Ask Americans what their religion is, and nearly 1 in 3 say this -- none. That’s according to the U.S. adults surveyed by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.

Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.

“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.

  • @paddirn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    124•9 months ago

    I don’t mind people going to Church and practicing their religion, as long as they stay in their lanes and they’re not trying to force their religious beliefs on everybody else. Trying to better yourself and your community is great, there’s a ton of really nice people out there who go to Church and are just all around good people. It’s all the assholes that think their belief trumps everyone else’s rights that need to eat shit.

    • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      77•9 months ago

      Not minding your own business is pretty much why Europeans settled North America…

      The Pilgrims love to say they escaped persecution, but really they were far right extremists who were all pissed off most of Europe wouldn’t follow their strict rules.

      So they came to America and started pumping out as many kids as possible. With the goal to become the majority so they could force everyone to follow their rules.

      We’re worse off because there’s no more “empty” land to send them all too. If we ever colonize another planet, it’s 100% going to be extremists overwhelmingly signing up to go first. Until then, we’re stuck with them.

        • @vonbaronhans@midwest.social
          40•9 months ago

          I think their point is that the pilgrims set the cultural precedents for what would later become America, to which later immigrants would be beholden.

          I don’t know how true that is, but I think “protestant work ethic” is at least one example of that sort of thing.

        • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9•9 months ago

          Would they have came here if the pilgrims didn’t first?

          Like, not just “would they have wanted to” but would the Native population have repopulated the shoreline by then and repelled any settlers like they did the vikings?

          The pilgrims were successful at gaining a foothold because they showed up in a place and time the local population had mostly just died off from sickness and the survivors initially helped the pilgrims.

          50 years later, even 20 or 10 years later and it would be a different story.

          • @afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
            3•9 months ago

            The Pilgrims didn’t come here first (of the Europeans). They were beaten by multiple different European groups.

            Like, not just “would they have wanted to” but would the Native population have repopulated the shoreline by then and repelled any settlers like they did the vikings?

            I don’t know. Why don’t you ask the French traders that came before or the Spanish pushing upwards from the entire continent they had control over?

            The pilgrims were successful at gaining a foothold because they showed up in a place and time the local population had mostly just died off from sickness and the survivors initially helped the pilgrims.

            Not relevant to your argument. Also I am fairly confident you are mixing up the Pilgrims and the Purtains. But hey facts don’t matter anymore so believe whatever you want.

            • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
              11•9 months ago

              When you make comments like that, people stop trying to help you…

              Although I’ve noticed a trend where people like you assume they “win” when the other person gives up helping you. Just a heads up that’s not what it means.

    • @eestileib@sh.itjust.works
      32•9 months ago

      “Staying in your lane” is the exact opposite of what Christians and Muslims are explicitly ordered to do. Convert acquisition is the primary objective of both faiths.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        24•9 months ago

        The Bible says if a family member considers another religion (or you just suspect they are) it’s your duty to God to kill them before it spreads to other people in your family.

        It’s why ill never trust the people who claim they have to follow the bible literally. Either they don’t know what it says, or they’re absolute psychos.

        Edit:

        https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 13:6-10&version=KJV

        6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

        7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

        8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

        9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

        10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage

      • @electrogamerman@lemmy.world
        3•9 months ago

        Exactly this.

        Dont forget the part about having as many children as possible and convert them too.

        There is no religion telling their servants to love their children even if they are not religious.

    • @kromem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13•9 months ago

      Honestly while I get that the whole “you do you” mantra is the politically appropriate line these days…

      No, I’m fucking not ok with people practicing their religions.

      I’m really not ok with people telling their children that it’s not only possible for dead bodies to get back up and float up into the sky, but that it 100% happened and is the only reason they aren’t going to suffer eternally.

      I’ll not ok with getting together to talk about how men are inherently better than women and that it was fine that an old dude raped a 9 year old because she was mature for her age.

      I’m not ok with passing along the instructions that who your parents were defines an appropriate social caste for the rest of your life based on the supposed mechanics of resurrection.

      These are not appropriate things for a modern society, and honestly I’m tired of pretending that it is fine.

      Yes, I think the right to have the government not interfere in religion is important, but that’s a separate issue from whether or not I’m ‘fine’ with the superstitions from an age when people peed on their hands to clean them continuing to be given a social pass purely out of respect for ancestral tradition.

    • @electrogamerman@lemmy.world
      5•9 months ago

      The thing is the whole purpose of religion is to force beliefs into others to attract them into the religion and make them pay money. THAT’S LITERALLY WHY RELIGIONS WERE INVENTED.

      There is no “Im religious but I let other live their lifes.” They are constantly being told to invite friends and family to convert them and to have 10 children, so the children can be converted too.