Nearly One in Five Americans Have No Religious Affiliation

Living in a relatively non-religious country (Australia) my experience is that most people float over to a kind of thoughtless deism, they don’t believe in any religion but they can’t imagine that they’re really going to die either. This is not philosophically satisfying but it does mean that most of the evil that religion does is sufficiently attenuated that it really is no longer much of an issue. Being overtly religious is generally considered to be ‘bad form’ and most people simply don’t talk about it. It’s not perfect but it’s a vast improvement on the situation in the USA.

I like that term, “thoughtless deism”. I think it could be used to describe many people in the U.S. who currently claim an actual religious affiliation, as well… not just “nones”.

It’s unfortunate, but many Americans (perhaps most) are generally thoughtless about most of their beliefs- they claim to believe in various things religious or political or scientific, but actually have never thought seriously about them at all. They believe things because they inherited those beliefs, or because they accepted them without question from some other source.

Many people are completely unable to explain why they believe anything, or provide any defense of their beliefs beyond sound bites.

Your country gave us that bad christian music from the Hillsong Church in Sydney:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsong_Church 

Fortunately some cryonicists in Australia have started to look for a place to build their own cryonics facility, so before too long you’ll have a feasible strategy for trying to stay alive through scientific means. 

Ken Fucking Ham

Now there’s an image! I just hope it’s not the Atheist Pig.

We need to continually remind politicians of this data. Various freethought groups and individuals should send politicians the links to these news articles and research results. 

Just add a short cover letter telling the 
politicians  that if they persist in using religion as a basis for their votes/legislation, they are alienating a larger demographic than African-Americans, Jews, NRA-members, small-business-owners, etc. 

we still have work to do with getting all those people…to stop hovering in the middle of nowhere

Hemant is evangelical.  Who knew?

So almost 15% of the population say “No, I don’t belong to any church. Gawd? I dunno, I guess he exists.” and I’m supposed to think they’re my allies?

This does nothing to change the fact that the majority of the American citizenry holds me in the same regard as they do child molesters and puppy killers.

As far as I’m concerned, the United States is 54% non-religious. Why? Because only 46% of Americans attend church weekly. If you’re not religious enough to attend church weekly, then you’re not religious.

“With nonbelievers at about 20% of the population, there is no longer any excuse for leaving us out of the equation.”Nice try, FFRF, but unaffiliated religious people predominately believe in God–they are not all “nonbelievers.” Around a third of them believe in a personal God. Not exactly Dawkins/Hitchens disciples.Even more disconcerting for the “Evangelical Atheism” movement: a Harvard study showed 1/3rd of religious nones had joined an organized religion when asked a few years later.

The reality is atheism has not grown in the last 40 years in the US (it’s held at 4-5%). But I know in the echo chamber of high-minded atheism that will be a peer-reviewed “scientific fact” that doesn’t jive with one’s dogmatic beliefs or sense of identity. Feel free to debunk/discredit as needed.

I’d recommend American Grace by Robert Putnam & David Campbell, or What Americans Really Believe by Rodney Stark if you’re interested in understanding the religious landscape based on actual data rather than the distortions of self-interested FFRF press releases.

A friend of mine that’s a professor takes a completely anonymous survey at the start of each semester on religiosity, sexual preferences etc of his grad students here in the bible belt of Dallas TX.  While the expected numbers are in the low teens to single digits when polled in this manner the avg of non-believers is actually in the high70s year in year out.    People ‘believe’ and attend church out of tradition, social networking or for lack of a better idea.  But it must be painful to sit and listen to the boring droll of bronze age tribesmen week after week knowing that it’s all bs. 

Keep in mind the percentage of atheists/agnostics is still relatively low (around 5%)
This may be due to atheism denial.
Daniel Dennett recently gave a humorous talk on that very subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLYjCqZx0xg  (This is the short version)

Bwa Ha ha.  My how insecure are atheists.  Most are ‘seeking’, that doesn’t make them atheists.  It’s amazing how desperate atheists are to claim growing numbers.  As soon as any poll comes out, they seem to twist it to make their numbers larger than they ever are.  And of course, if less people are religious, can atheists blame growing problems on religion?  Logic would say no.

The current demographic trends mean the US should be about half “nones” circa 2050. However, the recent study by Georgetown and the PRRI indicate there’s a pretty significant uptick among Millennials of Atheists/Agnostics. Instead of the two together being about 1-in-4 of the nones, they’re about 1-in-2. It’s not clear whether that shift is more a wave on the beach or a rising tide. (The increase in the unaffiliated over the last 40 years seems more tide-like.)

Checking NONE doesn’t make you an atheist. I take these optimistic number with a grain of salt.