The Guardian: Rising atheism in America puts 'religious right on the defensive'

According to The Guardian, atheism (or more specifically secularism) is on the rise in the United States.  Particularly with younger folks.  I guess since all these younger folks aren't responsible for most of the politics or TV programming, I guess we still have to put up with the likes of Rick Parry and all the smarmy televangelists or hateful preachers, but there may be hope for the future.  They do point out the statistics that we are starting to hear more an more about.  It's funny that someone would discount 15-20% of the electorate like the nutbag theocrats are doing, but then just as well.  Although I really wish they wouldn't have success at the local level which seems to embolden them to think that the rest of the world is just like their little fantasy neighborhood they just crawled out of...

The US is increasingly portrayed as a hotbed of religious fervour. Yet in the homeland of ostentatiously religious politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, agnostics and atheists are actually part of one of the fastest-growing demographics in the US: the godless. Far from being in thrall to its religious leaders, the US is in fact becoming a more secular country, some experts say. "It has never been better to be a free-thinker or an agnostic in America," says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF.

The exact number of faithless is unclear. One study by the Pew Research Centre puts them at about 12% of the population, but another by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford puts that figure at around 20%.

I did get a particular kick out of one paragraph though (emphasis mine).

There are other indications, too. For a long time studies have shown that about 40% of US adults attend a church service weekly. However, other studies that actually counted those at church – rather than just asking people if they went – have shown the true number to be about half to two-thirds of that figure.

In other words; are the theitards lying for jebus again? If it wasn't so totally expected, and exactly the modus operandi they have been under for decades, I would be surprised (or maybe I wouldn't).