nones!  The Pew Forum on religion and public life has released more great news for nones!

Post by Phil Ferguson.  Follow me and the blog on twitter.  @skepticmoney

The title of their new report is “Nones” on the rise – One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation.

It is packed with great news.  20% of all adults now self define as religiously unaffiliated and a full 1/3 for those under 30 years of age.  The focus of the report is on the dramatic change in the last five years and I will talk about that below.  What I noticed is that the age groups get smaller and smaller (fewer years).  When I plotted the data by birth year the best trend line is not linear but exponential.

Rise of the nones.

Note the R Squared of 0.93.  This is a very strong relationship.

Things are bad for religion and they are going to get much worse.  If this exponential trend holds for just a few years, more than half of Americans will be “nones” by the birth year of 2008.  As all of these groups age and the older generations die the rise of the nones will continue.  America could have atheism rates similar to Europe within my life time.

More great charts and tables from the new report.

Nones have grown from 15 to 20% an increase of 25% in just 5 years.

They also note that 88% of the “nones” are not looking for a religion.  It is likely that they will stay nones.

Pew also had this amazing chart on the rise of the nones.  Notice that every mainline religion is down and the nones are up.  Atheist and Agnostic are each up 50% in just 5 years!

Pew gives some explanation to the rise of the nones.

 One important factor behind the growth of the religiously unaffiliated is generational replacement, the gradual supplanting of older generations by newer ones. Among the youngest Millennials (those ages 18-22, who were minors in 2007 and thus not eligible to be interviewed in Pew Research Center surveys conducted that year), fully one-third (34%) are religiously unaffiliated…

There is also growth within age groups as more people leave religion.

Generation Xers and Baby Boomers also have become more religiously unaffiliated in recent years. In 2012, 21% of Gen Xers and 15% of Baby Boomers describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, up slightly (but by statistically significant margins) from 18% and 12%, respectively, since 2007.

People are more willing to admit that they are not part of a religion.  It is getting easier to say that you are an atheist or at least don’t belong to a church.

Part of the reason that the ranks of the unaffiliated have grown in recent years is that Americans who are not particularly religious – at least by conventional measures, such as self-reported rates of attendance at religious services – increasingly describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”

It is also amazing that this trend is for men and women, black and white, all income groups and regions of the country.

The rise of the nones is on the edge of affecting politics in a big way.  Most nones – 75% lean Democratic.

Today, the religiously unaffiliated are clearly more numerous than any of these groups within the Democratic coalition (24% unaffiliated, 16% black Protestant, 14% white mainline Protestant, 13% white Catholic).

As this trend continues the Democratic party must embrace us as a group and when they do, they will lock in a large percent of the vote.

National secular groups praise the rise of the nones….

Jesse Galef, communications director for the Secular Student Alliance

“We would love to see the political leaders lead on this issue, but we are perfectly content with them following these demographic trends, following the voters…”

“As more of the voters are unaffiliated and identifying as atheist and agnostics, I think the politicians will follow that for votes.”

“We won’t be dismissed or ignored anymore…”

American Atheists Jubilant Over Latest Religion Report

 This report is a confirmation of the social shift occurring in the U.S., allowing scores of atheists to come out openly, and moving the U.S. from a predominantly religious nation to a more secular nation.

David Silverman, President of American Atheists said, “We’re seeing a marked shift in the religion bias of our country. Many atheists are ‘coming out’ and openly declaring their non-belief to friends, family, and co-workers. The prejudice still exists, but the statistics prove that the stranglehold of religion is quickly fading away, and being replaced by a more tolerant, secular society.”

 American Humanist Association

 “Millions of Americans are discovering that religion isn’t required in order to lead a moral and purposeful life,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association.

Traditional religions may be unwittingly accelerating the secularization. Speckhardt explained, “We’re seeing evidence that our numbers are bolstered when there’s religious opposition to progress on issues like same-sex marriage, women’s reproductive freedom, and concern for the environment. Young people especially can’t stomach such backward thinking.”

Center for Inquiry

 “Though the ‘unaffiliated’ are not entirely made up of nonbelievers, the fact that one in five Americans have rejected traditional religion means that the enormous influence religion has had over policy and culture will continue to wane,” said Ronald A. Lindsay, President and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. “Furthermore, thanks to the high percentage of ‘nones’ among the younger generations, these numbers tell us that we are closer than ever to realizing a society in which religious dogma has no significant influence on public policy—that is, a society based on reason and science rather than myth and superstition.”

Here is part of the story as seen on CNN!

Idea from The Friendly Atheist.

The Public Religion Research Institute has released their new 37 page study “The 2011 American Values Survey:  The Mormon Question, Economic Inequality and the 2012 Presidential Campaign” … Whew….

There is an amazing amount of information in the full report.  The one piece of data that has made the news is that 42% of all voters have discomfort with voting for a Mormon as president.  For this blog the more important point is that 64% would have discomfort voting for a Muslim and 67% would have discomfort voting for an Atheist.

Not much of a shock over all.  The one thing that did stand out to me is that Democrats appear to have a harder time voting for an Atheist then a Muslim.  We are still the most feared group and we have a long way to go.

The second topic I want to cover is wealth distribution.  It appears that 60% of all Americans and 78% of Democrats think that we would be better off if wealth distribution was more equal.

I would have to agree that our society and our economy would be stronger if wealth was a little more equal.  I am not suggesting that we go and take all of the money from the rich but a slight increase in the top federal income tier would be helpful.

The survey also tells us that 70% of all Americans would support what has been called the “Buffett Rule”.  This rule would create a slight increase in the tax rate for people who earn more than $1 Million in a year.  If you take out people who list FOX as their most trusted news source around 80% of people support the idea.  Generally, anyone that thinks that FOX is a trusted news source is not likely to vote for any democrat regardless of the ideas presented.

WOW – this was great to see.  It looks like most Americans are putting the blame where it belongs.  There is a new study from the Public Religion Research Institute.

Less than 1-in-5 Give America’s Places of Worship High Marks on Handling Issue of Homosexuality

They further brake it down with letter grades.

The PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, found that more than 4-in-10 Americans gave religious organizations a “D” (18%) or an “F” (24%). The number of Americans giving places of worship low marks is more than twice as many as give them high marks; Only 5% of Americans give them an “A,” and only 11% give them a “B.”

So… Only 16% give an A or B.

There have been several tragic stories about teen suicide lately.  Guess who the public blames a the cause of the problem.

One-third (33%) of the public also believe that messages from religious bodies are contributing “a lot” to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth, and another third (32%) say these message contribute “a little”…

A total of 65% think that religion contributes a little or a lot to the problem.  That is great news.  Some people are starting to see religion as the root of the problem.  Well done America!

However, not everyone has figured this out.

Of all religious groups, white evangelicals are most likely to give their own church high marks for handling the issue of homosexuality. Three-quarters of white evangelicals give their church an “A” (48%) or “B” (27%).

Not a surprise.  The worst offenders have no idea of the damage they are causing.

There is also a big difference based on age.  This is great news for the future.  More young adults think religion is bad.

Nearly half (47%) of young adults (age 18 to 34) say that messages from places of worship are contributing “a lot” to negative views of gay and lesbian people. Among Americans age 65 and older, less than one-third (30%) say religious bodies are contributing a lot to negative perceptions of gay and lesbian people.

So… are we now ready for a population that does not need religion?

Well, I am a few days late with this one – Kinda busy…..  There is a new study from the Pew Forum.

I, like everyone else, love it when some information is found that confirms my previously held belief.  In this case, I tend to think that atheists (and agnostics) seem to know more about religion then the people that actually follow it.  The old saying goes something like – if you have a question about the bible – ask an atheist.

Here is the information that is in all the blogs…

I little deeper look at the data shows that the atheists tend to know more about world religion and some of the christians (Mormons and White Evangelicals) know more about christianity – darn that is in conflict with my world view…..

Hey look – They have a quiz you can take.  Give it a try and tell us how you do.  What score did you get?  I got 14 out of 15 correct.

When you think about some of these questions – the results are very telling.

More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. About half of Protestants (53%) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation, which made their religion a separate branch of Christianity. Roughly four-in-ten Jews (43%) do not recognize that Maimonides, one of the most venerated rabbis in history, was Jewish.

Yikes.  Talk about not even knowing what your religion stands for.  Here are the results for different education levels.

Looks like you learn more from education then you do from going to church…

It looks like you learn nothing by going to a church!  This is NOT a surprise.  This next chart is not a surprise either.  Guess what group knows the least about religion.

Yeah – that’s right.  The people that think the bible is the literal word of gOd, know the least about religion.  There are many other graphs and charts - go check them out.

The Center for Public Policy of Virginia Commonwealth University just finished a new survey.  You can read all 59 pages here.  I have pulled out some of the bits I think are of the most interest.

Global warming, by comparison, is one of the least likely issues to be seen as a major problem; 54% say it is a major problem, 23% consider it a minor problem and 19% say it is not a problem. Views about global warming are divided along partisan lines.  Seven in ten Democrats say global warming is a major problem; this compares with 27% of Republicans saying the same. A majority (53%) of independents think global warming is a major problem.

You know there is a problem when your opinion of science is based on your political party.  It will not tell you who is right and who is wrong but it does tell you that many people are giving an opinion based on politics not the facts.

Here are some numbers about evolution…

43% of the nation believes that God directly created life in its present form. Another 24% say life developed over time with guidance from God during the process; this view is compatible with an “intelligent design” or a “theistic evolution” view of life’s origins. A minority of 18% hold beliefs consistent with the theory of evolution saying that life developed over time without guidance from God.

So… 18% DOH!  It also talked about the strong correlation between religion and evolution.  So just like above you should not use your religion to help determine science.