Atheism Around the World

Today's map shows data from a worldwide survey which asked respondents if they were a) religious, b) not religious, or c) identified as an atheist.  This map shows the percentages of people in various countries who identify as atheists.  By far the Chinese are the people most likely to self-identify as atheists.  Between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 people in Japan, France, and the Czech Republic also identify as atheists.  In 2012, 5% of Americans identified as atheists.

This survey was also given in both 2005 and 2012 in some countries including Japan, France, the Czech Republic, and the US.  In all four countries the percentage of people identifying as atheists has risen:  8%, 15%, 10%, and 4% respectively.  In a reverse trend, the percentage of atheists has dropped in Malaysia and Bosnia (-4% and -5% respectively). In fact, in 2012 in the increasingly conservative Muslim country of Malaysia, zero respondents reported being atheists.

(Note:  French Guiana and other overseas French territories are an overseas departments or territories of France and thus appears as the same color as France's European departments.)

I've been on the road this past week, so here is a newly updated marriage map with a number of changes:

a. There are now only three states without a lawsuit seeking same-sex civil marriage:  Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska.

b. Georgia finally came on board the marriage lawsuit train as has South Dakota.

c. The 6th Circuit Court issued a stay on a Tennessee judge's order for the Volunteer State to recognize three same-sex couples as legally married while their lawsuit progresses.

d. One of the handful of out gay Federal judges heard a lawsuit seeking to overturn that state's anti-marriage constitutional amendment and legalize civil marriages there.  The state's attorney general also feels the amendment is unconstitutional and so there is no one defending the law before the court.

e. Alaska's Supreme Court also ruled this week that the state's refusal to give the same tax exemptions to same-sex couples as it gives to opposite-sex couples was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

f. And finally an Idaho cemetery for veterans refused the request of an elderly lesbian veteran to be buried with the ashes of her late partner under the claim that Idaho's state constitution prohibited recognition of the couple as married.  This woman who lived her life serving our country responded that she has spent her life being discriminated against and guess that this would not end with her death.  Sad.

The Typical American's Views on Abortion

The Typical American's Moral Views

According to polling by Gallup, Americans' views on various issues of relationships and morality continue to evolve.  As of 2013 the majority of Americans view same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, divorce, sex outside of marriage, and having a child outside of marriage as morally acceptable.  Adultery remains unpopular.  Polygamy also remains unpopular although the percentage of Americans viewing polygamy as morally acceptable has doubled since 2001.

The Typical American's Religion

Jennifer, our Typical American, is a Christian.

The Rise of Secular America

Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

At the end of the 20th Century in 1999, 81% of Americans identified as Christians.  Today that percentage has dropped to 76%.  In the past 14 years Protestant churches have lost more than a fifth of their memberships.  Catholic membership has declined by 11% compared to 1999.  Some of these Christians may have simply changed their self-reported affiliation to Christian (non-specific), but a large number of Americans now report they have no religion or no religious affiliation.  In the past 14 years the percentage of Nones has almost doubled.

A Good Ol' Fashioned Sodomy Law

By 2003 most states had repealed their laws against consensual sodomy.  Depending on the old statute, consensual sodomy is oral sex and/or anal sex.  In 2003, nevertheless 13 hardcore states were still policing America's bedrooms.  In that year, however, the US Supreme Court reversed its infamous 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision which upheld state sodomy laws without ever discussing that yes, even heterosexuals get blow jobs.  In 2003, however, the US Supreme Court decided it was the 21st century and that it was time to get the government out of the sex lives of consenting adults.

So, that was a full DECADE ago, yet the Baton Rouge police were still charging people with consensual sodomy.  The local prosecutors of course dropped the charges, but Louisiana still has its unconstitutional law on the books.  A Baton Rouge legislator tried to get the archaic law repealed, but after heavy lobbying by the Christian Louisiana Family Forum, the Louisiana House voted Tuesday to KEEP the law on the books.

Louisiana is a strange state.  Home to Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence, Louisiana's conservative voters re-elected Senator David Vitter (R) after it came out he hired prostitutes to allegedly dress him in diapers as part of elaborate sexual fantasies.  Rest assured though.  Thanks to the good people at the Christian Louisiana Family Forum, visitors and citizens alike are protected from the scourges of consensual, adult oral and anal sex by the mere continuing presence of an unenforceable and unconstitutional sodomy law still on the books.