According to a new report, “American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population,” current trends indicate that within 20 years the proportion of Americans reporting no religious affiliation could reach 25 percent. While such statistics tend to kindle the fears of those who prophesy the demographic decline of the White Christian West, Dan Gilgoff at God & Country argues for a less jeremiadic reading:
While the numbers portend a dramatic change for the American religious scene—”religious nones” accounted for just 8 percent of the population in 1990—the United States is not poised adopt the anti-religious posture of much of secularized Europe.
That’s because American religious nones tend to be religious skeptics as opposed to outright atheists. Fewer than ten percent of those identifying with no religious tradition call themselves atheists or hold atheistic beliefs, according to the new study.
See the entire report here, and continue reading Gilgoff’s analysis here.