Secularism, Fundamentalism, or Catholicism? The Religious Composition of the United States to 2043

Where will USA end up in the middle of this century? This article tries to give it a shot.

We provide a cohort-component projection of the religious composition of the United States, considering differences in fertility, migration, intergenerational religious transmission, and switching among 11 ethnoreligious groups. If fertility and migration trends continue, Hispanic Catholics will experience rapid growth and expand from 10 to 18 percent of the American population between 2003 and 2043. Protestants are projected to decrease from 47 to 39 percent over the same period, while Catholicism emerges as the largest religion among the youngest age cohorts. Liberal Protestants decline relative to other groups due to low fertility and losses from religious switching. Immigration drives growth among Hindus and Muslims, while low fertility and a mature age structure causes Jewish decline. The low fertility of secular Americans and the religiosity of immigrants provide a countervailing force to secularization, causing the nonreligious population share to peak before 2043.

Reminds me of Samuel P Huntington’s book on the challenges to America’s National Identity. Mind you, the previous research article’s get out of jail card is “if fertility and migration trends continue”. These are notoriously difficult to predict, but then, the attempts by the Tea Party, anti immigration, reduce taxes and all that which is roiling USA has some roots in this debate as well. This promises to be fascinating.

Pandering to fundamentalism in the land of my fathers

Bauls are somebody who I have admired for a long time, albeit from a distance. Its that mystical angle which always appealed to me. It has a very long history and is a very powerful singing medium in the sub continent to pass on religious, political and social thought.

But then typically, some idiot religious fundamentalists in Dakka raised their ugly head and demanded that some statues of these Bauls be torn down. But that's fine, I guess, for a land which is known for its culture to reject culture is perhaps very appropriate. It is also perhaps very appropriate that that country is the country with the lowest average height above sea level. I dont know who to swear at, at the ignorant moron religious fundamentalists who demanded this or the ignorant, stupid, weak, cowardly moronic, illiterate government bodies who gave in. (forget about wastage of the money).

And yes, sculptures are important, they provide the link of my culture and history to my child. If you start letting these bastards interfere with my culture and history, you turn them into zombies and extremists. And I demand a say on the grounds that its Bangla culture they are talking about, Bangla history and Bangla people. Bloody idiots.