faith, but a symbol of the entire culture and community they grew up in, which is tied to their family and friends. Many “inactive” members might not want to cut themselves off entirely from the church, because that could mean losing their friends, family, and identity. So instead, they shy away from labels and try to just fly under the radar, living their best life. This is why it’s so confusing to outsiders, because usually, the line between “members” and “non-members” isn’t exactly clear. There many factors which blur the lines, and there is a lot of gray area between various identities. Almost every native Utahn has some sort of cultural tie to the church, but it’s often unclear what exactly that tie is. (Disclaimer, this is all just based on my own experience and observations).

[@capercaillieskye]

Also an exmo who grew up in Utah 🙋‍♀️ and all of this is very true. It's really challenging to get your name removed from the church's records (I speak from experience), and until you do, they still count you in their membership numbers. Even if you haven't been to church in years. So the numbers can be a bit deceptive. It's also definitely true that there's a big continuum from very orthodox mormon to progressive mormon to inactivite but still identifying as mormon to entirely ex-mormon. It's a complex situation really.

[@TheCognitiveDissident]

@@capercaillieskye Oh yeah for sure. This definitely contributes to the statistical confusion as well. You could be a total and complete atheist (like me) and still be counted on the church records. What further muddies the waters though is that not all Ex-Mormon atheists want to be identified by terms such as “Ex-Mormon” or “Atheist,” so they might just self-identify as “inactive” or “Mormon Agnostic,” even though their beliefs might be practically identical to the “Ex-Mormon Atheists.” I think the the term “ExMo” has a sort of “Anti-Mormon” connotation to it, and a lot of people don’t want to be seen as “anti” church

[@capercaillieskye]

@@TheCognitiveDissident Yep, very good and fair points. I agree, there does seem to be a problem of many mormons considering anyone who leaves to be an "anti-mormon." You say you've left mormonism, and they automatically assume you're one of those "dangerous anti-mormons out to destroy the church" when in fact you may not be "anti" at all. So I can definitely see people choosing to identify in a different way, such as "mormon agnostic." Which of course causes further statistical distortions.

[@danielbackley9301]

Sounds like they are what my family was in regards to being Catholic namely Culturally Catholic as to being practicing or devout Catholic.

[@vaethia8908]

It is comforting to see that religion has greatly declined in Utah, because of how it corrupt Mormonism feels. As someone who grew up in an area littered with churches, so much stuff there feels so immoral. That's not to say everyone there is bad, but it certainly took a toll on my mental health growing up.

[@WCM1945]

I found religious morality to be generally very superficial.

[@todddammit4628]

These numbers mask something else too. For years when I was actually an agnostic, I still identified as a Christian, even though I really no longer believed in it. It took a long time to be able to openly come out as a non-believer. I don't think my experience is atypical, and those numbers are hiding thousands (if not millions) of people still coming to terms with their new beliefs/lack-there-of.

[@donsample1002]

The difference in atheist/agnostic identification among older people might just be that older people have had more time to learn the finer levels of meaning behind the two terms, as used in philosophical discussions of the subject.

[@sam5992]

I think that can be accounted for in every generation, not just for people born in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

[@Amigo21189]

Having had more time in which something could have been learned is no indicator of whether it has been learned.

[@thebuddercweeper]

Whenever I see statistics like these for the US, it shocks me. I live in the UK which is about 50% christian and over 30% non-religious overall, but in younger generations over 50% non-religious.

[@alanclague2333]

Another oddity is the US that has a secular constitution that separates church and state, is more religious than the UK which has a state church, bishops sitting in the house of lords, a monarchy that is both head of state and head of religion, one of the king's titles is 'defender if the faith'. In practice UK politics is actually quite secular.

[@thebuddercweeper]

@@alanclague2333 I've noticed that as well, a very strange contrast.

[@Serenity_yt]

@@thebuddercweeper That's true for many european countries though. Germany for example has no seperation of Church and State and while there is no state religion (mostly cause the Lutheran/ Catholic split is pretty 50/50) There is mandatory religion class for all students in state schools (you get to choose denomination and they offer ethics as a neutral alternative but most kids go to explicitly protestant or catholic class), mandatory school services, crosses (and prayer) in public schools and government buildings and the ruling Party for a majority of the existance of modern Germany were the CDU or Christian Democratic Union. Still the percentage of religious people is quite low compared to the US. Austria takes it a step farther they also dont have the split between catholics and protestants so maybe thats why catholicism and going to church is much more prevalent. In my Austrian schools there were the same number of Muslim and Protestant students (they didnt offer ethics) about 4 per 100 kids. So they actually had to pull 4 grades together to get one class for each and those were always tacked on in the afternoons so a lot of people just went into the catholic class anyways to not have to stay longer. In my Bavarian school they got about 1 protestant class per year and 3 to 4 catholic ones while ethics was one class for multiple grades.

[@elifern889]

RELIGION IS NOT A CHOICE! Religion is just given to you and plays a very huge role in a person's/cultures identity. It is very well that many of those who identity as "Christian" do so more for the cultural/historic reasons rather than one of faith and actual belief. A more accurate map would be of church attendance and how many people find the importance of basic doctrines in their religion.

[@hanna-writes]

I’m Scandinavian, and yeah, we’re wonderfully secular. I grew up in the church (have since left), but outside of that context, it’s rare to hear religion mentioned.

[@alissagrissom6437]

I am not from Poland but my most recent roommate was Polish. There's a lot of Catholicism there. She was helping a pro-choice group translate their materials, which is how I heard about it (since sometimes she'd ask me for insight into different English phrases).

[@donsample1002]

One thing to always keep in mind when looking at survey results, is that people lie on surveys. I know I do it (especially on those google surveys that pop up before videos) That’s why you should always take a look to see if the surveyor includes their estimated error rate. Any that doesn’t should probably be ignored. That 1% of people who say they do believe in god, but identify as atheist should likely be read as something like “1%, +- 5%”

[@jithel7948]

Hi, 52 here, lost my faith around age 24, struggling to retain something from it for years, also struggling to reconcile my commitment to truth with my commitment to loving my believer wife who didn't ask for any of this and who is terrified for my soul. Anyway, for the graph at 7:40, you wondered why as age increases a gap opens up between agnostic identification and atheist identification. My preferred explanation is humility and compassion softening the edges of disbelief, perhaps out of concern for a beloved partner. But the more likely explanation is the approach of death and the great unknown beyond it, an attempt to leave a door open so to speak.

[@thefisherking78]

Yeah, I have known a lot of nearly or completely non-practicing Catholics in my life. It is interesting how many of those still consider Catholicism a key part of their identity and will vehemently defend the church against criticism.