'None' is the Fastest Growing American Religion

Is it disbelief or unbelief?

Probably some of both. Surveys are showing that almost 20% of Americans profess themselves to be unaffiliated with any religion - and that is the fastest growing category. This is the largest number in American history.

The reasons may have to do with the pace of life, the transient nature of a society not wedded to one geographic location, the use of religion as a political cudgel, the dominance of technological and scientific knowledge, and the conflict imposed by strident declarations of faith that may defy modern contemporary notions of justice and economic reality.

All of the major religions in the US appear to be experiencing declines in membership. Churches and church affiliated schools are closing, particularly in urban areas where they dominated for over a century to serve immigrant populations fearful of their new home and reluctant to lose touch with the verities on which they were raised. The growth of non-denominational 'mega-churches' has tapered off, in part due to the natural constraints of population growth but also due to scandal and the limits imposed by personality-driven faith.

The US may still contain one of the largest religious populations in the world, but that is increasingly based on an aging base. Europe has experienced a similar decline in religious belief. Economic hardship does not appear to have halted the trend on either continent. Whether affluence negatively influences religious belief is not yet clear, but if the congregations so affected do not address the unease, the reduction in numbers may become difficult to reverse. JL

Cathy Grossman reports in USA Today:

Unbelief is on the uptick. People who check "None" for their religious affiliation are now nearly one in five Americans (19%), the highest ever documented, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press.

The rapid rise of Nones — including atheists, agnostics and those who say they believe "nothing in particular" — defies the usually glacial rate of change in spiritual identity. Barry Kosmin, co-author of three American Religious Identification Surveys, theorizes why None has become the "default category." He says, "Young people are resistant to the authority of institutional religion, older people are turned off by the politicization of religion, and people are simply less into theology than ever before."

Kosmin's surveys were the first to brand the Nones in 1990 when they were 6% of U.S. adults. By 2008 survey, Nones were up to 15%. By 2010, another survey, the bi-annual General Social Survey, bumped the number to 18%.

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, the nation's largest religious denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, Methodists and Lutherans, all show membership flat or inching downward, according to the 2012 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches.

The 19% count is based on aggregated surveys of 19,377 people conducted by the Pew Research Center throughout 2011.

How high the Nones numbers might go depends on demographics, says Mark Chaves, professor of Sociology, Religion and Divinity at Duke University, an expert on the General Social Survey.

Two forces could hold Nones' numbers down. First, they are disproportionately young, often single, and highly educated — all groups with a low birth rate. Second, the number of believers who immigrate to the USA from particularly religious nations, such as Catholics from Mexico, fluctuates with government policies and economic issues, Chaves says.

But the chief way the category grows is by "switchers." A 2009 Pew Forum look at "switching" found more than 10% of American adults became Nones after growing up within a religious group.

Chaves says there's another dimension to the unbelief trend worth watching.

"Americans famously say they believe in some variation of God. Over 90% do," Chaves says. "But it used to be 99% decades ago. The change is slow, but we can see it coming."