Why is Secularism on the Rise in America?

What you are missing in the case of those in prison is that they tend to trun to God as a result of their circumstances. They are broken people in many cases and God offers them comfort. Being arrogant and elitist doesn't make you right. I do, however, thank you for the comments.

Mike, you have me convinced. The entire concept of intellectual debate has "alluded" me. The point you are missing my friend is that I don't receive a comission for recruiting new believers. In fact, I am not interested in winning the debate for the sake of bragging rights, as seems to be the assumption of many atheists/agnostics. My desire to affect the salvation of others is, to me, simply a matter of caring about what happens to others in the eternal sense, including you. By the way, drawing the conclusion that belief in God equates with lower social status and intelligence is flawed...

The reason people don't believe in religion is simply because the onus of belief is on the religious to prove that the god/gods they speak of actually exists, and they have completely failed to do so. Pseudo-science such as creationism has only hurt the cause of the religious worse, because in attempting to confront reason/science on it own terms (i.e. using scientific evidence), the pro-religion crowd has only embarrassed themselves by showing how easily their best attempt at "proving" their beliefs was essentially laughed at by real scientist. Steve, i hate to burst your bubble, but the reason that non-religious people don't believe is simply because there is no logical argument based on evidence that god/gods exist.

The truth is that, in the United States, non-religious people have about half the rate of divorce as Christians/other religious believers. According the scientific polls of the prison population, atheists/agnostics comprise only about .2% of those in prison. Non-believers also have been shown to have higher education levels, as well as higher incomes. These statistics show that belief in reason, as opposed to belief in fairy tales, is not at all incompatible with morality. If anything, it seems, that non-believers seem to be more moral. The truth is, the nation is becoming more secular, because education levels are going up and ever greater number of people are being given the intellectual tools necessary to question dogma and see through the illogical arguments put forward in favor of old Jewish fables.

Steve, you seem to have missed the most obvious reason why people do not believe in deities such the Christian god anymore. Like so many other religious people, you assume that the reason that people don't believe in religion is because they don't WANT to believe. You state that it is largely because people would rather live without the constraints of the bible. Steve, I think that you would benefit from talking to atheists, agnostics, and people who are just skeptics. The things that attract you to religion, are probably very attractive to non-religious people as well. For example: an afterlife, a promise of justice, a sense of being and purpose. These are attractive ideas, no doubt, however what distinguishes between believers and non-believers, is, gasp, belief. This seems to have alluded you. Steve, talk to non-religious people. I think you will be surprised. The truth is that, in the United States, non-religious people have about half the rate of divorce as Christians/o

Interesting article Steve. I am a Christian but I think everyone needs to come to it in their own terms.

David, did you even read the article? Where in the text did I argue for compelling anyone to be a Christian? This is an example of what I call "militant atheism." Why spend so much energy and invest so much emotion arguing against something you don't even believe exists? There are extremists on both sides of the coin.

Perhaps Christians should stop trying to force everyone to live a Christian lifestyle. Perhaps Christians should stop trying to turn the USA into the Christian States of America. Perhaps Christians should start respecting the separation of church and state. Perhaps Christians should start taking care of themselves instead of trying to force everyone to live as they do. If your faith is so weak that you can not allow others to do what your religion forbids because you might be tempted to do it as well, perhaps your faith is misplaced.