The Rise of Young Americans Who Don’t Believe in God

[brooklynite]

The New York Times:

The rise of religious nonbelief is one of the most striking social trends in the United States. My colleague Nate Cohn discusses the trend, with a focus on the recent decline of Americans who identify as Christians, in an article this morning analyzing a large new survey by the Pew Research Center.

The chart here is another way to think about the trend. Pew asks Americans what their religion is and gives several choices for people who don’t identify as belonging to one. One choice is “atheist,” another is “agnostic” and a third is “nothing in particular.” Among people who give that last answer, Pew also asks whether religion is important in their lives.

To create a larger category of the nonreligious, I’ve combined atheists, agnostics and people who said both that they didn’t belong to a religion and that religion wasn’t important to them. This group made up 15.8 percent of the United States population in 2014, up from 10.3 percent only seven years earlier, according to Pew.

And the share seems likely to continue growing — because young people are much more likely to be secular than middle-aged and older adults.

http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/05/RLS-05-08-full-report.pdf

Apparently they didn't offer "Jedi" as an option...

[cbayer]

1. There is some sloppy thinking here.

He is categorizing those who identify as "nothing in particular" and who say that religion is unimportant in their lives as non-believers. That is an unsubstantiated assumption.

The people surveyed had the option of choosing atheist or agnostic. One can rightfully assume that they are non-believers.

But that assumption can not be made about "nothing in particular" group.

In fact, the percentage on "nones" who claim "nothing in particular" and who say religion is unimportant to them stayed exactly the same as 2007.

There is plenty in this report to bolster his argument that young americans are increasingly non-religious and no need to make this unsubstantiated leap.

Bad journalism detracts from the real point.

[cbayer]

2. One more thing. I cat find that graph that is included in his article anywhere

else except in his article. I can't find it on the PEW site or anywhere else other than his article.

Can anyone else find it?

[Jim__]

3. On the left side of the column, there is a chart labelled "Secular Millennials".

Its' a little below the thumbnail photo of the columnist. I'm not sure if that's the chart you're asking about. I can't copy it.

[cbayer]

4. That's the chart I am talking about.

I can't find it anywhere except in this article.

I find that really odd.