Religion
Related: About this forumPew study finds rapid rise in Americans without a particular faith
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%).3
his 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 Centers Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted jointly with the PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, finds that many of the countrys 46 million unaffiliated adults are religious or spiritual in some way. Two-thirds of them say they believe in God (68%). More than half say they often feel a deep connection with nature and the earth (58%), while more than a third classify themselves as spiritual but not religious (37%), and one-in-five (21%) say they pray every day. In addition, most religiously unaffiliated Americans think that churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor.
http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx
RBInMaine
(13,570 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)since they do nothing but preach hatred and intolerance, and discriminate against people of color. Of course I'm talking about the White Evilgelicals although there are still too many Baptist churches and Blacks who preach the same damn thing against anyone who is mildly progressive (pro-women's right to choose, pro-health care for all, pro-right to choose whether or not to believe in Christendom, pro-freedom of religion).
Just my honest opinion.
Dina
(6 posts)and it summed up religion succinctly. The comic read something to the effect as, "Religion is like Santa Claus for adults."
muriel_volestrangler
(101,390 posts)and from a large base of respondents, so the numbers should be meaningful even for small groups in it.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I am interested in whether the unaffiliated but religious will stay unaffiliated or whether some kinds of newer, interfaith institutions will grow to serve them.