1. I Don't Believe in God: Differentiating Religious "Nones" in American Society.
- Author
-
Lu, Alexander and Chancey, Laurie
- Subjects
RELIGION ,ATHEISTS ,AGNOSTICS ,FAITH - Abstract
Are religious "nones" a conceptually homogeneous group, or do significant conceptual differences exist among group members? Treating all religious "nones" as a single category can prevent researchers from revealing significant differences among sub-groups such as atheists and agnostics. We contend that religious affiliation (e.g., Catholic, Jewish, none) in America is largely a cultural identification that, while significant, is not a sufficient indicator of belief in religious concepts. Atheists, a largely silent yet highly stigmatized group, must be understood and defined with more nuanced analyses. Using the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS), we tabulate religious affiliation and attendance at religious services by belief in God. Atheists are found in most of these categories. We compare descriptive statistics and logistic regression models predicting disbelief in God and identification as a religious "none." The differences in coefficient strength and significance and the estimated predictive power of the regression models show that atheists and "nones" are substantively different. We conclude by constructing a cultural and demographic profile of atheists, and provide recommendations for adequately dealing with atheists in future quantitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008