The “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” was released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. It indicates that 44 percent of Americans have switched from the religion they were raised with. It seems from my experience, that many people are really no longer religious or don’t think about it, but when asked on surveys they will put down the religion they were raised with, even though they no longer attend church or are active religiously. So, it seems to me this is a big deal, and there are many fewer people who are religious in the U.S. these days.

There is a stigma against “Atheists”, so many people who really do not believe in a god will claim to be agnostics or put down the religion they were raised with on forms. Still, 12 percent claim to have “no religion”, which outranks every other denomination except for Catholics and Baptists. Only 51% claim to be Protestants, and about a third of these fail to be specific about their denomination. Christian Evangelicals make up about 22% of Americans, which is on par with the number of “non-religious”. The survey found 25 percent of adults under the age of 25 were “religious but unaffiliated”. I have heard numbers from other surveys that put the number of non-religious in the country at about 20%. So, it does point out, at least, that more people are leaving religion, questioning their faith or switching religions these days, and that the non-religious are a powerful political block. If it only took one-third of the evangelicals voting to push G.W. Bush over the top in recent elections, one would think that politicians would take the non-religious more seriously and not pander to the evangelicals as strongly as we see in this election cycle. It is time for a non-religious president, maybe even someone who admits to not believing in Jesus and a “personal god”.

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