About American religions

POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 15, 2026 17:05
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NIKI2

Thursday, March 17, 2011 8:18 PM

I was googling something to respond to a post, and found myself wandering around Wikipedia a bit. Came to "Religion in the United States" and was surprised to find that, while the majority of the country is Christian in one form or another , the SECOND highest number isn't any other religion, it's NO religion!

By a large margin, no less. Christians are estimated to be 76-82% of the population; No Religion (agnostic, atheist, and other) is next at 11-16%. After that it drops precipitously: Jewish, 1-2%; Islamic .6-2.6%; buddhist .5-.9%; Hindi .4; and other 1.4%. I found that fascinating.

I also found interesting what was said about the “unaffiliated”:

Quote:

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A 2001 survey directed by Dr. Ariela Keysar for the City University of New York indicated that, amongst the more than 100 categories of response, "no religious identification" had the greatest increase in population in both absolute and percentage terms. This category included atheists, agnostics, humanists, and others with no theistic religious beliefs or practices. Figures are up from 14.3 million in 1990 to 34.2 million in 2008, representing a proportionate increase from 8% of the total in 1990 to 15% in 2008. Another nation-wide study puts the figure of unaffiliated persons at 16.1%.

In a 2006 nationwide poll, University of Minnesota researchers found that despite an increasing acceptance of religious diversity, atheists were generally distrusted by other Americans, who rated them below Muslims, recent immigrants and other minority groups in "sharing their vision of American society". They also associated atheists with undesirable attributes such as criminal behavior, rampant materialism, and cultural elitism. However, the same study also reported that "The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one's exposure to diversity, education and political orientation--with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts."

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PHOENIXROSE

Thursday, March 17, 2011 9:31 PM

I identify as a non-theistic quasi-Buddhist. I wasn't polled for this, but I'd definitely count as unaffiliated, I think. I didn't know the numbers were quite so high, but it also doesn't surprise me. I've encountered a whole lot of atheists and agnostics in my life. Fewer Buddhists, but a fair few of them, as well. At the same time, a majority of people I've met (classmates, coworkers, etc.) find me to be rather unusual in my belief structure.


Ritual is what happens when we run out of rational.

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NIKI2

Thursday, March 17, 2011 11:09 PM

I'm lucky, Rose; in Marin, there are lots of buddhists--"American" buddhists, as in "converts" if you will, so I'm far from alone. We have big populations of "traditional" buddhists (i.e., Japanese, etc.) in the Bay Area as well. When I go to temple for Sunday meditation, it's a great big room and it's full to standing room...and of course, CA, the Bay Area in particular, is inhabited by a LOT of different thinkers, so it's not surprising. I think a lot of those who attend buddhist events would call themselves "non-theistic", since buddhism IS non-theistic in essence. One could actually add the statistics for buddhists to the "no religion" if one wanted to, given we have no god.

I guess I'd have to answer to "quasi-buddhist", too, given I don't accept all the tenants of buddhism. Still on the fence about reincarnation, among other things...


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off