{"id":32422,"date":"2022-09-10T16:08:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/most-nones-dislike-religion-but-dont-mind-god\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:08:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:08:56","slug":"most-nones-dislike-religion-but-dont-mind-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/most-nones-dislike-religion-but-dont-mind-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Most \u2018Nones\u2019 Dislike Religion, But Don&#8217;t Mind God"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image size-full wp-image-94549 is-style-default\">Felix Mittermeier photo &#8211; Pexels<\/div>\n<p><em>By Bob Smietana<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One of the largest faith categories in the United States is the so-called \u201cnones\u201d\u2014people who claim no particular religious identity.<\/p>\n<p>About 1 in 4 Americans fits that category, according to Pew Research.<\/p>\n<p>Many of these unaffiliated Americans believe in God. But they have a lot of questions about the details of religious belief. And more than a few are turned off when politics and religion meet.<\/p>\n<p>In a newly released study, Pew&nbsp;asked unaffiliated Americans why they don\u2019t identify with a specific faith or religious group.<\/p>\n<p>Among their findings:<\/p>\n<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0;clear: both'> <\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>60 percent question a lot of religious teaching.<\/li>\n<li>49 percent don\u2019t like the positions churches take on social and political issues.<\/li>\n<li>41 percent don\u2019t like religious institutions.<\/li>\n<li>37 percent don\u2019t believe in God.<\/li>\n<li>36 percent say religion is irrelevant to them.<\/li>\n<li>34 percent don\u2019t like religious leaders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Not all nones are alike<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>For their study, Pew divided the nones into three groups: atheist, agnostic, and \u201cnothing in particular.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;The three groups are distinct, says Pew\u2019s report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor example, about nine-in-ten self-described atheists (89 percent) say their lack of belief in God is a very important reason for their religious identity, compared with 37 percent of agnostics and 21 percent of those in the \u2018nothing in particular\u2019 category,\u201d according to Pew\u2019s report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAtheists also are more likely than other \u2018nones\u2019 to say religion is simply \u2018irrelevant to them (63 percent of atheists vs. 40 percent of agnostics and 26 percent of adults with no particular religion).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About half of all three groups say they disagree with positions taken by churches on social and political issues. More atheists (49 percent) and agnostics (51 percent) dislike religious organizations than those who are \u201cnothing in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Atheists (37 percent) and agnostics (42 percent) also dislike religious leaders more than those who are \u201cnothing in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pew also asked what is the single <em>most<\/em> important reason people have no religious identity. For atheists, disbelief is most important. Seventy-five percent say not believing in God is the primary reason they are unaffiliated.<\/p>\n<p>For agnostics, doubt plays a bigger role. Thirty-eight percent say questioning religious teaching is the primary reason they are unaffiliated.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em\">\n<div class=\"centered-text-area\">\n<div class=\"centered-text\" style=\"float: left\">\n<div class=\"u3afbb16c0c2be46222e4ec8482067346-content\">See also&nbsp; Why Pastors Must Acknowledge Their Own Needs<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ctaButton\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For those who are nothing in particular, things are more complicated, says Pew.&nbsp;No single reason rises to the top for why they are unaffiliated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA quarter say the most important reason is that they question a lot of religious teachings, 21 percent say they dislike the positions churches take on social and political issues, and 28 percent say none of the reasons offered are very important,\u201d according to Pew\u2019s report.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Pew reported on the reasons why some Americans&nbsp;go to church&nbsp;and others don\u2019t. Many of those who attend religious services&nbsp;are&nbsp;looking to get close to God, provide a moral foundation for their kids, to become a better person, or to find comfort in times of trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Less than a third who never attend services do so because they don\u2019t believe in God. Others say they find other ways to practice their faith, have issues with how services are conducted, haven\u2019t found a church they like, don\u2019t like the sermons, or don\u2019t feel welcome.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Burke,&nbsp;religion&nbsp;editor for CNN, wonders if there\u2019s something for churches to learn from those poll results.&nbsp;Some people might need a ride\u2014or a smiling face to greet them\u2014to make it to church.<\/p>\n<p>Pew\u2019s data \u201csuggests that there is an under-served group of believers who seem like they\u2019d actually like to go to religious services,\u201d wrote Burke, \u201cif only someone could help get them there and welcome them when they arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-profile-box square gb-has-avatar gb-font-size-18 gb-block-profile gb-profile-columns\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-avatar-wrap\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-image-wrap\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-content-wrap\">\n<h2 class=\"gb-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Bob Smietana<\/h2>\n<p class=\"gb-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\"><strong>@bobsmietana<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-text\">\n<p>Bob is the former senior writer for Lifeway Research. In September 2018, he joined Religion News Service, where he currently serves as a national writer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"gb-social-links\"><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box su-box-style-default\" id=\"\" style=\"border-color:#000000;border-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"su-box-title\" style=\"background-color:#333333;color:#FFFFFF;border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px\">Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box-content su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"one-third first\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"two-thirds\">\n<h3>The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated<\/h3>\n<p>James Emery White<\/p>\n<p>  FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-template-thumbnails'>\n<h3>Related posts:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"yarpp-thumbnails-horizontal\">  Most Open to Spiritual Conversations, Few Christians Speaking  What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times?  What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation?  3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Felix Mittermeier photo &#8211; Pexels By Bob Smietana One of the largest faith categories in the United States is the so-called \u201cnones\u201d\u2014people who claim no particular religious identity. About 1 in 4 Americans fits that category, according to Pew Research. Many of these unaffiliated Americans believe in God. But they have a lot of questions &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/most-nones-dislike-religion-but-dont-mind-god\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Most \u2018Nones\u2019 Dislike Religion, But Don&#8217;t Mind God&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}