The Nones are still not reviving

 Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta takes a look at new Pew et al data on where the Nones are at.

 Beyond the reasons why, most of which are obviously, one demographic issue, which should also be obvious, is of note.

People leave organized religion (or move from one to another, too) for the most part before age 30. So, if Catholics or Protestants are losing the early adult young, either due to active decision or passive drift, if they don't get them back soon, they never will.

In other words, as Merikkka moves more and more to a non-White majority (it already is natally), it moves if somewhat more slowly to a smaller Christian majority. Most the rest change in the 30-49 age range.

But, beyond most the obvious ones?

Churches are losing people because of increased politicization. And, of course, we're NOT talking about "librul" mainline Protestants. Will the winger churches, especially the ones, whether denominational or independent megachurches, who are not just winger but full MAGA, listen? Probably not. Rather, if anything, they'll circle the wagons.

And, per an earlier piece, Charlie Kirk's martyrdom (sic), semi-officially by many of those wingnut Protestants including the LCMS wingnut Lutherans of my birth, but NOT Rome, has NOT spurred, at least in the few months since, any great revival. 

The Second Great Awakening, and even more, social Christianity of the early 20th century, actually offered something to working-class Americans. The modern success gospel preached by conservative evangelicals, especially outside denominational structures? No.

I don't think the current "holding steady" will pick up massive Nones steam for another decade. After that? Possibly moderate Nones steam for mild growth. By 2050, the US may be where western Europe was in 1950.

The stability is probably due to older Boomers and what's left of pre-Boomers turning back to religion in their later years, especially if they have health problems and even more, psychological turmoil. But, since younger generations are less and less religious in the first place, that will happen less and less in the future. Also, COVID was a one-off mini-bump for organized religion. 

Ignoring the possible roots of Hanukkah, throwing secularists under the bus

Shock me that the "pergressuve" Texas Observer would do this, but it gave TCU prof David Brockman the space to do exactly that.

At the Observer, Brockman talks about how the religious of Texas can take comfort in "sparks of light" to battle the current political darkness.

With Judaism,  he ignores that Jews of Maccabean times got lucky (and weren't all that up to that point, as Yonathan Adler attests on purity, on festivals and Sabbaths, and more, including the actual targets of Antiochus Epiphanes), and also ignores the likelihood that Hanukkah came from the Persian, Zoroastrian, Yalda Night, also known as Chelle Night. Both former Iranian Jews and Syriac Christians (shades of Saturnalia?) have dipped into it, and we of course know the many other Achaemenid influences on emerging proto-Judaism. We don't know if it was first celebrated for eight days; that was derived from Sukkot. The story is from the "deuterocanonical" 1 and 2 Maccabees; the "miracle of the oil," which was seven days, not eight, is pure myth and comes from the Talmud, several centuries later.

Diwali? Not even a winter festival. Brockman is kissing the butt of vague religious pluralism. Also, Sikhs and Jains observe it, not just Hindus.

With a purely lunar calendar, Muslims don't have a solstice event. And, since he also kisses the butt of the Neoplatonist/Gnostic Kabbalah, one wonders if Brockman is a Zionist.

As for this:

One need not subscribe to any religion to recognize and draw strength from this insight. The idea for this essay came to me during a visit this fall to Houston’s Rothko Chapel, which transcends religious boundaries and embraces people of all religions and none. Avowedly multifaith and ecumenical, it stands in stubborn protest against the divisiveness and hatred metastasizing across our nation.

Multifaith and ecumenical is not secularist. Besides, I can get insight about the daylight portion of days lengthening again while hiking and birding.

Finally, a reminder that Laplace is "the reason for the season."