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Religion
Related: About this forumAmerican Religion: Complicated, Not Dead
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/american-religion-complicated-not-dead/392891/A new survey suggests that more people of all ages are choosing their own beliefs.
Elzbieta Sekowska / Shutterstock
EMMA GREEN MAY 12, 2015
Every American has a religion story. There are those who were raised devout, only to lapse toward lazy Sundays and sporadic church attendance later in life; those who found a different God in adulthood, perhaps after getting married or going through a conversion of the heart; and those who define themselves by their faith, their congregations a source of casseroles and companionship in times of celebration and grief.
Every American has a religion story, which is why its a little strange to think of America as an increasingly secular nation. That would be one way to read the Pew Research Centers new Religious Landscape Study, a massive survey of more than 35,000 American adults. Over the last seven years, it found, the share of Americans who arent part of any religion has grown significantly, rising from 16 to nearly 23 percent of the population. A small portion of this group are atheists and agnostics3 and 4 percent, respectively. More commonly, though, they are detached from organized religion altogether. When asked what religion they identify with, they answer simply: Nothing in particular. All in all, roughly one in ten Americans say religion is not at all important to them.
But the survey actually reveals something more complex than a slow and steady march toward secularization. Those who didnt identify with any particular religion were asked a follow-up question: How important is religion in your life? The answers reveal that this group might be churchless, but its not wholly faithless: 44 percent said religion is very or somewhat important to them, while 56 percent said religion isn't important to them, according to Greg Smith, Pews associate director of research. This is a slight drop compared to findings from a similar survey taken in 2007: That year, 48 percent of the nones said religion was important to them, while 52 percent said it wasnt. Even taking this decline into account, theres a pretty significant group of Americans who dont identify with a particular denomination or congregation, but who still care about religion to some degree. Thats not the pattern of a Godless nation; its the pattern of people finding God on their own terms.
And that holds true even among many of those who do identify with a particular faith. The survey gives at least a partial look at what the researchers call religious switching: People converting to other faiths, joining new kinds of churches, or ditching religion altogether. If you count switches among the major traditions in Protestantism (mainline, evangelical, and historically black congregations), roughly 42 percent of Americans no longer consider themselves part of the religion in which they were raised. The researchers point out that this estimate is probably on the low side; many people leave their childhood religions, only to return to them later in life. If those decisions were measured, the estimates of religious switching would likely be even higher.
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