Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time

Re:Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time by codeulike on Monday March 29, 2021 @10:16AM (#26621916)

The difference in politics is interesting too - in the USA politicians have to be shown to be religious - people discuss the possibility that Bernie Sanders' might be atheist like its a potential major scandal. In the UK its the exact opposite, we don't want our leaders to be religious. Its ok for them to go to a big church service or lay a wreath or something but if they start talking about their 'faith' (as Tony Blair did somewhat) we get weirded out.

Jeremy Corbyn's atheism is an interesting example - the right wing press found all sorts of ways to vilify or criticise him, but his atheism never came up as a criticism - because atheism in the UK is a complete non issue. No-one cares. Compare with Bernie Sanders.

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Re:Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time by zuminator on Monday March 29, 2021 @10:49AM (#26622521)

If you're running for major office in the US, announcing your fealty to God is a kind of real-world implementation of Pascal's wager. That is, if you are openly atheist you will earn the condemnation of a large cohort of believers, and lose many votes. But if you're religious, only a small few atheists will write you off as a candidate. So it's always to your political advantage to claim religious adherence, even if you're not. Arguably patently insincere lip-service actually works better than principled devotion in this respect.

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Re:Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time by codeulike on Monday March 29, 2021 @11:13AM (#26622955)

real-world implementation of Pascal's wager

Indeed, well put

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