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%).

…

“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.”

  • Garbanzo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    361·
    10 months ago

    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

    • skydivekingair@lemmy.world
      321·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • SailorMoss@sh.itjust.works
        9·
        10 months ago

        To be fair, if we go by the recent comments from the pope. (Which maybe we shouldn’t.) Catholics may have more in common politically with the nones than the evangelicals.

      • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
        31·
        10 months ago

        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.

        • Zloubida@lemmy.world
          1·
          10 months ago

          I (mainline Protestant) don’t hate American evangelicals. But I don’t want to be associated with people hating queer people or denying women basic rights like abortion.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
      5·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
        4·
        10 months ago

        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.

        • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
          31·
          10 months ago

          Well, it’s just faith. And people can have whatever faith they want to. I have no problem with that whatsoever. The problem arises when they attempt to force that faith down people’s throats through politics. That’s when people stop listening and find community and beliefs elsewhere.

          • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
            4·
            10 months ago

            I guess my point is that faith is something you can have in anything. Faith never leads to correctness. Anytime it does, it does so completely by coincidence and has nothing to demonstrate why it’s correct. This is why religion leads people to hold factually incorrect ideas as truth, and why reality is arbitrary and unimportant to people who have been led to think that faith is valuable.

            • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
              11·
              10 months ago

              Sure, people have different ideas about faith and its effectiveness. In theory, it also leads to community and cohesion and a lot of good public service and charity. That’s all good, whereever it comes from. Faith or no faith. Doesn’t matter to me.

              My problem is the attempts at forced faith through politics. And that’s what we’re seeing in the US at the moment. It will never lead to actual faith, it only leads to dismissal and anger.

      • Uranium3006@kbin.social
        2·
        10 months ago

        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