Religious 'Nones' are now the largest single group in the U.S.
Religious 'Nones' are now the largest single group in the U.S.
When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check 'none.'
A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is "nothing in particular" – is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They're more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).
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"We know politically for example," [Gregory Smith at Pew] says, "that religious Nones are very distinctive. They are among the most strongly and consistently liberal and Democratic constituencies in the United States."
Although religious ‘Nones’ doesn’t necessarily mean atheist, anti-theist or agnostic, I’ve got to say, never in my wildest dreams did I think this milestone would be achieved during my lifetime.
It’s also only the largest plurality because it’s the default bucket. When you lump religious vs non religious the picture is very different
It could be "stop asking inane questions".
It doesn't mean theism either. Honestly, religion is more about belief in the supernatural realm. Not necessarily in a creator.
Nice. We won the war on Xmas.
I wonder what the results would be if "Christian, but too embarrassed by those that claim the label to apply it to myself" was an option
If ‘Christian’ were it’s own label it would nearly double the ‘Nones’. Nones = 28% Protestant = 24% Catholics = 23% Total of the two Christian groups reported = 47% That is just adding the highest reporting sects of Christianity, there’s probably a few % points that could be added in there as well.
Idk why people who think Jesus died for them can't just accept each other and just all be Christians. It shouldn't matter the specifics of your Christianity as long as your core beliefs match the others, ya know?
I'm also a life-long atheist who attended a bunch of different churches with friends growing up to see what they were like. I don't understand how someone can believe in a God. What makes even less sense is why people, who believe in the same God with the same kid who sacrificed himself and preached love and all that, hate each other so fuckin much.
Christians, especially white evangelicals, have managed to intertwine themselves so hard with the Republican Party that it is difficult for many to see the difference between the church and the party.
Many people give up church because they don't want to be a part of the Republican Party. Especially young people. If Christians want to see growth in the future, they gotta move away from politics.
Would help if they could back up their claims with any evidence of anything, too. It's getting harder and harder to deny the reality that thousands of years have passed without the people who are most incentivized to prove their religious ideals showing any aspect of it to be true. At best, they have a failed apocalyptic preacher with a cult of personality. They look very silly at best when defending their invisible, non-corporeal, fire-breathing dragons to anyone with a basic capacity for observation, and fully destructive when attempting to overthrow democracy with symbols of iron age torture devices strapped to their necks and Christian nationalism flags waving over their heads.
problem being religion is politics, early states and organized religion were one int he same and only as recently as 500 years ago did that get challenged
About time they get some service, too. I've had it up to here with the theists, especially radical xtian evangelicals, constantly swinging their weight around, saying and doing outrageous things, thinking their little book club should rule over others, and thinking that's normal.
Trouble is, 10,000 Nones who aren't politically organized have less power than one Church with fifty voters that politicians know they can count on.
i wonder why
Because religious people are delusional and can go get fucked
Don't forget hypocritical!
Ramen
There are a few things contributing to this:
- The child molesting done by the Catholic church has turned a lot of people away from what used to be one of the biggest churches in the country
- The rise of evangelical churches and the hollowing out of mainline Protestant churches. Now if you go to church you either have to be a conservative or you have to risk being ostracized.
- It's clear god has abandoned us.
God has abandoned us? Have you read of any history? Like there were many worse things happening in the 1000-1600s. Like everywhere. But I agree that the first two lead to the decline. I think it has more to do with a lack of proof the more and more we learn. If God does exist in some monitoring sort of way, they choose not to interfere and just observe. That's a hard sell.
I have it on good word - from no less than a pastor's own son - that we abandoned her. Killed her ourselves, even!
Good riddance, I say, but it seems that we're still dealing with the corpse.
Christians and Catholics permanently steered me away from being religious before I was even in high school.
Great. Now, my younger atheist self can see that it's not only religious that leads to unnecessary suffering at the population scale. The economics of profit maximization can do it, too. No god required.
His name is Mammon.
I've got to believe that a huge reason for that these days is because of how the republican party has deliberately and openly declared themselves the party of jesus and then go do the most inhumane and cruel things to other people. how preachers are openly declaring democrats ungodly and satanic from the pulpit.
Does anyone else say "myself" when asked on a form or in person what they believe in?
Nah I don't believe in myself, either.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is "nothing in particular" – is now the largest cohort in the U.S.
Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew's new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically.
Gregory Smith at Pew was the lead researcher on the study, titled "Religious 'Nones' in America: Who They Are and What They Believe."
"And huge numbers say the desire to avoid hurting other people factors prominently in how they think about right and wrong," says Smith.
People of faith also say they use logic and the avoidance of harm to make decisions, but those factors are in concert with religious tradition and scripture.
But digging deeper into the data shows that men are significantly more likely to say they're atheist or agnostic whereas women are more likely to describe their religion as 'nothing in particular.'
The original article contains 690 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I saw nones and thought that was a new religion I was OOTL on. It makes sense that agnostics would see a boost eventually. I wonder - why now?
The belief in xtianity has been going down by over a percentage point per year, year after year for a long time now.
Islam's on the up-and-up globally though. India's becoming very Hindu-nationalist too. There's always a hidden enemy lurking somewhere.
Sister Margaret will be delighted to hear this