From Holyville to Secularville
• Christian Fundamentalism
The alienation of moderates and liberals from conservative Christian political positions is a key reason why the percentage of Americans who claim no religion doubled during the 1990s, two UC Berkeley sociologists say.
Michael Hout and Claude Fischer analyzed data from annual public opinion surveys on religion taken by numerous organizations to reach their conclusion, published as an article in the American Sociological Review.
The surveys showed that the proportion of Americans who said they have "no religious preference" rose from about 7% in 1990 to about 14% by the end of the decade--a significant change after remaining stable for most of the previous two decades. However, the increase does not necessarily signal a decrease in faith, the researchers said. The majority of those who claim no religious affiliation continue to hold conventional religious beliefs. Most of the increase in people with no religious preference in the 1990s was composed of believers, not atheists or agnostics.
"One of the points we're trying to make is that most people who have no church still are likely to say things like 'God is real. Heaven and hell are real. Me and my kids will go there when we're dead,'" Hout said.
Though blacks and Latinos are more likely to claim a religious affiliation than the wider population, they too saw the same statistical doubling of people with no religious preference. The only exception to the trend was people of Jewish ancestry.