this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
223 points (97.4% liked)

Atheism

4839 readers
408 users here now

Community Guide

Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.

Statement of Purpose

Acceptable

Unacceptable

Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.

Inadvisable

Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.

Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.

 ~ /c/nostupidquestions

If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!

Connect with Atheists

Help and Support Links

Streaming Media

This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.

Orgs, Blogs, Zines

Mainstream

Bibliography

Start here...

...proceed here.

Proselytize Religion

From Reddit

As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
223
Millennials are abandoning organized religion. A new study provides insight into why (www.psypost.org)
submitted 13 hours ago by bytesonbike@discuss.online to c/atheism@lemmy.world
73 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Over the past few decades, the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated—often referred to as “nones”—has grown rapidly. In the 1970s, only about 5% of Americans fell into this category. Today, that number exceeds 25%. Scholars have debated whether this change simply reflects a general decline in belief, or whether it signals something more complex. The research team wanted to explore the deeper forces at play: Why are people leaving institutional religion? What are they replacing it with? And how are their personal values shaping that process?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I feel like they're missing an important point

Most organized religions blue the line between clergy and god so followers need to believe their religious leaders are pretty close to infallible, like God is claimed to be.

However with modern society, information is easy to get and everywhere. So people know about organized religion's issues, and without that structure and reinforcement, we see a slower but substantial reduction in general belief in God that will continue for generations as less people are indoctrinated into organized religion at a young age.

Not sure why the author acts like it's a mystery

[–] N0t_5ure@lemmy.world 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Most organized religions blue the line between clergy and god so followers need to believe their religious leaders are pretty close to infallible, like God is claimed to be.

It's because the fundamental purpose of religion is control for the purpose of concentrating power.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

It’s because the fundamental purpose of religion is control for the purpose of concentrating power.

Not at first, but the people in the organization who want that will rise to the top due to ruthlessness.

Especially because the already established religions in the area will try to crush the new one, and that persecution makes that concentration of power a necessity to fight back. Which is a reason even dominant religions still claim they're being persecuted.

It's not just a religious issue, it's just sociology in general. Humans evolved for groups of like 250 people, so all our gut instincts are shit when scaled up to millions of people. To compensate we fall back to labels and generalizations, and nuance goes out the window.

Exploiting all that makes it easy to move up in any power structure, so on a long enough timeline the majority of people in charge are going to be willing to do anything to increase their organization's power, because that increases their personal power.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 13 hours ago

Most organized religions blue the line between clergy and god so followers need to believe their religious leaders are pretty close to infallible, like God is claimed to be.

Can you explain what you mean by this? It's probably obvious to Westerners, but I'm not sure how this works in practice.