The ARIS 2008 Report

Van Morrison sings about it "...no religion, no religion, no religion here today." Now the new ARIS [American Religious Identification Survey 2008] is out today and it shows another reduction in American faith.

The first survey was done in 1990. 86% of Americans viewed themselves as Christians. This dropped in 2001 to 77% and in 2008 to 76%. Moreover, the group with NO religious affiliation, those who claim to be atheist or non religious, has grown to 15% or 34 million Americans. Even the silliest Group, those who claim "don't know" or undecided, grew to 5% of the population. One can assume these are not deep thinkers since they have no opinion on the topic. Only the Muslims grew in numbers who believe. In 1990 they were .3% and in 2008 they doubled to .6 % of the population. I'm sure this is only a fad...it being cool to be Muslim during the last 10 years.

With all the prayers at football games and on American Idol, people thanking Jesus for making a touchdown or moving to the final 13, you would think Belief was on the rise. But no. More and more Americans like those in Europe, are saying they are secularist.

Here is a link to the study: http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/ Go read this for yourself. Whatever you believe, this study seems to say all the public displays of religion are not reflecting the reality of American Faith.

Me, oh, I'm sticking with Santa. He brought me the bicycle and proved himself to me many years ago.