The Religous Unaffiliated in the Article, “Nones on the Rise

While he supports the idea that the level of religiosity in a given society would be a helpful statistic to examine, an accurate measurement of this statistic proves virtually impossible. He goes on to present several traditionally-utilized benchmarks in determining how religious an individual is, including church attendance, prayer, and the study of theological texts (Babbie, 58). While going to church, praying, and reading the Bible (or another holy book) might make someone seem to be religious, there are exceptions on both sides of the spectrum. To this end, Babbie provides the cases of a church-going, lying, cheating, and generally corrupt politician and a bed-ridden, devout individual who does not attend church services simply because they are not able to.

Today there are more than 1,500 religious bodies in the United States, ranging from the more than 66 million members of the Roman Catholic Church to sects with fewer than 1,000 adherents. In virtually every region of the country, religion is being expressed in greater variety, whether it be the Latinization of Catholicism and some Christian faiths or the de-Europeanizing of some established Protestant faiths as with Asian Americans or the de-Christianizing of the overall religious landscape with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and others (Roof, 2007).

The act of defining religion has been a contentious issue in a wide variety of situations, particularly in the United States. The US is a nation that prides itself on religious inclusivity and freedom. There are consequences to this belief and tenant. Through the social, legal and moral structures of the United States, defining religion has become imperative. In The Impossibility of Religious Freedom, Winifred Sullivan outlines the legal implications of defining religion in the United States. In order for religious freedom to be protected by the American state, religion must be clearly defined. As a result, religious theory must be used to maintain some semblance of religious freedom in the United States. Likewise, Josh Dubler’s Down in

The practice of organized religion has been declining greatly since the mid 20th century, but the pace in which religion is dying is not constant in every western country. Ireland is the only country where most people attend a religious event weekly, on the other hand, less than ten percent of Scandinavians attend religious events. Organized religion is dying where it once was common in everyday life, which is bad news for church leaders who want to fill their seats. From 1945 to 1985 the percent of regular church attendees in Canada dropped in half, from 70% to 35%. Although people have stopped associating themselves with a religion, many of them still believe in a creator. Around 32 percent of America’s population attends church weekly, but 66 percent of Americans have no doubt that there is a God, and another 16 percent believe in a God but have doubts (Altemeyer 79). There is evidence that the recent rise of religious apostasy occurred because of backlash against the “Religious Right”, the christian fundamentalists that are known to be anti-homosexual. Many people are turned off by these beliefs and severed their already weak relationships with the church. Children are also not being taught religious beliefs because of parents who have left the faith. Parents have stopped

But American religiosity is diminishing. Other forces like materialism, globalism, humanism, and science continue to push the world into a new frontier. Between 2007 and 2014, adults who are religiously affiliated dropped 6%; though, 77% percent of Americans are religiously affiliated and 58% find religion very important—and those who identify strongly with religion continue to have the same intensity in belief.

The United States (U.S.) has always been the melting pot of the world, resulting in a diverse spiritual community. Christianity is still the predominant religion, but a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the shifts taking place in the U.S. According to the study, 28 percent of American adults have left the faith of their upbringing for another religion, or no religion at all. The number of people that claim no affiliation with any particular faith is rising, and the number of people practicing non-Christian religions is increasing (Pew Forum 2010).

More and more people are identifying as nonreligious, but the majority of America still aligns with some religion (1). It is theorized that switching of religion is to blame, in that many people that are raised in a religion are changing to become unaffiliated as they get older (1). While the nonreligious population is growing, “roughly seven-in-ten [Americans] continue to identify with some part of the Christian faith,” something that is lacking in the Brave New World society (1). Religion is a still a strong influence in modern day America, with the presence of God affecting our politics, our everyday conduct, even minute things such as the Pledge of Allegiance, with the line “one nation, under God.” However, as the nonreligious population is generally young, with a 20% decline of Christianity in Millenials who are now unaffiliated, it could come to change as the older generation begins to die (“Religion” 1). For now, though, regarding religion, we are not living in a brave new

Studies have shown that around 44% more college graduates than non high school graduates and that about 36% more persons earning $50,000 or more than those earning under $20,000 consider themselves to be an atheist; not to mention the fact that the atheist conviction nearly triples in members during the course of the 1900s (Bromley, "RELIGION AND SOCIAL CLASS"; Sherkat, "Tracking the Restructuring of American Religion..."). This upward trend of skepticism between both yearly wages levels of education could suggest that having no religion at all is seen as a sign of higher class. This could also mean that people elect atheism as their belief because they believe that, by doing so, social benefits would be

Much of the decline of mainline Protestant denominations, such as the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches, has been speculated to be largely due to widespread rejection of organized religion by young adults (Sides, 2016). While young adults are the most likely to claim religious non-affiliation, Americans of all ages have been trending downward since the late 90s and early 2000s (Wormald, 2015). As older more religious generations die, there are fewer younger generation members taking their places in Protestant congregations, leading to the declines being seen. Likewise, while Protestant denominations have been on the decline, nondenominational church memberships have risen since 2007. While Millennials coming

Americans are either more religiously involved or don’t see religion as an importance which can cause a drift between the two types of people, Putnam has stated, “Religious drop outs have come out at the expense of those whose religious involvement was modest but conventional” (Putnam 75). Influence of not participating in religious outings is spreading to those who are involved which can cause a dramatic decrease in the numbers of participants in religion. The involvement of Americans in religious participation also affect numbers of religions. Religious participation has increased in the catholic religion as Americans gravitate to the particular popular religion in America. It is seen that, “Protestant and Jewish congregations have lost market share in items of memberships, while Catholics and other religions have gained” (Putnam 75). This complication has arisen more due to the involvement of more immigrants migrating to the US and influencing the growing numbers of Catholics. Many of those immigrants are Latin American that makeup “one-quarter of American Catholics” (Putnam 76). However, numbers of participation in mass are still low even with all the popularity of the Catholic religion which demonstrates how religious participation isn’t important to some Americans. (add more

Professor Diana Eck in Chapter One of “Introduction to a New America” highlights the emerging new religious climate in the United States. The United States has always been a country of many religious traditions due to the Constitutional right of Freedom of Religion. But since the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, signed by President Johnson, America’s borders have seen a tremendous influx of individuals from around the world. There are one million new immigrants to the U. S. each year which has led the United States to become the most religiously diverse nation on earth. The percentage of foreign born Americans is now 10.4 percent, which is more than double what it was in 1970.

Eighteen options were offered as choices for this question, excluding the categories of atheist and agnostic. The responses to each category have not been captured in the survey results, owing to certain privacy concerns. However, the percentage of none as a choice was calculated from the annual survey results. Moreover, the sample for this question excluded the Californians after 1997.

We can see the impact of immigration to the States that changed the country from what had been an almost exclusively to one with three major faiths which is Catholic, Jewish, Protestant.The Catholic population has been increased by subsequent immigration from Latin America and the Philippines. African immigrants have added to the Muslim population. The Jewish population is actually declining, while there are increases among Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs.Immigration also can be a factor of intermarriage across religious lines and this situation are not the same than 50 years ago.Survey shows how immigration is changing even more American religious demographic. For example, Muslims now account for roughly 0.6% of the U.S. adult population, and Hindus IS more than eight in ten of whom are foreign born, now account for approximately 0.4% of the population.

The phrase believing without belonging can indeed be applied to the Irish context with an increasing tendency towards this form of religiosity, yet there are still those who both believe and belong and some neither believe nor belong. Religion has always been at the forefront of Irish Society. Fogarty (1984:8) in studying the 1981 European Values Survey (EVS) found that ‘every indicator of belief, informal and formal practice and attitudes to the church or churches, shows Irish people... to be far more inclined to religion than those of other countries in Europe.’ However, in the 2008 EVS survey, the number of people attending Church weekly had declined from 82.4% in 1981 to 44.2%, with a similar decline in monthly attendance to

I found this article interesting for various reasons. It really did not surprise me to learn that almost a quarter of the population in the United States makes up this group of “nones.” While that may not seem like the majority of the population, I feel like that number will begin to climb as our future generations grow up. I think for the longest time our culture and politics were based heavily on religious influences for fear of backlash and disapproval from the general population. Today people are encouraged to be open and to be themselves. We are encouraged to accept all people regardless of their religion, color, sex, or even their sexual preference. I think because of these things, people no longer feel like they have to hide their true identity for fear that their religious communities or even the social community will not accept them. Maybe for these reasons people lost faith in the religious community as well.