New poll: 27% of Americans not religious

Stop the presses: A new Parade magazine poll now says 27% of Americans said they don’t practice any kind of religion.

As the article says, Americans are separating spirituality from religion, and have become more "moderate and tolerant in ways that would have astonished our grandparents".

20% of respondents said they go to services anywhere from once a month to a few times a year. Combine them with the 50% who rarely or never attend, and an interesting contrast appears. Although 45% of respondents considered themselves religious, 70% of them said they participate in organized religion sporadically or not at all.

Other things that jumped out at me:

• 69% of Americans believe in God. That doesn't mean the rest are agnostic or atheist. Only 5% of respondents didn’t believe in God, 7% weren’t sure about the existence of God.
  
  
• 12% didn’t believe in an afterlife.
  
  
• 12% of respondents said that their own religion was the only true faith.
  
  
• Just 7% of respondents said they were attending religious services more often during this recession, and 10% of respondents said they’ve been going less frequently since the recession began.
  
  
• 59% said faith can help solve the world’s problems and offer hope to the suffering, while 41% said religion has too often led to war and suffering.
  
  
• 58% said religion and politics should not mix at all. Just 15% thought religion should be a key factor in political decisions.

The poll involved 1,051 respondents from May 8-12, 2009. The story is called "How Spiritual Are We?" by Christine Wicker and was published in Parade magazine on Oct. 4, 2009. Wicker is the author of the book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church.