Comments on: The rise of the irreligious Left

By: JakeS

JakeS — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:02:40 +0000

The first plot seems pretty convincing, but the rest look like shotgun plots to me.
The hypothesis is convincing, given that the Republican Party has, over the studied period, officially taken leave of its senses and is now being run in large part by ayatollah-wannabes. That naturally drives away non-believers more than those who share some or all of their theology. But this data can’t really be said to provide independent support for the idea.
- Jake

By: Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:27:05 +0000

A recent survey of incoming students at Tufts University, Medford, MA, asked, amongst other items, the religious affiliation of the student. An amazing 30% of the students claimed no religious affiliation.
Further, the Student Secular Alliance (www.secularstudents.org) has been experiencing unprecedented growth on college campuses nationwide.
Politicians are beginning to take note of these trends which are likely to enter more and more into the political equation.
Even members of Congress are beginning to announce their secular, non-religious status, Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, as an example.
It may soon come to pass that we will have a country with a true “wall of separation between Church and State”.

By: razib

razib — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:51:00 +0000

spike http://religions.pewforum.org/maps the N = 201, but you see a safely majority xtian state. more so than vermont.

By: Spike Gomes

Spike Gomes — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:27:50 +0000

No Hawaii? By the latest rough estimates, we haven’t had a Christian majority in awhile. They don’t really poll here. We’re too demographically weird. Frex, 5-10% of the population calls themselves Buddhist.

By: darwin

darwin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:51:59 +0000

Razib, does the survey questioning sort out people who answer with a religion out of cultural loyalty or identification, but who are athiests or non-believers? I think many Jews and Catholics would answer on this basis (other religions as well, although I personally know fewer examples there). If the questions do not sort out such people, degree of unbelief is very much understated.

By: razib

razib — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:18:37 +0000

it’s 19 percent in my data. i guess i should post that in a table too….

By: Tony P

Tony P — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:03:15 +0000

Actually I thought RI was about 20% no religion. The more telling factor in RI is when you look at Catholics. They went from 62% in 1990 to 49% in the last survey and dropping since.
New England overall runs at about 20% which is quite remarkable, this being the cradle of the United States and all.