{"id":11241,"date":"2018-08-08T10:06:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T15:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:15:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:15:08","slug":"why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/08\/08\/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Why America\u2019s \u2018nones\u2019 don\u2019t identify with a religion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/05\/13\/a-closer-look-at-americas-rapidly-growing-religious-nones\/\">growing share of Americans<\/a> are religiously unaffiliated. We recently asked a representative sample of more than 1,300 of these \u201cnones\u201d <em>why<\/em> they choose not to identify with a religion. Out of several options included in the survey, the most common reason they give is that they question a lot of religious teachings.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Six-in-ten religiously unaffiliated Americans \u2013 adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or \u201cnothing in particular\u201d \u2013 say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. The second-most-common reason is opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues, cited by 49% of respondents (the survey asked about each of the six options separately). Smaller, but still substantial, shares say they dislike religious organizations (41%), don\u2019t believe in God (37%), consider religion irrelevant to them (36%) or dislike religious leaders (34%).<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/08\/08\/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion\/ft_18-08-07_whyunaffiliated_most\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_most.png\" alt=\"Most religious 'nones' say questioning religious teachings is an important reason they are unaffiliated\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those who identify as atheist, agnostic or \u201cnothing in particular\u201d tend to give different reasons for their lack of affiliation, showing that \u201cnones\u201d are far from a monolithic group. For example, about nine-in-ten self-described atheists (89%) say their lack of belief in God is a very important reason for their religious identity, compared with 37% of agnostics and 21% of those in the \u201cnothing in particular\u201d category. Atheists also are more likely than other \u201cnones\u201d to say religion is simply \u201cirrelevant\u201d to them (63% of atheists vs. 40% of agnostics and 26% of adults with no particular religion).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more--><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also asked religious \u201cnones\u201d which of the six potential statements is the single <em>most<\/em> important reason they are unaffiliated. Again, questioning religious teachings is among the top responses, with a quarter of all \u201cnones\u201d saying it is the most important reason. A similar share (22%) cite lack of belief in God, and 16% say the most important reason is that they dislike the positions churches take on social and political issues.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are major differences among the three unaffiliated subgroups on this question as well. Three-quarters of atheists say the most important reason they are atheist is that they don\u2019t believe in God. Far fewer agnostics (17%) and people in the \u201cnothing in particular\u201d group (8%) say this.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among self-described agnostics, the most important reason cited for being agnostic is the questioning of a lot of religious teachings (38%).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People who identify as \u201cnothing in particular\u201d give a variety of responses when asked about their most important reason for not affiliating with a religion \u2013 and no single reason predominates. A quarter say the most important reason is that they question a lot of religious teachings, 21% say they dislike the positions churches take on social and political issues, and 28% say none of the reasons offered are very important.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/08\/08\/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion\/ft_18-08-07_whyunaffiliated_questioning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_questioning.png\" alt=\"Questioning religious teaching and disbelief in God most important reasons for identifying as 'none'\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/08\/24\/why-americas-nones-left-religion-behind\/\">previous research<\/a>, the Center asked religiously unaffiliated Americans who were raised in a religion (who make up a majority of all religious \u201cnones\u201d) to explain in their own words why they no longer identify with any religious group. This question also elicited a wide variety of responses from the \u201cnothing in particular\u201d group. Some said they do not believe in religious teachings or dislike organized religion, while others said they <em>are<\/em> religious (though unaffiliated) or that they believe in God but do not practice any religion.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Note: See full <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_Topline-for-release-_FINAL-CHECKED.pdf\">topline results<\/a> and methodology <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_Methodology_FINAL-CHECKED.pdf\">here<\/a> (PDF).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six-in-ten religious &#8220;nones&#8221; in the U.S. say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. The second-most-common reason is opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[195],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-11241","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-religiously-unaffiliated","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":531,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/08\/08\/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":21654,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":21654,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":21654,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":21654,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":21654,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png?w=640&h=360&crop=1","width":640,"height":360,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":21654,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/08\/FT_18.08.07_whyUnaffiliated_featured3.png?w=640&h=360&crop=1","width":640,"height":360,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Why America\u2019s \u2018nones\u2019 don\u2019t identify with a religion","description":"Six-in-ten religious nones say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. But nones are far from a monolithic group.","og_title":"Why America\u2019s \u2018nones\u2019 don\u2019t identify with a religion","og_description":"Six-in-ten religious \"nones\" in the U.S. say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. The second-most-common reason is opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":21654,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/11241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/11241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102012,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/11241\/revisions\/102012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=11241"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=11241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}