Last month, when the Pew Research Center released its latest comprehensive “Religious Landscape Survey,” I wrote that one of my favorite charts was the one that described religious “switching.”
What is religious switching? It’s when you were raised in one religious tradition but have since gone on to a different one. It’s been happening a lot in recent years and it threatens to upend one of the most basic beliefs about belief: That if you raise your children in your faith, it’ll stay with them in the future.
Think about that for a moment: One of the reasons religion has historically had so much power is because parents could safely assume that if they indoctrinated their kids from a young age, those beliefs and traditions would live on indefinitely. It’s the very idea at the core of the Quiverfull movement, famously exemplified by the Duggars: If you have lots of children, the religion will eventually spread to their own families, and within a few generations, your religion will mathematically outgrow all the other ones.
Continue reading @ Friendly Atheist.
No comments