Religion Continues to Decline in America

Pew Research has released its latest survey of religion in America, and it comes as no surprise that organized religion continues to shrink. Here’s the decline in a nutshell:

There’s something worth noting here: although the number of “religiously unaffiliated” has increased from 16 percent to 26 percent over the past decade, the number identifying as atheist has barely budged, increasing only two percentage points. What this says is that although a quarter of the population is nonreligious, very few of them are aggressive about it. Those of us willing to flatly own up to being atheists make up a tiny, tiny minority.

In other words, feel free to mock religion with your flying spaghetti monster stuff, but don’t act all surprised when most Americans take offense and feel reluctant to vote for your candidates. You know what you’re doing.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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