{"id":723,"date":"2022-12-02T04:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T04:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=723"},"modified":"2025-09-29T02:25:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T02:25:25","slug":"pew-survey-religious-and-non-affiliated-in-the-usa-and-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=723","title":{"rendered":"Pew survey &#8211; religious and non-affiliated in the USA and Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e202af1c91c627200d-pi\" style=\"float: right;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sunburst\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a00d834525a2f69e202af1c91c627200d img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e202af1c91c627200d-200wi\" style=\"width: 175px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;\" title=\"Sunburst\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This recent large survey by the very reputable Pew Research &#8211; quite interesting. Only takes a few minutes to read the whole thing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/getpocket.com\/explore\/item\/atheists-are-sometimes-more-religious-than-christians?utm_source=pocket-newtab\">&quot;Atheists Are Sometimes More Religious Than Christians Survey shows how poorly we understand the beliefs of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.&quot;<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">First, researchers confirmed the widely known fact that, overall, Americans are much more religious than Western Europeans. They gauged religious commitment using standard questions, including \u201cDo you believe in God with absolute certainty?\u201d and \u201cDo you pray daily?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Second, the researchers found that American \u201cnones\u201d\u2014those who identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular\u2014are more religious than European nones. The notion that religiously unaffiliated people can be religious at all may seem contradictory, but if you disaffiliate from organized religion it does not necessarily mean you\u2019ve sworn off belief in God, say, or prayer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The third finding reported in the study is by far the most striking. As it turns out, \u201cAmerican \u2018nones\u2019 are as religious as\u2014or even more religious than\u2014<em>Christians<\/em> in several European countries, including France, Germany, and the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cThat was a surprise,\u201d Neha Sahgal, the lead researcher on the study, told me. \u201cThat\u2019s the comparison that\u2019s fascinating to me.\u201d She highlighted the fact that whereas only 23 percent of European Christians say they believe in God with absolute certainty, 27 percent of American<em> nones<\/em> say this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">Hit <a href=\"https:\/\/getpocket.com\/explore\/item\/atheists-are-sometimes-more-religious-than-christians?utm_source=pocket-newtab\">the link<\/a> for the whole article.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e202af148685bc200c-pi\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Three crosses\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a00d834525a2f69e202af148685bc200c img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e202af148685bc200c-350wi\" style=\"width: 338px;\" title=\"Three crosses\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This recent large survey by the very reputable Pew Research &#8211; quite interesting. Only takes a few minutes to read the whole thing. &quot;Atheists Are Sometimes More Religious Than Christians Survey shows how poorly we understand the beliefs of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.&quot; First, researchers confirmed the widely known [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7319,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions\/7319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}