Religious ‘nones’ are not only growing, they’re becoming more secular

[trotsky]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/11/religious-nones-are-not-only-growing-theyre-becoming-more-secular/

At the same time, between the Pew Research Center’s two Religious Landscape Studies – conducted in 2007 and 2014 – we also see consistent evidence that the “nones” are becoming less religious. For example, the share of religious “nones” who say they believe in God, while still a majority, has fallen from 70% to 61% over that seven-year period. Only 27% of “nones” are absolutely certain about God’s existence, down from 36% in 2007. And fully a third of religiously unaffiliated Americans (33%) now say they do not believe in God, up 11 percentage points over that time.

Similar trends are seen on some other key measures of religious engagement. The share of religious “nones” who say they seldom or never pray has risen by 6 points in recent years, and now stands at 62%. And a bigger proportion of the unaffiliated now say religion is not important in their lives (65%) than said this in 2007 (57%).

...

Fully seven-in-ten of these youngest Millennials (born between 1990 and 1996) with no religious affiliation say religion is not important in their lives. A similar share (70%) also say they seldom or never pray and 42% say they do not believe in God, all bigger percentages than among religious “nones” as a whole.

42%?

[corkhead]

1. 42% doesn't surprise me. Millennials apparently feel more free to share their true view on religion

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Meh - that's 42% of those who have no religious affiliation

Of all of that age group (born 1990-96, ie 19-25 years old), 80% believe in God, 50% with absolute certainty: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/

[trotsky]

3. You gotta understand, this is the US!

42% of the unaffiliated is amazing!

And only 80% of the total believing in a god is a huge drop.

[Promethean]

4. The 42% was in reference to millenials. Not "nones."

As in 42% of an entire generation are atheist and 70% say religion is unimportant. This is why atheists see the rise of the "nones" as a big win. Religion requires a great deal of effort on the part of parents to ensure the next generation carries the bad ideas forward. You don't bother to indoctrinate your children with unimportant ideas. Religion is on course to being nearly dead (bad ideas never fully die unfortunately) within a very small number of generations.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. No, it says " these youngest Millennials (born between 1990 and 1996) with no religious affiliation"

As I said in the post you replied to, from the main survey results that I linked to, 80% of those born 1990-96 believe in God.

For the whole of that 'younger millennial' generation,
38% says religion is very important to them
29% somewhat important
33% Not too or not at all important

28% attend relgiious services weekly
16% monthly
56% yearly or less

http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/11/201.11.03_RLS_II_full_report.pdf

[Yorktown]

6. Religious ‘nones’ growing, becoming more secular? May dog be praised.

[onager]

7. Barna Research Group found the same

Their research is always interesting because BRG was founded by a Fundamentalist Xian, George Barna.

Despite his personal beliefs, for years Mr. Barna has been infuriating America's Xian leadership with his unbiased poll reporting. e.g., Barna reported long ago that self-styled Xians had a higher divorce rate than atheists. And after 9/11, when Franklin Graham & Co. were braying about a massive return to church-going, Barna reported a very slight uptick in church attendance for about 2 weeks, followed by a return to the usual dismal numbers. Barna always describes its polling methodology and results right up front, so the curious can check the data for themselves.

Here's a Barna study from March 2014:

Americans Divided on the Importance of Church - March 24, 2014

Looking to future generations does not paint an optimistic picture for the importance of churchgoing. Millennials (those 30 and under) stand out as least likely to value church attendance; only two in 10 believe it is important. And more than one-third of Millennial young adults (35%) take an anti-church stance...

While tens of millions of Americans attend church each weekend, the practice has declined in recent years. According to Barna Group's 2014 tracking data, overall church attendance has dipped from 43% in 2004 to 36% today. But beyond a dip in attendance numbers, the nature of churchgoing is changing. Regular attenders used to be people who went to church three or more weekends each month—or even several times a week. Now people who show up once every four to six weeks consider themselves regular churchgoers. Many pastors and church leaders are accounting for sporadic attendance in their ministry planning.

Furthermore, the percentage of people who have not attended a church function at all in the past six months has surged in the last decade from one-third to nearly two-fifths of all Americans. The shift is even more drastic among younger Americans: more than half of Millennials and Gen Xers say they have not been to church in the last six months.

Millennials who are opting out of church cite three factors with equal weight in their decision: 35% cite the church's irrelevance, hypocrisy, and the moral failures of its leaders as reasons to check out of church altogether. In addition, two out of 10 unchurched Millennials say they feel God is missing in church, and one out of 10 senses that legitimate doubt is prohibited, starting at the front door.

https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/661-americans-divided-on-the-importance-of-church#.VkcyJNIU9EY