Inequality Grows As Poor, Ignorant Atheists Swamp US
August 21, 2011
American Intrest EXCERPT:
The stereotype, held apparently by none other than the President of the United States, is that religious people are less educated and less affluent than cosmopolitan and sophisticated seculars. The bitter clingers handle snakes, guns and Bibles in West Virginia; the seculars discuss literature and economics at swank parties in Georgetown.
In fact, some recent research reveals, it is almost the other way round. According to the American Sociological Association, the uneducated and the poor (often of course the same people) are dropping God like a hot brick; the ‘bitter clingers’ are increasingly better educated and more affluent than the unchurched.
As far as I can see, this is bad news for everybody. Atheists and agnostics like to think of themselves as smarter than the God-bothering trailer trash on Tobacco Road, and deeply dislike the thought that they are losing the argument among the most intellectually qualified and best prepared; religious people have to be concerned for the future of religion when whole social classes are dropping away.
It is also very bad news for the poor. The rich can actually get along without much religion; one of the nice things about being rich is that money can frequently shield you from the consequences of a weak character and bad decisions. If you are rich enough, you can do very poorly in high school but Daddy will have a nice chat with the college president after which the school gets a new gym and you get a slot in the freshman class. You can be pretty sure that the college won’t flunk you out or expel you without a lot of second chances and counseling.
Oh, and if somehow you booze and flirt your way through college and don’t pick up any useful skills, don’t worry. You won’t have any student loans to repay and Daddy will make sure that you find something to do.
The poor aren’t so lucky. The poor kid who wants to get ahead actually has to achieve something. He or she has to sacrifice, defer gratification, learn useful skills, and endure the scorn of classmates who think he or she is a geek and a nerd. Some of us are able to do all that and more without the strength and focus that comes from faith in God — but most of us need all the help we can get.
Holding what the release from the American Sociological Association rather clunkily calls ‘familistic beliefs’ (the quaintly old fashioned idea that people who are intimate with one another should make and keep a lifelong commitment of fidelity and support and jointly raise any children that their union brings forth) is key to social mobility and economic well being in the US as around the world. Those beliefs are stronger among the religious, and the American lower classes are moving away from both. This means that their children will be much more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent households.
It also means poor households are increasingly cut off from the strongest and most helpful informal and non-governmental networks of mutual support that our society has.
END EXCERPT
August 21, 2011
American Intrest EXCERPT:
The stereotype, held apparently by none other than the President of the United States, is that religious people are less educated and less affluent than cosmopolitan and sophisticated seculars. The bitter clingers handle snakes, guns and Bibles in West Virginia; the seculars discuss literature and economics at swank parties in Georgetown.
In fact, some recent research reveals, it is almost the other way round. According to the American Sociological Association, the uneducated and the poor (often of course the same people) are dropping God like a hot brick; the ‘bitter clingers’ are increasingly better educated and more affluent than the unchurched.
As far as I can see, this is bad news for everybody. Atheists and agnostics like to think of themselves as smarter than the God-bothering trailer trash on Tobacco Road, and deeply dislike the thought that they are losing the argument among the most intellectually qualified and best prepared; religious people have to be concerned for the future of religion when whole social classes are dropping away.
It is also very bad news for the poor. The rich can actually get along without much religion; one of the nice things about being rich is that money can frequently shield you from the consequences of a weak character and bad decisions. If you are rich enough, you can do very poorly in high school but Daddy will have a nice chat with the college president after which the school gets a new gym and you get a slot in the freshman class. You can be pretty sure that the college won’t flunk you out or expel you without a lot of second chances and counseling.
Oh, and if somehow you booze and flirt your way through college and don’t pick up any useful skills, don’t worry. You won’t have any student loans to repay and Daddy will make sure that you find something to do.
The poor aren’t so lucky. The poor kid who wants to get ahead actually has to achieve something. He or she has to sacrifice, defer gratification, learn useful skills, and endure the scorn of classmates who think he or she is a geek and a nerd. Some of us are able to do all that and more without the strength and focus that comes from faith in God — but most of us need all the help we can get.
Holding what the release from the American Sociological Association rather clunkily calls ‘familistic beliefs’ (the quaintly old fashioned idea that people who are intimate with one another should make and keep a lifelong commitment of fidelity and support and jointly raise any children that their union brings forth) is key to social mobility and economic well being in the US as around the world. Those beliefs are stronger among the religious, and the American lower classes are moving away from both. This means that their children will be much more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent households.
It also means poor households are increasingly cut off from the strongest and most helpful informal and non-governmental networks of mutual support that our society has.
END EXCERPT
That would be churches, as religions generally have in them a duty to help others less fortunate.
