Religious Society?

In the quest to debunk the myth that this is a Christian society, I should only have to turn to the Constitution of the United States of America.  The First Amendment to this Constitution, states unequivocally that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

But just stating the law of the land is clearly not enough. If Bill O'Reilly says it, truth quivers. I needed demographics. Where better to get demographics than the Census Bureau?

The U.S. Census Bureau does not collect data on religious affiliation in its demographic surveys or decennial census. Public Law 94-521 prohibits us from asking a question on religious affiliation on a mandatory basis; in some person or household surveys, however, the U.S. Census Bureau may collect information about religious practices, on a voluntary basis. Therefore, the U.S. Census Bureau is not the source for information on religion, nor is the Census Bureau the source for information on religious affiliation.

Hmmm... I guess that is a good thing; officially, my government is unable to gather religious demographic data. Of course, if I want to know how many Hispanics there are, no problem. Concepts of religion are completely backwards in this country. I wanted to understand why.

Here is another version of that proclamation that also includes addresses (physical and virtual) for more information.  The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2001 is the recommendation from the Census Bureau.  This is encapsulated well in 3 tables at the end of this document (PDF format).

The figures that interest me are these:

• 207,890,000 is the total population compared
  
• Total Christian: 159,506,000 = 76.73%
  
• Total 'no religion specified': 29,481,000 = 14.18%
  
• Total atheist: 902,000 = 0.43%
  

Looking a bit more carefully at the figures, there is a comparison of 1990 to 2001.  NA for atheist in 1990, I take to mean it was not offered as an option.  There were 1,186,000 'agnostics' in 1990, 991,000 in 2001.  I would actually think the yearly comparison is the combination of agnostic/atheist 2001 (1,893,000) versus 1990 agnostic (1,186,000).  That's a 60% increase!  Of course, 'no religion' on its own gained 106%!

Another of the resources mentioned is Adherents.com, which isn't the prettiest site, but has compiled quite a bunch of stuff that's worth looking at.

Of course, another place to look for religious information should always be The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.  In particular, this PDF report, Americans Struggle with Religion's Role at Home and Abroad, has a great deal of light to shed on the silliness that is religious opinion in this country today.

As a religious people, Americans are unsure about how to judge a world that seems
increasingly in conflict along religious lines. The public overwhelmingly sees religion's influence
in the world and the nation as a good thing. And by 51%-28%, Americans think the lesson of Sept. 11 is that there is too little, not too much religion in the world.

Make me retch.  I avoid espousing the idea that the religious are simply ignorant; most religious people I know are not and would be insulted.  However, explain this statistic to me:

Americans are open to the possibility that many religions lead to eternal life, but they are critical of people who do not believe in God or have no religious affiliation. Atheists get very low ratings (34% favorable/54% unfavorable) and "people who are not religious" are given better but still modest evaluations (51% favorable/30% unfavorable). But the public's low regard for people who are not religious does not undermine its support for religious pluralism. Even though most Americans (67%) consider the United States a "Christian nation," an 84% majority believes that a person can be a good American even if he or she does not have religious faith. By more than three-to-one, Americans also reject the idea of churches and other houses of worship endorsing political candidates.

This absolutely affirms what most of us already knew:  Christians feel they own the country but admit you don't have to be Christian to be a good American.  But we all know that Christianity is the vogue religion in America.  Everyone assumes that.  (Just for reference, here is a table of Christian denominations and their growth rates.  Pentacostals?)

But my interest is in how those Christians would feel if they lost the majority.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Americans viewed the country in a new light. Not only did broad measures of patriotism, confidence in government, and concern about the safety of friends and family rise, but the vast majority saw religion playing a significantly greater role in American life. In a mid-November Pew Research Center/Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll, fully 78% said the influence of religion on American life was increasing, a figure that decreased only slightly (to 71%) in a December Gallup poll.

And just as suddenly, the numbers returned to normal.

Consequently, it is important to realize that the Roman Catholic Church is still the biggest denomination, with 50,873,000 or 24.46% of the population.  And the 'other religions' group experienced huge gains (32.23%).  In 1990, Christian versus Other (not including 'no religion') was 86.35% to 3.34%.  In 2001, that changed to 76.69% to 3.72%.

References:

Chart: Denominations

PDF: Census Data (see tables 67-69)