I was writing about this recently and mentioned that unfortunately this tends to raise suicide rates of people who are both unaffiliated with any religion and who don't believe in God or Buddhism or something like that. My biggest concern for people not believing in anything is: "Who do these people go to for comfort in a real crisis?" My thought is that it is much harder to survive serious crises like Wars, family breakups and deaths if you don't believe in anything.
However, in the end everyone has to find their own way. This is the truth.
Agnosticism, atheism, and humanism
A 2001 survey directed by Dr. Ariela Keysar for the City University of New York indicated that, amongst the more than 100 categories of response, "no religious identification" had the greatest increase in population in both absolute and percentage terms. This category included atheists, agnostics, humanists, and others with no stated religious preferences. Figures are up from 14.3 million in 1990 to 34.2 million in 2008, representing an increase from 8% of the total population in 1990 to 15% in 2008.[27] A nationwide Pew Research study published in 2008 put the figure of unaffiliated persons at 16.1%,[62] while another Pew study published in 2012 was described as placing the proportion at about 20% overall and roughly 33% for the 18–29-year-old demographic.[72]In a 2006 nationwide poll, University of Minnesota researchers found that despite an increasing acceptance of religious diversity, atheists were generally distrusted by other Americans, who trusted them less than Muslims, recent immigrants and other minority groups in "sharing their vision of American society". They also associated atheists with undesirable attributes such as criminal behavior, rampant materialism, and cultural elitism.[73][74] However, the same study also reported that "The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one's exposure to diversity, education and political orientation – with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts."[75] Some surveys have indicated that doubts about the existence of a god were growing quickly among Americans under 30.[76]
On 24 March 2012, American atheists sponsored the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C., followed by the American Atheist Convention in Bethesda, Maryland. Organizers called the estimated crowd of 8,000–10,000 the largest-ever US gathering of atheists in one place.[77]
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Religion in the United States
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