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''Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It: Many of the ‘Nones’ aren’t secular; they belong to minority faiths. The problem is how to count them''
The atheist [[Georgetown University]] professor Jacques Berlinerblau declared concerning American atheists attempting to falsely inflate their numbers:
The atheist [[Georgetown University]] professor Jacques Berlinerblau declared concerning American atheists attempting to falsely inflate their numbers:
{{cquote|American atheist movements, though fancying themselves a lion, are more like the gimpy little [[zebra]] crossing the river full of crocs. In terms of both political gains and popular appeal, nonbelievers in the United States have little to show. They are encircled by cunning, swarming [religious] Revivalist adversaries who know how to play the atheist card. The gimpy zebra remark was a little goofing on this over-the-top chest-thumping that emerges from Movement Atheists. They wildly overestimate their numbers. They tend to overestimate the efficacy of their activism. They underestimate how disciplined and organized their adversaries in the religious right are, too. They fail to recognize that mocking religious people in public is entirely inimical to the goals they wish to achieve."<ref>[http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-09/professor-jacques-berlinerblau-tells-atheists-stop-whining Professor Jacques Berlinerblau tells atheists: Stop whining!], Christian Century, Sep 14, 2012 by Kimberly Winston</ref>}}
{{cquote|American atheist movements, though fancying themselves a lion, are more like the gimpy little [[zebra]] crossing the river full of crocs. In terms of both political gains and popular appeal, nonbelievers in the United States have little to show. They are encircled by cunning, swarming [religious] Revivalist adversaries who know how to play the atheist card. The gimpy zebra remark was a little goofing on this over-the-top chest-thumping that emerges from Movement Atheists. They wildly overestimate their numbers. They tend to overestimate the efficacy of their activism. They underestimate how disciplined and organized their adversaries in the religious right are, too. They fail to recognize that mocking religious people in public is entirely inimical to the goals they wish to achieve."<ref>[http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-09/professor-jacques-berlinerblau-tells-atheists-stop-whining Professor Jacques Berlinerblau tells atheists: Stop whining!], Christian Century, Sep 14, 2012 by Kimberly Winston</ref>}}
== Likely overreporting of nones in the United States ==
In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported in their article ''Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It: Many of the ‘Nones’ aren’t secular; they belong to minority faiths. The problem is how to count them'':
{{Cquote|Reports of religion’s decline in America have been exaggerated. You’ve heard the story: Churchgoers are dwindling in number while “Nones”—those who tell pollsters they have no religious affiliation—are multiplying as people abandon their faith and join the ranks of atheists and agnostics. Headlines declare that the U.S. is secularizing along the lines of Europe. From Britain’s Daily Mail in 2013: “Religion could disappear by 2041 because people will have replaced God with possessions, claims leading psychologist.”
These conclusions are based on analyses that are so flawed as to be close to worthless. In a new [https://www.baylorisr.org/religious-nones-really-not-religious/ study] with our colleagues Matt Bradshaw and Rodney Stark, we seek to set the record straight.
Data from five recent U.S. population surveys point to the vibrancy, ubiquity and growth of religion in the U.S. Americans are becoming more religious, and religious institutions are thriving. Consistent with some previous studies but contrary to widely held assumptions, many people who report no religious affiliation—and even many self-identified atheists and agnostics—exhibit substantial levels of religious practice and belief.
(Our sources are the University of Chicago’s 2018 General Social Survey, Baylor’s 2017 Values and Beliefs of the American Public Survey, the Association of Religious Data Archives’ 2012 Portrait of American Life Study, the 2017-2020 World Values Survey and the 2018 Chapman University Survey of American Fears.)...
But large databases on American religion often lump Others in with the Nones. Respondents who don’t see their faith or denomination listed check off the only remaining option, “none of the above.” The error extends to the counting of religious institutions. The U.S. Religious Census, organized by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, tracks the number of congregations and congregants at the county level. But recent research in three U.S. counties confirms that it has missed between 26% and 40% of their congregations.
Many are evangelical and Pentecostal churches, especially Latino and African-American congregations, as well as nondenominational churches and megachurches, many with multiple campuses. This means that instead of 344,894 congregations (based on the most recent U.S. Religious Census data), there may be as many as 500,000 houses of worship in the U.S. Omitted are not only thousands of small congregations but huge ones such as Lakewood Church in Houston (with weekly attendance of 45,000), Gateway Church in the Dallas area (100,000), North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga. (40,000), Life Church in Edmund, Okla. (30,000), and Christ’s Church of the Valley in Phoenix (32,000).
All of this helps explain why the proportion of Nones has increased sharply—from 15% in 2007 to 30% in 2021—even though the proportion of atheists in the U.S. has held steady at 3% to 4% for more than 80 years. And there are reasons to question the assumption that even truly unaffiliated Nones aren’t religious. Our study looked closely at their actual practices and beliefs.<ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/religion-is-dying-dont-believe-it-nones-others-surveys-faith-institutions-atheists-agnostics-practice-minority-11659017037 ''Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It: Many of the ‘Nones’ aren’t secular; they belong to minority faiths. The problem is how to count them'']., Wall Street Journal, 2022</ref>}
== Nones: Beliefs, on religious belonging and behavior ==
== Nones: Beliefs, on religious belonging and behavior ==