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	Number of Atheists & Agnostics Grows By Ari Goldman New York Daily News March 2, 2008 http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2008/03/02/2008-03-02_number_of_atheists__agnostics_grows.html In the religious world there are the "nuns" and the "nones," and while the first category is declining, the second is growing. We all know who nuns are, even though you don't see them much anymore. All surveys show that they are fast disappearing. But the "nones" are another matter. That is the term sociologists use to describe the people who answer "none" when asked about their religious affiliation. This category includes atheists ("don't believe") and agnostics ("don't know") as well as those who simply "don't affiliate." A vast new survey of religion in America conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life showed that a whopping 16% of Americans fall into the "none" group. The number is more than twice what it was in the early 1990s. Where have all the faithful gone? I put this question to Barry Kosmin, the director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism at Trinity College in Hartford, and he rattled off five sensible reasons: The "overreaching" of the religious right, which may have pushed too hard on issues like creationism, abortion and gay marriage. The priest sex scandals in the Catholic Church that drove away many regulars. The migration of Americans to the West, where religion just isn't as important as it is back East or in the South. "They join the Sierra Club and forget about Father Feeney back home," Kosmin said. The trend toward late marriage. "Most marriages take place in a religious context," he said, and, once wed, couples join a house of worship and their offspring follow suit. The rise in immigration. While some immigrants do seek out religious communities, many, he said, "are running away from places with too much religion," and don't affiliate. All this doesn't mean religion in America is dead. Far from it. With 16% unaffiliated, that leaves the vast majority, 84%, who still identify with a particular religion. But the survey, released last week, shows that even the affiliated are a restless bunch. For example, more than 25% of American adults have left the faith of their childhood to join another one. If you factor in moves from one Protestant denomination to another, the number rises to 44%. "We are in an interesting state of flux," Kosmin said. Catholicism, the survey showed, experienced the greatest losses. While 31% of Americans were raised in the Catholic faith, only 24% still describe themselves as Catholic. And these numbers would be even more pronounced if they were not offset by the large number of Hispanic Catholic immigrants now filling the church pews. The full survey, which is available online at religions.pewforum.org, also has a useful state-by-state breakdown of the numbers. For New York, it showed that the single largest denomination continues to be Catholic, but that Protestants are gaining. New York is 39% Catholic, 32% Protestant, 6% Jewish and 1% each Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. The unaffiliated are 17%, just slightly above the national average. More than 35,000 people were interviewed for the survey, which was conducted between May and August last year. Given all the flux it describes, the numbers have probably changed since then. Contact: religion@nydailynews.com
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