Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more January 25, Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email to a friend Print America's religiously unaffiliated, or "nones," are largely defined by what they are not, rather than what they are.
So as they've multiplied, it's perhaps unsurprising that they've also been shrouded in myths and misconceptions. They've sometimes been pegged as a group that's wholly secular and hostile to religion, or conversely as a cohort that has uniformly adopted spirituality rather than religion. They've also been characterized as morally directionless or civically disengaged. In fact, sociologist Ryan Cragun suggests that the report shows America's nones aren't much different from the rest of the American public — at least not anymore.
Not likely to be married. Highly educated, pretty high incomes," said Cragun, a professor at the University of Tampa who is also an adviser on this study. But in contrast to where they were 40 years ago, today's religiously unaffiliated are roughly split between men and women, and their racial makeup broadly mirrors that of the general population. Pew's study shows many nones do believe in something, even if it doesn't fall into traditional religious categories. About half of nones say they are spiritual, or that spirituality is very important to them.
And, Green pointed out, not all of them are hostile to religion. Though these findings reveal more about the beliefs and spiritual inclinations of the nones, Cragun cautioned that further research is necessary, especially because the current study doesn't pinpoint exactly what respondents mean when they say they are spiritual or believe in a higher power. While some might see spirituality or a higher power as connected to the supernatural, others could see spirituality as grounded in something more tangible, like nature.
The study also shows that while about half of the nones are spiritual, the other half say they are not, and by many measures the group still remains distinctly non-religious. Despite their disengagement from institutional religion, the report debunks the myth that religious nones lack a moral framework. The report confirms that, on the whole, nones are less civically engaged than their religiously affiliated peers less likely to volunteer, less likely to vote , but it also complicates that narrative.
