Searching for Spirituality in the U.S.: A New Look at the Spiritual but Not Religious

From PRRI-

The American religious landscape is undergoing unprecedented tectonic shifts in identity and practice. Americans who do not identify with any religious group—the religiously unaffiliated—now account for nearly one-quarter (24%) of the adult public, tripling in size over the last 25 years.1 At the same time, trust in religious institutions has fallen to historic lows. According to Gallup, only 42% of the public report having a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in organized religion. This is the lowest mark in the more than 40 years Gallup has canvassed American opinion on this topic. At its peak in 1975, more than two-thirds (68%) expressed confidence in organized religion.2

The decline of formal religious affiliation and the rising distrust of institutional religion have led some scholars to question whether the fundamental nature of religious practice and belief is changing. Rising rates of disaffiliation may not necessarily indicate an increasingly secular orientation but rather an abandonment of traditional religious practices in favor of a more personalized and customizable spirituality. This argument—that in leaving formal religion, many people who disaffiliate are not becoming secular, but instead are identifying as “spiritual but not religious”—is supported by research that shows growing interest in spirituality.3

More here-

https://www.prri.org/research/religiosity-and-spirituality-in-america/

More U.S. Protestants Have No Specific Denominational Identity

From Gallup-

Americans have become less likely to identify with an official or formal religion in recent decades, and nowhere is this more evident than in the dwindling percentage who identify with a specific Protestant denomination. In 2000, 50% of Americans identified with a specific denomination; by 2016 that figure had dropped to 30%.

This shrinking proportion of Americans who identify with specific Protestant denominations is the result of two trends.

First, an increasing percentage of Americans are "nones," saying they don't have a specific religious identity of any kind. Since the percentages of Catholics, Mormons and those who identify with a non-Christian religion have stayed roughly the same over time, this "rise of the nones" -- from 10% in 2000 to 20% in 2016 -- has generally been accompanied by an associated decrease in the broad category of Protestants, whose numbers shrank from 57% to 47%. Therefore, there are fewer Protestants of any kind in the American population today, and the pool of those who identify with a specific Protestant denomination is smaller.

More here-

http://www.gallup.com/poll/214208/protestants-no-specific-denominational-identity.aspx?g_source=Religion&g_medium=newsfeed&g_campaign=tiles

Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than the religious

From Psypost-

New research indicates that religious believers can be better at perceiving and integrating different perspectives than atheists in Western Europe.

“The main message of the study is that closed-mindedness is not necessarily found only among the religious,” the study’s corresponding author, Filip Uzarevic of the Catholic University of Louvain, told PsyPost.

The research was published April 27, 2017, in the peer-reviewed journal Personality and Individual Differences.

“The idea started through noticing that, in public discourse, despite both the conservative/religious groups and liberal/secular groups showing strong animosity towards the opposite ideological side, somehow it was mostly the former who were often labeled as ‘closed-minded’,” Uzarevic explained. “Moreover, such view of the secular being more tolerant and open seemed to be dominant in the psychological literature. Being interested in this topic, we started to discuss whether this is necessarily and always the case: Are the religious indeed generally more closed-minded, or would it perhaps be worthy of investigating the different aspects of closed-mindedness and their relationship with (non)religion. ”

More here-

http://www.psypost.org/2017/06/study-finds-nonreligious-can-close-minded-religious-49182

Religious statistics: 'Nones’ numerous but a committed Anglican core is flourishing

From The Church Times-

THERE are reasons to be hopeful in a new report that highlights high rates of “nonversion” — the loss of people brought up with a religious affiliation to the “no religion” category — its author argued this week.

Although “C of E” was no longer the “default setting” for British adults asked about their religious identity, there was left a core of committed, practising Christians who shored each other up and were set to become a “creative minority” in the UK, the author, Professor Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, said.

His report, The “No Religion” Population of Britain, is based on data from the 2015 British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey, and the 2014 European Social Survey. Those who identify as “no religion” make up 48.6 per cent of the British adult population.Those claiming a Christian affiliation make up 43 per cent of the population, of which 17.1 per cent are Anglican.


More here-


https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/19-may/news/uk/nones-rise-but-a-committed-core-is-found-flourishing

Losing my religion? Secular Brits now outnumber Christians, but Islam & Hinduism growing

From England-

Britain has reached new heights of secularization, with almost half of Britons now identifying as non-religious, a new study reveals.

According to ‘The “No Religion” Population of Britain’ report by Stephen Bullivant, professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, non-religious people, known as ‘nones’, account for 48.6 percent of Britain’s population.

Although there has been an overall trend towards secularization in Britain, the figures also show record numbers of people from non-Christian faiths, such as Islam and Hinduism.

The number of British people identifying as Christian dropped from 55 percent to 43 percent between 1983 and 2015. By contrast, non-Christian believers such as Muslims and Hindus quadrupled.

“The rise of the non-religious is arguably the story of British religious history over the past half-century or so,” Bullivant said.

More here-

https://www.rt.com/uk/388409-secularization-religion-islam-christians/

Student, researcher reflect on reasons behind rise in religious "nones"

From The Indiana Daily Student-

Every Sunday IU freshman Isaac Thuesen’s parents wake up, put on their Sunday best and attend Mass at their episcopal church in Indianapolis. Sixty miles away, Thuesen is still in bed in his dorm room.

Thuesen grew up going to church regularly. At the age of 9, he became a choir boy who attended weekly rehearsals and sang at two Sunday Masses every week, but now Thuesen identifies as agnostic and hasn’t gone to church since coming to IU.

“I probably would have left the church even before that if it wasn’t such an important tradition in my family,” he said.

More here-

http://www.idsnews.com/article/2017/04/student-researcher-reflect-on-reasons-behind-rise-in-religious-nones

Why most people leave religion? They just ‘stop believing’

From Salt Lake-

It's bad news for organized religion: A majority of the religiously unaffiliated — the so-called "nones" — say they fell away from faith not because of any negative experience, but because they "stopped believing," usually before age 30.

Gloomier still for religion is this: Nones make up 25 percent of the American population, making them the single largest "faith group" in the U.S., ahead of Catholics (21 percent) and white evangelicals (16 percent).

And only a fraction — 7 percent — say they are looking for a religion to belong to at all.

Those are among the more salient findings of a new study of the religiously unaffiliated conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute.

More here-

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4390034-155/why-most-people-leave-religion-they

The ‘nones’ are more numerous than you think, but many won’t show up on Election Day

From Religion News-

A quarter of U.S. adults do not affiliate with any religion, a new study shows — an all-time high in a nation where large swaths of Americans are losing faith.

But while these so-called “nones” outnumber any religious denomination, they are not voting as a bloc, and may have little collective influence on the upcoming presidential election.

The rapid growth of the religiously unaffiliated, charted in a survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute Thursday (Sept. 22), is raising eyebrows even among those who follow trends in American religiosity.

More here-

http://religionnews.com/2016/09/22/nones-religiously-unaffiliated-study-nones-prri-voting-polls/

Role of young adults in the church

From Georgia-

Within the religious dimensions of mainstream Christian denominations, the rhetoric of inclusivity and agape love is a gospel mandate that goes without saying. But it’s a message that is falling short on thousands of young adults ages 20 to 35 who view themselves as religious “nones” — those who don’t identify with a specific organized religion — or have strayed away from the church, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center study.

The study, which surveyed 35,000 American adults, showed the percentage who identified as Christian had dropped from 78.4 percent in 2007, to 70.6 percent today.

Although it would seem more and more young adults are moving away from the word, Pastor Debbie Travis believes this is a time to embrace them and help them express their interests in spirituality, especially if they aren’t yet receptive to participating in a religious community.

More here-

http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/life/role-of-young-adults-in-the-church/article_7e0eda7b-3158-50db-b246-44ab23933f7b.html

People of no religion outnumber Christians in England and Wales – study

From The Guardian-

The number of people who say they have no religion is rapidly escalating and significantly outweighs the Christian population in England and Wales, according to new analysis.

The proportion of the population who identify as having no religion – referred to as “nones” – reached 48.5% in 2014, almost double the figure of 25% in the 2011 census. Those who define themselves as Christian – Anglicans, Catholics and other denominations – made up 43.8% of the population.

“The striking thing is the clear sense of the growth of ‘no religion’ as a proportion of the population,” said Stephen Bullivant, senior lecturer in theology and ethics at St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, who analysed data collected through British Social Attitudes surveys over three decades.

More here-

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/23/no-religion-outnumber-christians-england-wales-study

Nonreligious are a growing section of Americans

From Oregon-

Kay Dickey decided she was atheist at age 12. Her parents were not religious and accepted her epiphany, despite living in a predominantly Mormon section of Utah.

“It felt like a cloud went off my shoulders,” Dickey said.

Her story of acceptance contrasts with those of other Central Oregon Atheists members, a group the now 64-year-old woman is organizing.

The Meetup group started in 2008 and has 409 members, ranging from teenagers to octogenarians. Less than 10 members attended the April 17 meeting in a Bend motel conference room. While Dickey is the primary organizer, there is no board or bylaws; there are weekly breakfast meetups that other Central Oregon Atheists members arrange.

While 3.1 percent of Americans identify themselves as atheists, more than 20 percent say they do not affiliate with a religion, according to a Pew Research Center study. More than 35,000 Americans over age 18 were polled for the 2014 Religious Landscape Study.
More here-

http://www.bendbulletin.com/home/4252408-151/nonreligious-are-a-growing-section-of-americans#

How churches can attract the 'nones'

From The Desert News-

Churches seeking to recapture the growing numbers of religiously unaffiliated should forget about preserving the past and instead focus on the needs of those who see no need for organized religion, one mainline Protestant thought leader said.

The Rev. Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal priest, church consultant and Religion News Service columnist, and other faith and thought leaders have been responding to whether and how the unaffiliated can be reached after a Pew Research Center study that found those who don't identify with a particular faith, the so-called "nones," have grown as much as some mainline Christian faiths have declined.

Ehrich said the take-away for him is a reminder that the bottom line for faith isn't about buildings or budgets, but the people found inside and outside the walls.

Read more at

http://national.deseretnews.com/article/4661/How-churches-can-attract-the-nones.html#FzjP2OWfIeoLoSlU.99