The younger the generation, the more uneducated… 69% are under 49 years of age
Non-religious person: “Religion encourages division, intolerance, and illogic.”
The proportion of Christians also decreased from 90% to 60% in 30 years.
In the United States, a ‘Christian nation,’ the number of Americans who say they have no religion is increasing.
According to the Washington Post (WP) on the 24th (local time), the Pew Research Center, an American research institute, released a report showing that the number of Americans who say they are non-religious has increased from 5% to 30% over the past 50 years. 81% of non-religious people said that religion was not an important factor in their lives.
The survey was conducted on about 11,200 Americans over a period of one week from July 31 to August 6 last year. The Pew Center conducted additional interviews with about 3,300 people who identified themselves as non-religious and prepared a report.
The Pew Center’s report focused on the rapidly increasing number of non-religious people over the past several decades in order to predict and understand future trends in the American religious community.
According to the report, non-religious people are diverse, young, and tend to have left-wing tendencies. 69% of non-religious people were under 49 years of age.
Just because you don’t have religion doesn’t mean you don’t believe in anything. Among those who described themselves as non-religious, 56% responded that they believed in a ‘greater power’ other than the God of the Bible, and 67% responded that they believed that humans have souls. Most of them also answered that animals and nature can also have spiritual power.
Most non-religious people have stronger faith in science than religious people, but they still do not think that science can explain everything.
The overwhelming majority of non-religious people responded that religion creates division and intolerance and promotes superstition and illogic.
Not all people who leave religion are hostile to religion. The proportion of respondents who answered that religion helps society as a whole by giving meaning and purpose to an individual’s life also reached 58%.
The Pew Center asked respondents a variety of questions, including whether they had recently volunteered, whether they had voted in the last election, and whether they were interested in social issues. As a result, there was no significant difference between religious and non-religious people.
According to the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS) survey in 1972, only 5% of Americans said they had no religion. This increased to 16% in 2007 and then to 30% in 2022.
Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University, said, “Thirty years ago, 90% of Americans were Christians, but now it has decreased to 60%.” He added, “Christians need to think about religious freedom, productivity, and discriminatory influence, and understand non-religious people. “He said.
81% of non-religious people said that religion was not an important factor in their lives. The Pew Center said it found that Americans are not opposed to religion per se, but simply have become less interested in it.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.