More than 1 in 4 American adults identify as “religious nones,” meaning they consider themselves to be “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular,” according to a report from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday.
According to the new set of data, 28% of Americans classify themselves as “nones,” 17% of whom identify as atheist, 20% as agnostic and 63% as “nothing in particular.” Most “nones” said they were raised to be religious, and the majority were raised in Christian households.
The data was mostly based on a Pew Research Center survey of 11,201 respondents that was conducted over the course of a week last summer. The report also drew on a few other surveys conducted in recent years and on Pew’s National Public Opinion Reference Surveys.
“When asked directly why they are not religious, two-thirds of ‘nones’ say they question a lot of religious teachings or don’t believe in God,” the report said.
This sounds a lot like “You don’t get to tell me not to touch the hot stove! I want to experience the burn!” – What’s wrong with listening to other’s look on life and see if and how that can benefit you?
Because some people don’t need to touch a hot stove to feel the heat from it. In your binary view of the world you’re either the burned or the observer.
If every human had to learn from step one we’d never progress. Taking lessons from past experiences is valid in many ways. The alternate side of that is many humans must make their own mistakes to learn those lessons. It’s why we rarely listen to our parents. And unfortunately many humans require a group to belong to, as our evolutionary history required the social collective to survive. Which is why religion has been so powerful, especially once the con men realized they could use that “flaw” in human evolution to manipulate people. So for sure we should always be skeptical about being led by others. But I’m afraid the “concept” of religion (groupthink) will likely never go away - it’s a huge part of what makes us social creatures. But I absolutely agree that “religion” as a generalization is fucked.