‘The nones have it.” So goes the conventional wisdom on American religiosity. We’re told that those who identify with the faith of “none” – that is, none to speak of – are on the rise. It isn’t atheism so much as apatheism. They don’t care enough about God to actively doubt His existence.
But is that true? New analysis by Glenn Stanton of the online magazine The Federalist suggests it may not be. He points out that “the ‘nones’ are certainly not a new group of unbelievers exiting the pews of our nation’s churches. They are merely a group who are identifying more accurately what they have always been, those without any real religious practice.” As atheism becomes more socially acceptable, those whose faith was never more than lukewarm to begin with now don’t bother affiliating with the denomination their parents belonged to. What Stanton calls “CEO Christians” – Christmas and Easter Christians – no longer identify with the faith of their fathers, while the number of active and practising Christians remains steady.
