In a newly released study, a group based at Trinity College, Hartford, CT surveyed 54,461 American adults on the subject of their religious views, and found a significant growth (since a similar survey done in 1990) in the number of respondents who call themselves "non-denominational Christian." The number self-described that was was just 0.1% in 1990. It was 3.5% in 2008.
The ranks of non-denom Christians are growing at the expense of the traditional denoms, especially what were once called the "mainline Protestant" denoms: Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians.
The percentage of Pentecostals has remained stead -- it was 3.5% in 1990, and is 3.5% still.
The number of survey participants who identify themselves as being of no religion increased from 8.2% to 14.2%. Intriguingly, that group grew in EVERY state. The pace of growth differed, but there was no state out of the fifty in which fewer people said "no religion" in 2008 than had in 1990.
Mormon numbers have remained steady at 1.4%.
The number of religiously observant Jews has declined.
I'm not drawing any conclusions, I'm just putting some numbers out there.
Knowledge is warranted belief -- it is the body of belief that we build up because, while living in this world, we've developed good reasons for believing it. What we know, then, is what works -- and it is, necessarily, what has worked for us, each of us individually, as a first approximation. For my other blog, on the struggles for control in the corporate suites, see www.proxypartisans.blogspot.com.
Knowledge is warranted belief -- it is the body of belief that we build up because, while living in this world, we've developed good reasons for believing it. What we know, then, is what works -- and it is, necessarily, what has worked for us, each of us individually, as a first approximation. For my other blog, on the struggles for control in the corporate suites, see www.proxypartisans.blogspot.com.
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