“Nones” on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation

[Jetavan]

From a new Pew Poll:

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.

In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

This large and growing group of Americans is less religious than the public at large on many conventional measures, including frequency of attendance at religious services and the degree of importance they attach to religion in their lives.
....
However, a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted jointly with the PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, finds that many of the country’s 46 million unaffiliated adults are religious or spiritual in some way.
....
In addition, most religiously unaffiliated Americans think that churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor.

With few exceptions, though, the unaffiliated say they are not looking for a religion that would be right for them. Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.

[Asteriktos]

I wonder if the actual numbers are increasing, or if people are just being more honest (perhaps with themselves).

[Jetavan]

I wonder if the actual numbers are increasing, or if people are just being more honest (perhaps with themselves).

I think as America becomes more secular (e.g., less dominated by Protestantism), people have less reason to join a religious institution for, say, social reasons. If I remember correctly, the largest increase was not among atheists/agnostics, but among those unaffiliated with any religion.

[JamesR]

In other words, we are seeing an increase in the Protestant 'non-denominational' only-goes-to-church-when-I-feel-like-it lazy trend?

[Jetavan]

The number of Orthodox (and 'nones') increases in Ireland:

The proportion of the population that is Catholic is at its lowest since 1961, while that with no religion has increased by 400% in the past 20 years.

The latest Census 2011 data released by the CSO shows that 84% of the population now identify themselves as Catholic.

The numbers began falling in the 1960s and 1970s, accelerating in the 1980s. The data shows the numbers of Catholics have fallen in every diocese in the past five years.
....
The census found that significant increases in the non-Catholic population in the past 20 years were influenced by increases in the religions of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The data also shows:

* Members of the Church of Ireland increased by 6.4% to 129,039;

* The Muslim population increased sharply in the past five years to 49,204;

* The number of Orthodox Christians has increased more than five- fold since 2006 to 45,223;
....
While the majority (98.5%) simply ticked the
category "Orthodox" on the census form, a small
proportion further defined their religion. Three
classifications were returned, namely Greek
Orthodox (0.17%), Russian Orthodox (0.39%) and
Coptic Orthodox (0.02%).

[HabteSelassie]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I wonder if the actual numbers are increasing, or if people are just being more honest (perhaps with themselves).

I think as America becomes more secular (e.g., less dominated by Protestantism), people have less reason to join a religious institution for, say, social reasons. If I remember correctly, the largest increase was not among atheists/agnostics, but among those unaffiliated with any religion.

This would imply we were always religious, but in the early post-Colonial era only 1 in 7 Americans regularly attended religious services regularly.  This is the problem with America, romanticizing the past to fit into our irredentist dreams of an America which very well never existed. 

How many folks attend services today? 1 in 6.. 

stay blessed,
habte selassie

[Jetavan]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I wonder if the actual numbers are increasing, or if people are just being more honest (perhaps with themselves).

I think as America becomes more secular (e.g., less dominated by Protestantism), people have less reason to join a religious institution for, say, social reasons. If I remember correctly, the largest increase was not among atheists/agnostics, but among those unaffiliated with any religion.

This would imply we were always religious, but in the early post-Colonial era only 1 in 7 Americans regularly attended religious services regularly.  This is the problem with America, romanticizing the past to fit into our irredentist dreams of an America which very well never existed. 

How many folks attend services today? 1 in 6.. 

stay blessed,
habte selassie

Yeah, but how many of the early post-Colonial European-Americans would identify as not belonging to any religious denomination/institution, not even culturally?

Besides, I'm romanticizing the 1950s, not the 1790s.

[orthonorm]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I wonder if the actual numbers are increasing, or if people are just being more honest (perhaps with themselves).

I think as America becomes more secular (e.g., less dominated by Protestantism), people have less reason to join a religious institution for, say, social reasons. If I remember correctly, the largest increase was not among atheists/agnostics, but among those unaffiliated with any religion.

This would imply we were always religious, but in the early post-Colonial era only 1 in 7 Americans regularly attended religious services regularly.  This is the problem with America, romanticizing the past to fit into our irredentist dreams of an America which very well never existed. 

How many folks attend services today? 1 in 6.. 

stay blessed,
habte selassie

The past is never what is used to be.

[HabteSelassie]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

[quote nostics,

Yeah, but how many of the early post-Colonial European-Americans would identify as not belonging to any religious denomination/institution, not even culturally?

Besides, I'm romanticizing the 1950s, not the 1790s.

The revisionists of the 1950s are in part who glorified and romanticized the Colonial and early post-Colonial era.  My premise is that through out American history, a sizable portion of Americans have been lax in their religious concerns.  We have an ideal of religious affiliation, but has largely remained distant in actual practice amongst Americans.  I would say that the difference between then and today is that previously American culture pushed folks to at least superficially affirm some kind of religion, whereas today folks feel freer to express their natural skepticism, even cynicism. I'm not sure any more or less Americans are skeptical to religion or religious institutions. If relatively the same proportions of Americans regularly attend religious services as did 200 years ago, has anything really changed then? Perhaps what we express openly, but internally are we really all that different?

stay blessed,
habte selassie

[yeshuaisiam]

Please consider this includes all religious affiliation.  Hindu, pagan, Christian, Muslim, etc.

Atheism is going to be a large problem, as it encourages the following of one's own will an desires.

[Kerdy]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I wonder if the actual numbers are increasing, or if people are just being more honest (perhaps with themselves).

I think as America becomes more secular (e.g., less dominated by Protestantism), people have less reason to join a religious institution for, say, social reasons. If I remember correctly, the largest increase was not among atheists/agnostics, but among those unaffiliated with any religion.

This would imply we were always religious, but in the early post-Colonial era only 1 in 7 Americans regularly attended religious services regularly.  This is the problem with America, romanticizing the past to fit into our irredentist dreams of an America which very well never existed. 

How many folks attend services today? 1 in 6.. 

stay blessed,
habte selassie

Many of them only went "into town" two or three times a year as well.

[Kerdy]

Please consider this includes all religious affiliation.  Hindu, pagan, Christian, Muslim, etc.

Atheism is going to be a large problem, as it encourages the following of one's own will an desires.

Atheism is now the worlds largest religion.

[Achronos]

Please consider this includes all religious affiliation.  Hindu, pagan, Christian, Muslim, etc.

Atheism is going to be a large problem, as it encourages the following of one's own will an desires.

Atheism is now the worlds largest religion.

..................

[Asteriktos]

Please consider this includes all religious affiliation.  Hindu, pagan, Christian, Muslim, etc.

Atheism is going to be a large problem, as it encourages the following of one's own will an desires.

Atheism is now the worlds largest religion.

..................

This is your 7000th post? Son I am disappoint.

[genesisone]

Please consider this includes all religious affiliation.  Hindu, pagan, Christian, Muslim, etc.

Atheism is going to be a large problem, as it encourages the following of one's own will an desires.

I haven't had time to think this through, but when I read your comment, it immediately occurred to me that in some ways the reverse is also true: the following of one's own will and desires encourages atheism. And that may be the unintended end of some aspects of the "let's all feel good" mentality of some Protestants, especially Evangelicals. If there is any truth to that thought, then that might be part of the explanation for the growth of atheism and decline of the Protestant majority at least in North America and similar societies elsewhere.

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