Education, Gender, and Ethnicity in Religious and Non-religious Populations in the United States: A Response to James Lewis

Abstract

This comment extends the analysis proposed by James Lewis in his research note in the May 2015 issue of the Journal of Contemporary Religion. Looking at data from the United States, the normalization of non-religiosity is explored. It is concluded that, while those identifying as atheist or agnostic are clearly of higher education and income levels, most of the generic ‘nones’, who are simply unaffiliated but may hold religious beliefs, are closer to the mainstream.

Notes

1. The overall nones increased from 8.1% in 1990 to 15% of the American adult population in 2008. Of those, 0.9% self-identified as agnostic, 0.7% self-identified as atheist, and the bulk answered ‘No religion’, ‘nothing’ or ‘none’ when asked the open-ended question ”What is your religion, if any?” (Kosmin and Keysar, American 5).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ariela Keysar

Ariela Keysar is associate research professor of public policy and law at Trinity College, Hartford, USA,

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi is professor emeritus of psychology at University of Haifa, Israel. CORRESPONDENCE: [email protected], [email protected]