According to a 2023 study, more than one in four Americans (27%) are religiously unaffiliated. Of that group, 5% identify as atheist, 5% as agnostic and 17% as “nothing in particular.” While an overwhelming majority (72%) of atheists, agnostics and…
Being Secular in Trump’s America
For secular Americans—atheists, agnostics, humanists, and those who are simply uninterested in or indifferent to religion—a central paradox these days is this: our presence has never been so significant, the stigma against us has never been so tempered, and yet…
Do Non-Religious People Actually Hate Religion?
To me, there’s always been a pretty big blind spot when it comes to the study of non-religion in the United States. There are plenty of survey questions that ask about religious attendance and belief in God. However, there are very…
2024 Election Post-Mortem: Atheists and Agnostics
My first book was entitled The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going. It was published—what feels like a lifetime ago—in 2021. I’m pretty proud of that little volume because it established my approach to thinking…
The church’s guide to atheism
Some days, church people might as well be atheists. They say they believe in God, but they live as if God does not matter much. They do not pray that often, read the Bible that much or care for hurting…
What I learned listening to others who have left the faith
In the wake of the Guidepost report that Southern Baptist Convention executive leaders covered up knowledge of sexual abuse for decades, we are reminded once again of how religious abuse has deeply traumatized millions of our neighbors. One of the ways evangelicals…
U.S. atheist population is growing — and needs radical hospitality, Christian filmmaker says
The number of atheists in the United States has “roughly doubled” since 2007, up to 3.1 percent of the adult population, according to the Pew Research Center. When combined with the rise of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, the survey may…
Embrace ‘extremist’ Christianity to counter hate, ministers say
Joe Phelps admits he is a Christian extremist. For years, he’s being spreading his brand of faith all over Louisville, Ky., where he’s the pastor of Highlands Baptist Church. And now he admits he’d like to see it catch on…
Must we choose between fundamentalism and ‘belief-less Christianity’?
John Shuck is a Presbyterian pastor in good standing who doesn’t believe a single thing you learned in Sunday school. In a recent Patheos post, Reverend Shuck issued a list of six affirmations designed to boil the blood of every right-thinking American:…