Gallup: ‘32% of Americans are Nonreligious’

Born and Raised in NH, Schooled in CT, frequent visits to VT, I’m a product of my environment!! 

Rhode Island, on the whole, isn’t very religious because all the loons are piled up in Cranston.

Alaska is not surprising, it is a western frontier state. That whole region (Mountain/Pacific) was the least religious until New England took over.

Hmm. Coincidence that Mississippi, with the highest percentage of religious people, ranks as the poorest state in the country (at least in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau); that Mississippi students scored the lowest of any state on the National Assessments of Educational Progress in both math and science; and that it currently ranks at the bottom of the American Human Development Index?

I was raised in New Hampshire. I moved to Virginia when I was 9 and I had *no idea* until I was in college that New England is the least religious place in America, because literally every single person I was ever allowed to interact with except the Sinful Neighbors were part of the young-earth creationist movement.

 Then I graduated college and got a job in Massachusetts and life is amazing and awesome here. I think there’s literally one person in this entire company who goes to church every week. Love ya, New England.

I was thinking the very same thing!

Moved from NC to NH and yes there is a huge cultural difference between the two states. Even within NH there is a cultural divide as well, it is not as wide or divergent as  the Granite State is from the Tarheel State. I love many aspects of my home state, NC, but to the dismay of my relatives: NH is a better state overall to live in my opinion.

Did basically the opposite move (NC to NH) over a decade ago…and I can understand your cultural shock. I wish you well. 

 How’s that correlate with percentage of poor black people?

 woo Vermont takes it again!

While VA is somewhere in the middle, the reality is that it’s just two totally different states: Northern VA, and Everything Else VA. The former has a fairly high population of non-religious folks and is overall pretty liberal. Everything from Charlottesville down fits better with the Carolinas and Mississippi.  So, while the state overall ranks somewhere in the middle, the reality is a lot more skewed for people who live here.

Cali. makes a little more sense now. Love the variety but it can get a little nutty.

So, basically, everyone in Utah who isn’t Mormon is non-religious?

Presumably they could also just ignore the demographic information in the data they gathered and have reached an percentage based on the un-subdivided mass of respondents.

The Creationism survey did not give an option for Old Earth creationism.  Thus, Old Earth creationists had to choose between answering as YECs or accepting evolution of humans.  Who knows how it would have come out if an OEC option were given.

Yep. Northern VA is what keeps VA in the middle, religiously and politically.  The rest of the state is nuts.

It would be interesting to see the age breakdown of the respondents as well.
I think we should all feel very encouraged.  Sanity and reason will overcome!

Don’t forget about the Western Slope, pretty conservative out there too. But yep, ita @ the Springs dragging down the rest of the state….hell our Republicans voted *gag* Santorum. But the rest of the state is AWESOME, i live north of Denver. Even my more religious friends believe in marriage equality and know Creationism is a load of horseshit.

I grew up in Alaska. This does not surprise me at all.

You have to understand the basic Alaskan mentality. It is much more libertarian than anywhere else in the states. Essentially, most Alaskans are accepting and easy going (although I was exiled from my town for my atheism) – the mentality is “this is my property. I will do what I want here, don’t tell me what to do on it and I won’t tell you what to do on yours.”

Alaska rednecks are WAY different than southern rednecks or Idaho/Wyoming/Montana style rednecks which tend to be violent, in your face and oppressive. 

 I was noticing this and wondering what the Regressional analysis would show comparing these to: (a) poverty; (b) receipt of federal funding; (c) voting republican; (d) education; (e) incidence of infant mortality; (f) prevalence of obesity, etc.

The “daily life” question is from 2009. The 2011 question is “Are you very/moderately/non-religious?” So 32% of Americans say “I am non-religious”, which IMO is an even better metric than “nones”, since it includes people that might call themselves Christian or Jewish or whatever for cultural reasons, but do not practice it at all. …and “Jersey-Shore-esque morons” are “nones”, what else would you call them?

In case you missed it, some interesting data on the religiosity (or not) of the British.  Seems a lot of people automatically tick off ‘Christian’ on the census, but as we know, that label means different things to different people.

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/644941-rdfrs-uk-ipsos-mori-poll-1-how-religious-are-uk-christians 

Woo! Maine represent!

Looking through recent US census data, it’s no surprise that the “very religious” states also have the lowest education and lowest household incomes…  except for Utah.  …and Alaska is in the middle for over 25s with Bachelor degrees.

It is pretty indicative, though, that the higher educated you are and the more money you earn, the less likely you are to need a religion to help you understand the world.

 Sssh, don’t tell Mitt Romney

It’s extremely difficult to find a decent school in Mississippi. Most, but not all, of the public school districts are complete garbage. I’m actually faced with the prospect of sending my child to a catholic school, and it’s giving me nightmares.

Of course a lot of the public schools are fairly religious, too, so perhaps it doesn’t matter.

/sigh

I second that!

I’m not sure you know this but religious folks were the first to accept cell phones because we are used to talking to certain people long distance without cords.  WE usually do it before every meal and before we go to bed. 🙂 

Actually the census was done through self responses to the relilgious question so I would suspect that the number of people who would self express to a census worker that they were atheists was not a true representative sample of atheists and is probably lower then it really is.  

Live in NH also, comes in tops on a number of big quality of life indicators…

Should I feel bad because I strongly dislike very religious people?  (This is one of the reasons I live in Massachusetts).  My dislike is not so much moral or political as it is epistemological.  These people have failed in their epistemological duties, and they celebrate the fact that they’ve failed in those duties by praising faith.  I take my moral responsibilities seriously, but I take my epistemological ones as seriously.  To me, listening to someone make claims without any idea that they have a responsibility to provide reasons and give evidence is like watching someone punch old people on the street without any recognition of their moral responsibility.  It sickens me.

Doesn’t surprise me that Mississippi is near the top of the list of states in terms of “very religious” Americans.  I’m sure you if you compared this chart to inequality amongst the states there would be strong correlation to the level of the states inequality and religiosity:

http://positivepsychologynews.com/ppnd_wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Dia2.JPG

Just the same with individual nations and inequality/religiosity correlation:

http://positivepsychologynews.com/ppnd_wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cv-chart-2.jpg

I would recommend reading “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.  They compare many of those metrics, as well as others, both internationally and state-to-state.
You can view some of their findings here:

http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence

 Being from MS, I’ve gotten to the point where I cannot even defend this state anymore. It’s a bit depressing.

As a Californian (I moved here….six years ago) I must say that I adore living here in Santa Barbara! SB is the best! And I do love California, even with its issues.

Thing is “lawyer” – we who use cell phones understand that we are not talking “in the air” to imaginary sky fairies. Science is much different than make believe.

I do. BUT, I will be in Botswana! So, while seeing Dawkins sounds awesome, I am STOKED STOKED STOKED for my assignment in Africa!

Yes, housing is expensive here, but it balances out. My quality of life is VERY VERY high, so I can deal with the housing costs.

You are correct. I must have skimmed by it too quickly to notice the question I was referring to was the old one. I agree that the people who personally consider themselves “nonreligious” is much more specific than the “nones”.

The more I think about this, the question is too ambiguous to make this claim. The problem I have is people who identify as Christian but don’t go to church nearly ever, may qualify themselves as a Non-Religious. That variable is almost missing one option…

I think people are surprised that Alaska is on the list of non-religious states because they automatically think non-religious means progressive. In reality, there exist conservatives who don’t like the religious right but are Republican because they are fiscal conservatives  or neo-cons. And yes, there are Libertarian atheists of the Ayn Rand style, the most famous of which (at least to us) is Penn of Penn and Teller.

I was on assignment in Wyoming about three years ago. I was based out of Jackson and was there for five months. Based on what I saw and had to interview, Wyoming makes Mississippi and Alabama seem downright progressive!

I was interviewing the Jackson FIre Chief, and I asked him how he felt about the Obama Administration’s proposal to some of the land acts going on (I was covering some environmental issues) and he said, and I quote -VERBATIM – “That nigger isn’t my president”.

Now, two things: a) I am a journalist – what you say to me WILL be used. There are no “take twos” and there is no such thing as “off the record”. b) He was indicative of the mentalities I encountered in Wyoming and Idaho. I had other such encounters with other people, and you could feel the underlying intolerance and nastiness all over. And I was in the alleged progressive enclave of Jackson!

I admit my surprise in seeing Oregon near the top of the not very religious list. Then again, the vast majority of *extremely* religious Oregonians I have known and with whom I was raised are the very same who claim that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. When asked their religion they will say they do not have one, and yes, they are serious.

That is a fair point.   Pretty much everywhere south of C’Ville, I’ve found, is ultra-religious, so that’s always been kind of my “NoVA” divider, but you’re absolutely right about there divide being pretty crooked.

What about this 28% moderately religious who could either think religion is important but don’t attend services regularly or *not* important but do attend services? This category doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I would lean toward calling people who say religion is not important in that category as more non-religious. Why are these people attending? Are they all in a Peggy Olson situation? I don’t think it’s a stretch to consider shifting a few % of the moderate category to non religious. But, the poll in general is a touch iffy, and I could be off base and being optimistic. 

 Although, I do not identify as religious, and on many occasions conservatives have annoyed me, I personally enjoy the diverse collection of people in Colorado. I’m great friends with a number of Athiests and an equally large number of religious people. I suppose, I just don’t think that religion is all bad. For information’s sake, I’m in Fort Collins.

When I worked for a church, the pastor said the same thing about Christianity. From the pulpit.

He retired shortly after.

It’s not necessarily wrong to dislike a group of people based on their openly espoused patterns of thought.  It’s only when superficial, and non-chosen characteristics are discriminated against that it becomes an issue.

 I was studying to be a journalist for a couple of years and I found that people seem to not understand that there’s no such thing as “off the record.” If you’re speaking to a journalist about a story, then it’s on the record. If you don’t want it on the record, then don’t talk about it.

Combined with the UK polling done by the RDFS Ipsos/Mori lot it, and the recent Pew polling about how Amercans are sick of the over religious rhetoric spouted by politicians, it seems 2012 is a bad year for the religulous reich poll wise.

This makes the end conclusions section of the Bill Maher film even more pertinant – the section where he points out that non-believers outnumber any other lobbying block (yet remain mostly ignored).

You have the ammo now my US chums….. now use it.

This is the same thing I was going to say as well. I know many people who are “crazy for Jesus” but claim they aren’t religious.

It would appear how religiousness of your state depends in large part on how close it is to Canada

Hemant, I think you might be mistaken about the question that was asked – as far as I can tell, it’s the same as in the 2009 poll. The article you linked to says that Gallup classifies them as very religious, etc., not that they self-identified as such.  And the section you quoted says, “Gallup classifies 40% of Americans nationwide as very religious — based on their statement that religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week.” So, it doesn’t sound like this is people self-identifying as very religious or non-religious, and that makes a big difference, at least to my mind – I think if you asked people what they considered themselves you’d get different results, although I’m not sure what they’d be.

Blacks are religious and poor.

The San Francisco Bay Area is good for atheists. Religion almost never comes up in conversation. Most people still have supernatural beliefs of one sort or another, but it’s definitely live and let live.

These are interesting numbers, but there is no proof that being a poor minority (for example black) and scoring low on tests has anything to do with religion. It is all circumstancial correlations. For all we know, if the people who put very religious suddently got some sense and rejected religion, this country would erupt in anarchy, since being atheist with Christian-based morals works on a small scale, but it can not work on a large scale. For all we know, for these people, their identity is in their religion, and if they rejected it, they would be much worse than they are now, and if non-religious people became religious (not necessarily Christianity, I am guessing a large % of Utah is Mormon for example), they would be much better off than they are now. These are the statistics, and numbers do not lie, so we can make some guesses of why Mississippi is very poor and very religious, but we do not know if that is an accurate way of interpreting the statistics. Show me the proof.

 My findings, also.  Our son and the majority of his school mates (Asperger’s kids, so there is an obvious bias) are athiest.  It is not a big deal so long as it is not worn on the sleeve.  I have very devout Christian neighbors who also happen to be friends.  They don’t make a southern-style nuisance of themselves by trying to (re)convert me.

(I really should seek help for my pathological need to answer drive-by-trolls)

because it imposes morality and common sense

Religion’s morality is broken and makes no sense.  As evidence I submit the US legal system, which has almost nothing to do with Biblical law.  The only commandments codified in law are stealing and killing.  And lying in rare cases.  And those show up in all moral codes.  In fact, coveting is downright encouraged as a cornerstone to capitalism.

And since you said ‘religion’ not ‘Christianity’ shall we talk about the morality of Sharia?  No?

I know being an atheist gives wide berth  to do whatever anyone  wants with no consequences or guilt

 So the only reason you do the right thing is that you’re afraid of Hell and looking for the reward of Heaven.  And you think that that applies to everyone else?  Most of us are better than that.  We have plenty of reason to do the right thing without being promised a Heaven or a Hell.  If that’s what it takes for you, then by all means, keep believing.  I’d hate to have you give up your faith and think that’s an excuse to do whatever you want.

I live in the inland empire in California having grown up in San Diego and 20 years in bay area. This is the Bible belt mostly because of orange county transplants. But now 30% have bachelor degrees (2010 Census). We are getting there. We have a few atheist – agnostic groups and meeting with them keeps me sane.

I just stumbled across this post.  Most of these commenters seem to be just as closed-minded, self-righteous and bigoted as the religious “loons” they abhor.  They are describing entire groups of people and sections of the country with the same ignorant, broad-brushed caricatures that religious extremists use.  

 that’s because everybody in san fran are faggots

 who cares!

that forty percent of Americans beats that thirty one percent of those athiests… BITCH!

Hey fuck you buddy 🙂