The Nones

The Nones

by digby

I came across this Pew study about "the nones" the fastest growing religious designation in America:

Registered voters in the general public tend to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a margin of 48% to 43%. Religiously unaffiliated voters tilt strongly toward the Democrats over the Republicans, however. About six-in-ten unaffiliated voters (63%) say they are Democrats or lean toward the Democrats, while a quarter (26%) identify with or lean toward the GOP. This pattern is especially pronounced among atheists and agnostics.

In contrast with the unaffiliated, voters who are affiliated with a religious group are more likely to identify with or lean toward the Republicans (48%) than the Democrats (45%).

Voters who are unaffiliated with a religion also are more likely than the general public to describe themselves as liberal (38% to 21%), and less likely to identify as conservative (20% to 39%).

Within the unaffiliated, about half of those who call themselves atheist or agnostic identify as liberal (51%), compared with 13% who identify as conservative. The margin is narrower among those who identify their religion as ”nothing in particular,” with 31% of that group calling themselves liberal and 23% conservative.

Compared with the unaffiliated, voters who are affiliated with a particular religion are more than 20 points more likely to be conservative (44% vs. 20% among the unaffiliated) and about half as likely to identify as liberal (17% vs. 38% among the unaffiliated). In fact, each affiliated religious group is significantly more conservative than they are liberal – a direct contrast with the unaffiliated.

Meanwhile:

Even though the percentage of U.S. adults identifying as religious “nones” has grown in recent decades, the congressional representation of the unaffiliated continues to lag behind. As noted earlier, only one member of the new Congress identifies as religiously unaffiliated. And over the past five decades, only one member has publicly declared that he does not believe in God or a Supreme Being: Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who served in Congress from 1973-2012.

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There were a bunch of founders who would have fit that description though.

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