An interesting analysis of the "nones"

[trotsky]

1. The percentage of individuals willing to identify as "atheist" just about doubled.

From something like 1.7% to 3%. Considering the centuries of negative baggage believers have heaped on the word, this is an amazing change in just a few years.

I understand that was a pretty tough survey for many religious individuals to swallow. Especially since it doesn't show what liberal believers (and defenders of religion) want desperately to believe: that people are leaving the right-wing/conservative faiths for liberal ones. Instead, it shows the liberal mainline groups hemorrhaging members, and the right-wing churches holding their own. (The RCC being either the classic example or the outlier, depending on if you think they are left or right wing.)