Monday, March 09, 2009

No Religion Is The Fastest Growing Religious Category

From an article by AP Religion Write Rachel Zoll:

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

15% of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2% in 2001 and 8.2% in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34%. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state.
"No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.

[SNIP]

In 2008, Christians comprised 76% of U.S. adults, compared to about 77% in 2001 and about 86% in 1990. Researchers said the dwindling ranks of mainline Protestants, including Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians, largely explains the shift. Over the last seven years, mainline Protestants dropped from just over 17% to 12.9% of the population.
More and more people are seeing things my way!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Fastest growing religious category?" Whoo-hoo! I'm so seldom on the leading edge of a trend...
--Alex

Gavin said...

Alex---I hear ya. First Obama, now this!

Mom said...

And still I believe. I can't not believe.

Gavin said...

Mom--My bff has very deep faith. In today's America, if you aren't a believer, you often find yourself on the outside. It's kinda nice to know I'm not so alone!

To be clear, I'm agnostic, allowing for the existence of God. However, I think the answers to the universe are beyond human comprehension, God or otherwise.

more cowbell said...

I saw the article earlier today, and I have to say, it gave me a feeling of relief. The country has gotten so polarized, and religion has taken on a whole weird moral police kind of thing. I don't know how religion got so tied up into politics, but I don't like how it's used more and more to restrict, to make judgements, to control, be tied into laws. I'd like to see the pendulum swing back more toward neutral in the big picture.

Anyway, it's nice to know that maybe one day soon I won't have to live in an ultra liberal city to be seen as a normal person. Because I'm getting real tired of the rain here...

Cyrus said...

Thank God and Halleleujah for this news!

michael sean morris said...

Very good news indeed; the fundies are driving more and more people away.