Atheism Up, Religion Down in US

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FYI - Newser is trolling us.

Well, this certainly looks like the hot topic! I'm an atheist myself, but likely because I'm older (mid-50's) and have lost a lot of the anger that I felt as a young man being ostracized and cut off from the closed, fundamentalist religion of my family, I do not have the same proselytizing zeal as so many of these young "new atheists" who've just put down their copies of The God Delusion and feel the need to preach the gospel of deconversion to the religious adherents out there. So, after years of wishing that there was a non-religious equivalent to religion, I find myself not very happy with the atheist/humanist meetup groups and especially - online atheism since the internet age got started. The big problem for me is that I have never considered liberal religions or the liberal practice of religion....since not everyone who belongs to a fundamentalist church acts like a fundamentalist....to be my enemy.  My problem with religion is strictly with those religious leaders who use their churches as a powerbase to enrich themselves, advance political agendas, and just enjoy the rock-star status that comes along with these gigantic megachurches, and their zealous followers who hand over their tithes and extra offerings, and vote for the candidates that their preachers tell them to. First, I want to see the religious tax exemptions scaled back to levels that they were intended for, and not allowing multimillionaire televangelists to live tax free and fly around in private jets!  The original intent for the tax exemptions was for the minister or priest, and the church building alone; not the auditoriums, mansions, and mini-shopping malls that some of these monstrosities have today, and operate tax-free. This is where the church/state battle should be fought today, not trying to ban nativity scenes at city hall.  The change in religious adherence over the last 20 years is not a sign that atheism is growing in popularity and  ending religion. This article from the Washington Post doesn't give a breakdown, but previous polls from Barna, Beliefnet, Gallup etc. have shown that the fundamentalists are still either holding their own or growing in size and power, while the numbers who identify as atheist or agnostic increases. The real decline sadly, is in the middle, among the liberal progressive churches who have limited financial resources because they  do not shake down their parishioners for cash like the fundamentalists do, and seem to be the primary focus of these new atheists who tell us that the moderates are enablers for the fundamentalists and must be destroyed too. They do not make unreasonable demands from their members like the fundamentalist churches do, but for some crazy reason, this makes some drift away by feeling that a religion that does not make great demands for money or regarding their sex lives may not be important enough to keep getting up early on Sunday morning for. It's sad because these are the churches, or religions that take the most universal approach to dealing with others. So, the future looks like religion will be even more divisive than it already is, and atheists who are organizing their clubs around non-religion are just as divisive a force as the religious fundamentalists today.

Most people who consider themselves atheist are really agnostic but don't know the difference.  I see this as a good thing, believe in God, treat others as  you would like to be treated and put the money grubbing churches out of business.  I was taught God was everywhere but was expected to go to church every Sunday to talk to him.