I have been following Dr. Burge for a good while. I do appreciate his work and his contributions but I have become more and more convinced that qualitative research is needed to provide the right questions to be asked on surveys. Its fine to say that people go to church but what do they do there -- why do they go? I recently visited the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris which resulted in my writing an essay on why such magnificent palaces get built and why people go there. I recall a former Catholic girl friend of mine once remarked that she loved the feeling she got from going to church though she disagreed with all of the church's teachings. Here is a link to my questioning essay for those interested, https://open.substack.com/pub/davidgaynon/p/cathedral-foundations?r=sajh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
It is hard for me to discern how much of the "none" in none represents a distancing from the institutional church and how much from the spiritual. There is some suggestion that it is the former. SBNR's and NINO's seem more disenchanted with the rules and formalities of religion than some of the spiritual aspects which they participate in.
Great article Ryan. Can you remind us of the following:
1. NONES are what % of the US population?
2. What’s the percentage breakdown on the NONES? What% are in each of the 4 categories?
Thanks…Jim
1. The nones make up around 30% of the population.
2. This post answers that question: https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-four-types-of-nones
On #2, that info is spread out all over the place on that article and the corresponding thenonesproject.com so here's the simple breakdown:
NiNos (Nones in Name Only) - 21%
SBNRs (Spiritual but not Religious) - 36%
Dones - 32% (Δ, not explicit in Ryan's article)
Zealous Atheists - 11%
Would make a really nifty pie graph to use as a common liturgy before all these articles :)
I have been following Dr. Burge for a good while. I do appreciate his work and his contributions but I have become more and more convinced that qualitative research is needed to provide the right questions to be asked on surveys. Its fine to say that people go to church but what do they do there -- why do they go? I recently visited the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris which resulted in my writing an essay on why such magnificent palaces get built and why people go there. I recall a former Catholic girl friend of mine once remarked that she loved the feeling she got from going to church though she disagreed with all of the church's teachings. Here is a link to my questioning essay for those interested, https://open.substack.com/pub/davidgaynon/p/cathedral-foundations?r=sajh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
It is hard for me to discern how much of the "none" in none represents a distancing from the institutional church and how much from the spiritual. There is some suggestion that it is the former. SBNR's and NINO's seem more disenchanted with the rules and formalities of religion than some of the spiritual aspects which they participate in.