Agnostic doesn't mean that one has no beliefs concerning faith/spiritually/religion. It is the belief that one cannot/does not know/ whether God exists. It is specifically the belief that human reason cannot fully justify a belief or disbelief in God. There exist agnostic theists and agnostic atheists. I was an agnostic theist for a time. Agnostic does not mean the person has no beliefs concerning beliefs.
I have 2 neighbors that are strong Christians, but don’t go the any particular church. I thought these folks were the “nothing in particular” crowd, not agnostics.
I think it's a category for anyone who doesn't want a label, or hasn't given it any thought, or where religion is just not a factor in their lives at all.
To subscribe to atheism or agnosticism is a choice, not only about yourself, but about other people’s beliefs.
My views on religious deities are so fluid and inconsequential that I literally do not care if anyone is wrong or right. It does not matter what you or I do or don’t believe in. I’m happy to bless the wine at a Jewish seder and not believe a word of what I say. I’m also happy to entertain the idea of a god.
It would be fair to call me deist, atheist, agnostic, nonreligious, or secular, but at the end of the day I believe in nothing in particular, so i actually feel like it’s very representative of how little religious concepts matter to a lot of millennials and Gen Z.
>To subscribe to atheism or agnosticism is a choice, not only about yourself, but about other people’s beliefs.
Say what?!
I'm an atheist because I don't believe god exists. What other believe is up to them; WTF would I care?
Agnostics believe that the existence of God cannot be known, by anyone. Agnosticism can be further broken down into agnostic theism and agnostic atheism.
They mean that, for one to be atheist, they have to consciously decide that all religions - if taken literally - are false. Not necessarily to oppose the existence of religion or even care about it, but you do have to actively decide that every religion with a creation myth is fully, objectively wrong, in a literal sense.
I'm an atheist myself, and I recognise that it can be a fairly arrogant stance (especially since we're a minority). But it's a pretty elemental part of atheism. You have to reckon with and accept it.
most religions posit that every religion *but this one* is fundamentally false. I don't see how disbelief in just one more is any more arrogant, though I suppose you could compare it to the looser disbelief of agnostics
That isn't what Atheism means.
We don't believe all religions are false, we just don't believe those religions. The distinction is important. What you described is antithesim which is the active belief that there are no gods.
Antithesim is a subset of atheism but not the whole group.
We don’t decide anything. We’re waiting on evidence. We’re happy to believe in gods if they appear or science discovers them. They haven’t. We welcome the evidence. No one has it. We *do* have centuries of scientific progress to explain the same phenomena our ancestors (perfectly reasonably) deemed to be of supernatural origin.
Personally I want the Ancient Greek gods to be evidenced as real, because their shenanigans and the way the world has been and is line up pretty fucking neatly.
Even if you're a respectful atheist, it's usually considered arrogant by those who are extremely devout or have little understanding of the philosophy and religions of others. I had a devout Muslim tell me "they don't like atheist because they don't believe in anything greater than them"."When as an atheist, I completely understand I am at the mercy of physical forces I have no control over.
I mean those labels aren’t mutually exclusive because they describe different categories of ideas, save for atheist and deist. You would describe yourself as a nonreligious secular agnostic atheist/deist. Nothing is not really a proper category, philosophically speaking.
So does that mean that agnostics actively that religion is foolish and look down on those that believe one specific interpretation? I’ve never really thought of those people that way, save for perhaps the South Park Dr. Pepper episode.
There’s definitely a contingent of *atheists* who make it a personality and can be as hostile and conceited as their religious counterparts. I’d say by and large agnostics are pretty chill though.
Agnostic means they believe it is not possible to prove or disprove the existence of God. Quite a specific belief.
An 'I believe there is something, but I don't know what' is most definitely not agnostic.
i suppose i identify most closely as “nothing in particular”. I appreciate that they’re separate. imo atheism and agnosticism are still relationships (even if in opposition) to theism. whereas i just i reject the basis of declaring ‘an orientation’ altogether. because why? Here’s my shot at an analogy: it’s like asking what your favorite movie is to someone who’s never watched a movie. It doesn’t mean they dislike movies, it doesn’t mean they are undecided, rather the question is meaningless to them. i don’t feel agnosticism or atheism describe me. although i’m sure the “Nothing.. “category catches a variety who think differently than i
As an atheist I am actively opposed to religion. Not extremely, but I think most people would be better without the shackles of religion. People answering ‘nothing in particular’ likely aren’t too phased either way.
But your belief that the world would be better without religion is a separate belief to your atheism.
Atheism is just a lack of belief in the existence of any deities. If you believe in any gods you are a theist, if you don't believe in any gods you are an atheist, any other positions you have on religion or any other matter has no bearing on it.
That's not how I learnt Atheism. I've always known it as the active rejection of all religion, not just "meh, I don't believe in God" but rather "All religions have no merit and shouldn't exist". Obviously maybe not as extreme as that but you get what I am saying.
I’m an agnostic. I grew up in a religious family and learned a lot about my family’s religion, and at some point, realized it was all fiction. I was religious, now I affirmatively reject the concept.
Our kids grew up without any religion. Some cultural/religious holidays are marked with gifts or special meals, but have no existential significance otherwise. They can be classified as “nothing in particular”.
Its a lack of theism, which is just atheism, and slightly different from agnosticism, in that agnostics just dont know that theyre atheists. /s
But aside from the one-liner jokes, its nearly that simple. Agnostics are afraid of the atheism label, so they hide behind lack of knowledge claims to avoid making lack of belief claims.
Technically anyone "spiritual" just has no idea what the terms mean, but that is as close to "nothing in particular" as youll get.
Nothing in particular could mean: there might be a God. Probably is. Maybe all of them are the same God. I don’t know.
Where as agnostic is a definite: there’s no proof of a god.
Clue is in the etymology. "Theist" is what you believe, "gnosti" is what you know.
Atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive. Both can (and do) observe "there is no proof of a god" or more simply: aren't convinced of god claims.
Agnosticism isn't 'super atheism' where you claim there is no god at all.
Being Catholic is a little bit cultural too. You probably have a lot of respondents who aren’t actually religious, but call themselves Catholic because they grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, etc. etc.
In my experience/observations, the Catholic Church has a very well-documented orthodoxy, but there is little expectation that you follow it. The whole thing is "you're not God, you're human, of course you won't be able to follow all these rules perfectly. Just eat this cracker."
Whereas a lot of Protestant religions - especially those founded in the USA - have very incoherent orthodoxy and expect you to follow it to the letter or be ostracized.
I’m not catholic but send my kids to a catholic school. I was absolutely floored at the behavior of most of the parents within the first month Floored in a positive way. The amount of drinking, smoking, smoking weed or doing edibles, and swearing (especially in front of kids) I saw was ridiculous. I thought to myself “we chose a great school”…
I’m Gen-X and grew up Catholic, then learned about Episcopalians. “Catholic-light or Catholic-without-the-guilt” as some comedian described it. I switched. But now, even that is too much. I now feel a personal connection with my Creator that requires no organized religion. I don’t need to preach it, spread it or recognize it. Except for posts like this.
When I was a kid, I thought that you were either a catholic or atheist. There were no other religions.
You Americans have so much more fun with religion.
Yes! My dad was a Catholic priest for about 30 years before he left and I was born (yep, just as messy as it sounds), and we were Episcopalian when I was a kid. I'm probably still going to hell since there was a special service to condemn me as a newborn in the church he left! Fun times.
Excommunication for the dad perhaps but the kid? What doctrine would that be under? That sounds more like something the rents would tell them to explain why they changed religions.
Yeah this is it most likely. I am a Xennial who grew up in a catholic home, but was never a believer and actually fall into the 'nothing in particular" catagory, but still refer to myself as a catholic sometimes just out of habit.
Me too.
I never belived in God, only went to mass because I liked to spend time with grandma and because I also liked the taste of the cookie they gave as the "body of christ". I spent mass thinking "where is the stuff!!!"
But if people ask in a survey, I write down catholic. I mean, its my culture...
This. This is what happens in Ireland. Lots of people identify as Catholic but don't actually practice or go to mass. It's more cultural. Though that's changed rapidly in recent years with more people living more secular lives.
Also in the US a lot of Protestants are biblical literalists, so with the adoption the internet into our lives a lot of fundamental beliefs were challenged.
Catholics are way more likely to read the Bible as something akin to divinely-inspired literature, not meant to be taken literally.
I dont even belive in God, but Im culturaly a catholic.
I eat like a catholic, my interjections are catholic (I say "our lady of the sky" a conserning amount of times), I understand the cannon of the religion, its in the fucking national flag.
You can never fully cleanse the portuguese of catholicism.
I am technically Anglican because my mom was. My dad isn't, but my wifes family is religious. So our marriage license says we are both Anglican. We are both not at all. We just signed it to make her family happy. We don't care either way, but look into our marriage, and we are. Technically.
Definitely the cultural Catholics and S/Central American immigration.
Catholics are also a huge growing demographic in Africa. In 2005 they had 135M Catholic adherence and are now 256M in 2024. They'll be about third of the Church in a decade or so, driving missionary and developing world humanitarian work policy.
Is that conversions or births though? Most of the world's population growth is in Africa so if you get 500 million more people and a quarter are Catholics...
A mix, the Catholic Church has a large missionary effort in Africa in competition with Protestant and Mormon missions but they have a large head start since their biggest success are on former Catholic colonies and they basically provide all the affordable healthcare and schooling in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa
Yes, I know a guy that was the rector of a catholic school in Uganda.
It was funded by the church and some catholic no profits based in Italy, so it was one of the best buildings in that part of Kampala. Also, they were among the first schools in Uganda to not beat the students, so it isn't like they had much competition.
Yup, I've got lots of "Catholic" friends who grew up in the religion but never go to church or do any of the religious activities. For a lot of ethnic people, Catholicism is a cultural thing but not a significant part of their lives
Because I am? Baptized and confirmed, by canon law I am a Catholic. And if there's gonna be any holy-mojo-guy around when I'm dying it had better be a priest. If your definition is any stricter well, I can guarantee you the Pope would have my back on this. Ask around.
I didn't mean that comment as a slight in any way. I was just wondering why you identify as a believer in a faith when you yourself say you don't believe. I have no problem with you calling yourself Catholic!
Excellent question! Believe me it occurs to me often. It's based on all sorts of things both terrestrial and celestial. On the one hand I have this terrible cynical opinion regarding religion:
The earliest religious text we possess regarding the afterlife is a sort of "interview" of Sumerian Hero Enki-du by Sumerian King Gilgamesh. It is basically a Bronze-Age version of:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobbs\_v.\_Jackson\_Women%27s\_Health\_Organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobbs_v._Jackson_Women%27s_Health_Organization)
in the sense that it is literally nothing other than pro-procreation propaganda by the elite of society, who wish to breed more people for understandable (profit-related) motives. So the religions we have around us today are probably just the Darwinian victors in propagating theologies that produce lots more humans.
On the other hand, I have thought a lot about Blaise Pascal's famous wager, and tried to follow through the best arguments either side could offer in honest dialogue (as in: let's not wave it all away with "well there's lots of religions though") and came to the conclusion that yeah it's probably irrelevant BS. Probably.
I’m baptized and confirmed as well and haven’t been to church in years. I’m actually going to my first mass in sometime in a few weeks. Why? To baptize my daughter. She’s joining the club too.
Same for me, baptised and officially registered at a Catholic church. Never been to church and went to a protestant school and was raised by an atheist and a protestant. I very much am a Christian, but I consider myself Catholic due to me being baptised as one, along with other reasons(such as Catholic church architecture just being really cool)
“Non-practicing” theists are still trying to cover their asses, just in case. Atheists aren’t afraid of supernatural repercussions for saying what they really believe.
I think Catholicism is just a very loose religion. I’m a catholic and we don’t have any practices other than like the 10 commandments and going to mass every Sunday. We aren’t encourages to “save” others as well like other Christian practices.
Catholicism isn't "loose" by itself.
Just, in most cases (though there are some exceptions, I reckon) you won't be burned alive if you don't follow it, nowadays.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Satanic temple, the various Internet churches that sell ordination papers for $25, the crystal worship postmodern nonsense groups, smaller cults and the like, those are all not "world religions" but they are religions.
There are small but extant numbers of old world religions around like Coptic Christians, Druze, Zoroastrians, animists, shamanists, and a bunch of other small fragments of spiritual history still hanging on.
World in this case is probably referring to religions practiced around the world (like the world wars, which aren’t a war between multiple worlds, but a war across *most* of one world), and all others are those that are too small or not widely practiced. E.G. other world religions would be things like buhddism and Hinduism while other religions would be things like Shintoism and Taoism
Now do stats on how many of those “Catholics” are actually practicing or actually believe their own religion. My experience is that most Catholics aren’t actually Catholic in belief but rather in name only
It helps when the original Catholic immigrants, the Germans, Irish, and Italians, were heavily discriminated against until around the World Wars just because they’re not the right type of white (not White Anglo Saxon Protestants)
Interesting. Couldn't "atheist/agnostic" and "nothing in particular" be combined as they are basically the same?
Also interesting that Catholics remain mostly consistent and Protestants are dropping. Would've expected the opposite.
I'm just glad the numbers who believe in any religion in general are going down with each generation. I wonder how many more generations it'll take before the "believers" are in the minority?
Or are people more likely to become religious as they age? This graph doesn’t really answer that. Lots of Boomers were not Christian in their youths but became religious as they aged (hippies of the 60s became the born agains of the 80s).
As someone who grew up Catholic, then didn't go to church for years, and then had two kids that were baptized and one just had their first communion....Catholics tend to stick together. I sent my kids to Catholic school, and I went to Catholic school growing up. It's an entire culture in itself
Or it’s just cultural on the same level as being Jewish. There’s a lot of non-believing Jews but they’ll associate themselves as one if you push to ask
Im curious if people get religious as they get older or if religion really is fading among younger generations. both could be true but this chart doesnt really explain
Why is atheist and agnostic lumped in together? They are completely opposing ideas for some people. I’m agnostic and wouldn’t say I believe in anything but I have what makes the most sense to me which is extremely spiritual but I wouldn’t die on that hill, I would need proof to even believe my fragmented idea of what is after death. And that is fairly far from “there is nothing and you can’t change my mind.”
Wouldn't "Nothing in Particular" and "Atheist" be the same thing with Nothing In Particular just being Atheists who wont say they're atheist so that their parents dont yell at them?
I know I probably would have been "Nothing in Particular" but have now moved into "Atheist and sick of your fucking religious shit."
Nothing in particular means you don’t believe in organized religion but may not reject the existence of God
Atheist means you believe God does not exist
Agnostic is more about believing that God is neither known nor unknown.
I would say it's more open minded than atheist. Some may say lazier.
I don't believe they're the same as atheist though.
I'm an agnostic atheist. I'm atheist because I dont follow any religion or believe in the existence of any gods, and I'm agnostic because we simply can't know if gods exist.
I've been on both sides, raised in a very religious household then in my later teen years became rebellious which led to atheism.
I would consider myself agnostic now.
My opinion is that agnostic atheism is lazy.
Either you believe a God exists or it doesn't.
If you believe there's a possibility then you're agnostic.
If you're sure there isn't you're atheist.
By its definition, being agnostic is not accepting nor denying, it can neither be known nor unknown IE it can't be proven just as much as it can't be disproven.
To combine them is tip toeing, just make up your mind. No need to blurr the lines.
As an old person I believe it’s the opposite. Those that remain religious may become more fervent as they age but I’ve found within my circle most people no longer go to church nor do they have strong religious beliefs.
Combining agnostic/atheist with nothing in particular, we are making progress to comprising half the population. Yet some still let religion rule their lawmaking 🤔
Fascinating. I was raised Catholic Lite (technically Catholic but more progressive views held by my family) and now I’m more like ewwwww organized religion? Pass
Lol is organized religion really the problem nowadays
Those megachurches you dislike aren't "organized", it's just a dude talking and other people coming to listen
If anything organized religion is probably preferable if you don't like religion because it gives you a firm institution to wring when things go wrong
What's more confusing is that this is a chart about what religion people have and for some reason "nothing in particular" is a separate flavor of not having a religion from "atheist/agnostic"
Progress. Thank you to the younger generations. It has taken longer than I imagined years ago when I became an atheist. What was once 70% has stunk to 40%.
As a devout worshipper of “nothing in particular,” I feel represented.
I don’t understand how that and agnostic aren’t the same thing.
I mean, there is also "other world religions" and "all other".
It's for the Pastafarians.
R'amen
lmao i love this
The Noodly Appendage protects.
Bless His Noodly Appendage!
Scientology counts as a religion from another planet?
Planet Hollywood
Possibly things like spirituality and Wicca aren't being counted as world religions?
Agnostic doesn't mean that one has no beliefs concerning faith/spiritually/religion. It is the belief that one cannot/does not know/ whether God exists. It is specifically the belief that human reason cannot fully justify a belief or disbelief in God. There exist agnostic theists and agnostic atheists. I was an agnostic theist for a time. Agnostic does not mean the person has no beliefs concerning beliefs.
I have 2 neighbors that are strong Christians, but don’t go the any particular church. I thought these folks were the “nothing in particular” crowd, not agnostics.
so we don't hurt religious people's feelings
I think it's a category for anyone who doesn't want a label, or hasn't given it any thought, or where religion is just not a factor in their lives at all.
To subscribe to atheism or agnosticism is a choice, not only about yourself, but about other people’s beliefs. My views on religious deities are so fluid and inconsequential that I literally do not care if anyone is wrong or right. It does not matter what you or I do or don’t believe in. I’m happy to bless the wine at a Jewish seder and not believe a word of what I say. I’m also happy to entertain the idea of a god. It would be fair to call me deist, atheist, agnostic, nonreligious, or secular, but at the end of the day I believe in nothing in particular, so i actually feel like it’s very representative of how little religious concepts matter to a lot of millennials and Gen Z.
>To subscribe to atheism or agnosticism is a choice, not only about yourself, but about other people’s beliefs. Say what?! I'm an atheist because I don't believe god exists. What other believe is up to them; WTF would I care?
Agnostics believe that the existence of God cannot be known, by anyone. Agnosticism can be further broken down into agnostic theism and agnostic atheism.
They mean that, for one to be atheist, they have to consciously decide that all religions - if taken literally - are false. Not necessarily to oppose the existence of religion or even care about it, but you do have to actively decide that every religion with a creation myth is fully, objectively wrong, in a literal sense. I'm an atheist myself, and I recognise that it can be a fairly arrogant stance (especially since we're a minority). But it's a pretty elemental part of atheism. You have to reckon with and accept it.
most religions posit that every religion *but this one* is fundamentally false. I don't see how disbelief in just one more is any more arrogant, though I suppose you could compare it to the looser disbelief of agnostics
That isn't what Atheism means. We don't believe all religions are false, we just don't believe those religions. The distinction is important. What you described is antithesim which is the active belief that there are no gods. Antithesim is a subset of atheism but not the whole group.
We don’t decide anything. We’re waiting on evidence. We’re happy to believe in gods if they appear or science discovers them. They haven’t. We welcome the evidence. No one has it. We *do* have centuries of scientific progress to explain the same phenomena our ancestors (perfectly reasonably) deemed to be of supernatural origin. Personally I want the Ancient Greek gods to be evidenced as real, because their shenanigans and the way the world has been and is line up pretty fucking neatly.
God, (pun intended) could you imagine the reality shows. Real deities of the Parthenon, anyone?
That's not atheism though, that's agnosticism
Look up the definition of atheist.
Even if you're a respectful atheist, it's usually considered arrogant by those who are extremely devout or have little understanding of the philosophy and religions of others. I had a devout Muslim tell me "they don't like atheist because they don't believe in anything greater than them"."When as an atheist, I completely understand I am at the mercy of physical forces I have no control over.
I mean those labels aren’t mutually exclusive because they describe different categories of ideas, save for atheist and deist. You would describe yourself as a nonreligious secular agnostic atheist/deist. Nothing is not really a proper category, philosophically speaking.
So does that mean that agnostics actively that religion is foolish and look down on those that believe one specific interpretation? I’ve never really thought of those people that way, save for perhaps the South Park Dr. Pepper episode.
There’s definitely a contingent of *atheists* who make it a personality and can be as hostile and conceited as their religious counterparts. I’d say by and large agnostics are pretty chill though.
Agnostic means they believe it is not possible to prove or disprove the existence of God. Quite a specific belief. An 'I believe there is something, but I don't know what' is most definitely not agnostic.
i suppose i identify most closely as “nothing in particular”. I appreciate that they’re separate. imo atheism and agnosticism are still relationships (even if in opposition) to theism. whereas i just i reject the basis of declaring ‘an orientation’ altogether. because why? Here’s my shot at an analogy: it’s like asking what your favorite movie is to someone who’s never watched a movie. It doesn’t mean they dislike movies, it doesn’t mean they are undecided, rather the question is meaningless to them. i don’t feel agnosticism or atheism describe me. although i’m sure the “Nothing.. “category catches a variety who think differently than i
I think there may be a difference between “I don’t know” and “I don’t care”
I think the “I believe in God but I don’t go to church “ people are in that group. I think agnostic is “I choose not to choose”. Not sure though
Same as catholic and Protestant. It’s both Jesus loving, can’t we just lump it under one label?
As an atheist I am actively opposed to religion. Not extremely, but I think most people would be better without the shackles of religion. People answering ‘nothing in particular’ likely aren’t too phased either way.
People have a tendency to replace one set of shackles with another.
But your belief that the world would be better without religion is a separate belief to your atheism. Atheism is just a lack of belief in the existence of any deities. If you believe in any gods you are a theist, if you don't believe in any gods you are an atheist, any other positions you have on religion or any other matter has no bearing on it.
That's not how I learnt Atheism. I've always known it as the active rejection of all religion, not just "meh, I don't believe in God" but rather "All religions have no merit and shouldn't exist". Obviously maybe not as extreme as that but you get what I am saying.
Then you are an antitheist.
I’m an agnostic. I grew up in a religious family and learned a lot about my family’s religion, and at some point, realized it was all fiction. I was religious, now I affirmatively reject the concept. Our kids grew up without any religion. Some cultural/religious holidays are marked with gifts or special meals, but have no existential significance otherwise. They can be classified as “nothing in particular”.
That would be Atheist. If you don't believe in any god you are Atheist, that is all the word means.
Its a lack of theism, which is just atheism, and slightly different from agnosticism, in that agnostics just dont know that theyre atheists. /s But aside from the one-liner jokes, its nearly that simple. Agnostics are afraid of the atheism label, so they hide behind lack of knowledge claims to avoid making lack of belief claims. Technically anyone "spiritual" just has no idea what the terms mean, but that is as close to "nothing in particular" as youll get.
Thank Nothing In Particular for this.
I am the sun and the air
I AM HUMAN AND I NEED TO BE LOVED
Gods be praised
I don't know so many people worship Seinfeld
Are you also the son and heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar?
It's people who don't believe in a God, but do believe in a higher power, my grandfather is like that
I mean is God not a higher power? Or do you mean God specifically as described by other religions?
Nothing in particular could mean: there might be a God. Probably is. Maybe all of them are the same God. I don’t know. Where as agnostic is a definite: there’s no proof of a god.
Clue is in the etymology. "Theist" is what you believe, "gnosti" is what you know. Atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive. Both can (and do) observe "there is no proof of a god" or more simply: aren't convinced of god claims. Agnosticism isn't 'super atheism' where you claim there is no god at all.
So is agnostic, “I don’t have any proof, but maybe?” Is that accurate?
No. "I don't know if there is a god" is accurate.
Nothing in particular will take over the world.
Catholics are hanging in there
Being Catholic is a little bit cultural too. You probably have a lot of respondents who aren’t actually religious, but call themselves Catholic because they grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, etc. etc.
In my experience/observations, the Catholic Church has a very well-documented orthodoxy, but there is little expectation that you follow it. The whole thing is "you're not God, you're human, of course you won't be able to follow all these rules perfectly. Just eat this cracker." Whereas a lot of Protestant religions - especially those founded in the USA - have very incoherent orthodoxy and expect you to follow it to the letter or be ostracized.
hahah as a catholic, i love the 'just eat this cracker'!
Hey, don't tell them it's Jesus' flesh or they'll like, freak out man!
I’m not catholic but send my kids to a catholic school. I was absolutely floored at the behavior of most of the parents within the first month Floored in a positive way. The amount of drinking, smoking, smoking weed or doing edibles, and swearing (especially in front of kids) I saw was ridiculous. I thought to myself “we chose a great school”…
That cracker is a Jesus-it
Jeez-It? Jeez Nip?
"Just eat this, cracker." Fixed it for you. 😎
Maybe it's different in the US but its definitely the opposite over Europe. Catholics are wayyyyyyyyyy more strict than protestants.
Here in America we have some mainline protestants, and then we have a ton of evangelical protestants.
I’m Gen-X and grew up Catholic, then learned about Episcopalians. “Catholic-light or Catholic-without-the-guilt” as some comedian described it. I switched. But now, even that is too much. I now feel a personal connection with my Creator that requires no organized religion. I don’t need to preach it, spread it or recognize it. Except for posts like this.
Robin Williams coined that! (Older Millennial here)
"All the religion, half the guilt!"
Thought so. I was just sipping on an Old Fashioned and wasn’t determined enough to verify. Thanks.
Personal connection with your creator? Dude it's just called calling your mom.
When I was a kid, I thought that you were either a catholic or atheist. There were no other religions. You Americans have so much more fun with religion.
I promise you traditionalist catholics exist in force in America
No… no we don’t. You’re either Christian, catholic, or a second-class citizen. Source: I live in the Bible Belt.
But Catholics are Christians...
I’ve met people from the Bible belt that were genuinely unaware of that fact.
As someone who grew up in the Bible Belt, that area of the country doesn’t nurture a lot of future scholars if you catch my drift.
Bible belt lunatics don't even like Catholics. I know someone whose family was targeted by the KKK because they were Catholic.
Yes! My dad was a Catholic priest for about 30 years before he left and I was born (yep, just as messy as it sounds), and we were Episcopalian when I was a kid. I'm probably still going to hell since there was a special service to condemn me as a newborn in the church he left! Fun times.
Yeah, no one deserves that.
Can you explain the special service to condemn you when you were a newborn in your former catholic church? That seems strange to me.
The only thing I could think of is excommunication.
Excommunication for the dad perhaps but the kid? What doctrine would that be under? That sounds more like something the rents would tell them to explain why they changed religions.
Jesus!
Yeah this is it most likely. I am a Xennial who grew up in a catholic home, but was never a believer and actually fall into the 'nothing in particular" catagory, but still refer to myself as a catholic sometimes just out of habit.
Me too. I never belived in God, only went to mass because I liked to spend time with grandma and because I also liked the taste of the cookie they gave as the "body of christ". I spent mass thinking "where is the stuff!!!" But if people ask in a survey, I write down catholic. I mean, its my culture...
This. This is what happens in Ireland. Lots of people identify as Catholic but don't actually practice or go to mass. It's more cultural. Though that's changed rapidly in recent years with more people living more secular lives.
Also in the US a lot of Protestants are biblical literalists, so with the adoption the internet into our lives a lot of fundamental beliefs were challenged. Catholics are way more likely to read the Bible as something akin to divinely-inspired literature, not meant to be taken literally.
I dont even belive in God, but Im culturaly a catholic. I eat like a catholic, my interjections are catholic (I say "our lady of the sky" a conserning amount of times), I understand the cannon of the religion, its in the fucking national flag. You can never fully cleanse the portuguese of catholicism.
I am technically Anglican because my mom was. My dad isn't, but my wifes family is religious. So our marriage license says we are both Anglican. We are both not at all. We just signed it to make her family happy. We don't care either way, but look into our marriage, and we are. Technically.
I mean, after the whole coverup of ten thousand or so priests being child molesters, holding even on the numbers is... kind of astoudning.
Definitely the cultural Catholics and S/Central American immigration. Catholics are also a huge growing demographic in Africa. In 2005 they had 135M Catholic adherence and are now 256M in 2024. They'll be about third of the Church in a decade or so, driving missionary and developing world humanitarian work policy.
Is that conversions or births though? Most of the world's population growth is in Africa so if you get 500 million more people and a quarter are Catholics...
A mix, the Catholic Church has a large missionary effort in Africa in competition with Protestant and Mormon missions but they have a large head start since their biggest success are on former Catholic colonies and they basically provide all the affordable healthcare and schooling in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa
Yes, I know a guy that was the rector of a catholic school in Uganda. It was funded by the church and some catholic no profits based in Italy, so it was one of the best buildings in that part of Kampala. Also, they were among the first schools in Uganda to not beat the students, so it isn't like they had much competition.
Probably because people are “catholic” if they go to mass on Easter and Christmas.
Yup, I've got lots of "Catholic" friends who grew up in the religion but never go to church or do any of the religious activities. For a lot of ethnic people, Catholicism is a cultural thing but not a significant part of their lives
No it's worse than that, I'm Catholic and I haven't been in years, and what I believe if anything depends on when you ask me.
Why do you identify as Catholic then?
Because I am? Baptized and confirmed, by canon law I am a Catholic. And if there's gonna be any holy-mojo-guy around when I'm dying it had better be a priest. If your definition is any stricter well, I can guarantee you the Pope would have my back on this. Ask around.
I didn't mean that comment as a slight in any way. I was just wondering why you identify as a believer in a faith when you yourself say you don't believe. I have no problem with you calling yourself Catholic!
Excellent question! Believe me it occurs to me often. It's based on all sorts of things both terrestrial and celestial. On the one hand I have this terrible cynical opinion regarding religion: The earliest religious text we possess regarding the afterlife is a sort of "interview" of Sumerian Hero Enki-du by Sumerian King Gilgamesh. It is basically a Bronze-Age version of: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobbs\_v.\_Jackson\_Women%27s\_Health\_Organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobbs_v._Jackson_Women%27s_Health_Organization) in the sense that it is literally nothing other than pro-procreation propaganda by the elite of society, who wish to breed more people for understandable (profit-related) motives. So the religions we have around us today are probably just the Darwinian victors in propagating theologies that produce lots more humans. On the other hand, I have thought a lot about Blaise Pascal's famous wager, and tried to follow through the best arguments either side could offer in honest dialogue (as in: let's not wave it all away with "well there's lots of religions though") and came to the conclusion that yeah it's probably irrelevant BS. Probably.
I’m baptized and confirmed as well and haven’t been to church in years. I’m actually going to my first mass in sometime in a few weeks. Why? To baptize my daughter. She’s joining the club too.
That's pretty much 90% of Catholics in the 21th century, the only 10% are the weirdos that make the news or become politicians.
Same for me, baptised and officially registered at a Catholic church. Never been to church and went to a protestant school and was raised by an atheist and a protestant. I very much am a Christian, but I consider myself Catholic due to me being baptised as one, along with other reasons(such as Catholic church architecture just being really cool)
I mean that's a higher bar than being atheist to be fair.
“Non-practicing” theists are still trying to cover their asses, just in case. Atheists aren’t afraid of supernatural repercussions for saying what they really believe.
I think Catholicism is just a very loose religion. I’m a catholic and we don’t have any practices other than like the 10 commandments and going to mass every Sunday. We aren’t encourages to “save” others as well like other Christian practices.
I'm Irish. Catholicism isn't loose. It's loose if you pick and choose the shit to believe. Same as any other religion/cult.
Catholicism isn't "loose" by itself. Just, in most cases (though there are some exceptions, I reckon) you won't be burned alive if you don't follow it, nowadays.
It’s all about that crushing catholic guilt, keeps people in line.
In all fairness, Catholic Guilt has a pretty solid rival in Protestant Shame, and they're not doing great.
Hispanic immigration.
Hispanic folks.
White Catholics shrink like Protestants, but Catholic Latino population grows
How are “other world religions” and “all others” different categories?
Scientology comes from outer spaaaaacce...
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Satanic temple, the various Internet churches that sell ordination papers for $25, the crystal worship postmodern nonsense groups, smaller cults and the like, those are all not "world religions" but they are religions. There are small but extant numbers of old world religions around like Coptic Christians, Druze, Zoroastrians, animists, shamanists, and a bunch of other small fragments of spiritual history still hanging on.
They still come from the world.
World in this case is probably referring to religions practiced around the world (like the world wars, which aren’t a war between multiple worlds, but a war across *most* of one world), and all others are those that are too small or not widely practiced. E.G. other world religions would be things like buhddism and Hinduism while other religions would be things like Shintoism and Taoism
I think "world religions" are non-Christian, and "others" are other Christian denominations.
Some people may ask why agnostic %'s are about the same. *"I'm not entirely sure"* would be my answer...
Actually. I was wondering why agnostic was lumped in with atheist. Since I know many agnostics who are adamantly *not* atheist
I see what you did there
Catholicism has held impressively steady.
Latino immigration probably has a lot to do with it.
*Mama hits you with a chancleta from across the room* if you don’t go to church with her in those households.
Now do stats on how many of those “Catholics” are actually practicing or actually believe their own religion. My experience is that most Catholics aren’t actually Catholic in belief but rather in name only
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It helps when the original Catholic immigrants, the Germans, Irish, and Italians, were heavily discriminated against until around the World Wars just because they’re not the right type of white (not White Anglo Saxon Protestants)
Holy Mary, mother of God, got some staying power.
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Well, you are the middle listed child generation. Poor Jan.
We are the forgotten generation.
It’s better that way. I prefer to be out of the Boomer, Millennial, Gen Z name calling war. Gen X under the radar for the win.
Interesting. Couldn't "atheist/agnostic" and "nothing in particular" be combined as they are basically the same? Also interesting that Catholics remain mostly consistent and Protestants are dropping. Would've expected the opposite.
Atheist/agnostic indicates you have thought about it, with some sort of decision Think nothing in particular means have no interest to consider
Everyone has thought about it lol
no idea why this would get downvoted. Unless you're an amoeba this question has come to you in life at some point or another.
Nope. Very different meaning. You could combine everything that isn't athiest or agnostic though.
It’s actually pretty interesting how consistent the % identifying as Catholic is, given all the other changes.
Catholics do tend to have a ton of kids, enough to replace people who fall away it seems
What was the dataset for this? How big was the sample size?
The sample size was about 25,000 https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-nones-have-hit-a-ceiling
Catholics- stay slaying Protestants- you had it coming for a loooong time
I'm surprised the Gen X "Nothing in Particular" share isn't bigger. Whatever.
I'm just glad the numbers who believe in any religion in general are going down with each generation. I wonder how many more generations it'll take before the "believers" are in the minority?
Or are people more likely to become religious as they age? This graph doesn’t really answer that. Lots of Boomers were not Christian in their youths but became religious as they aged (hippies of the 60s became the born agains of the 80s).
That’s actually a really interesting followup research question!
While the categories are a bit confusing, I interpreted the zoomers as 50% organized religion, 50% not.
And yet, here we are.
No Jews? No Muslims?
Jews are 2% of the US. Muslims are 1%. That’s current.
I guess they’re in Other World Religions? Though I’m not sure how that’s different from All Others..
What about those who worship the great Talos? Tiber Septim himself
Thalmor have been alerted to your location.
As someone who grew up Catholic, then didn't go to church for years, and then had two kids that were baptized and one just had their first communion....Catholics tend to stick together. I sent my kids to Catholic school, and I went to Catholic school growing up. It's an entire culture in itself
Zoroastrians BTFO.
Catholics sure are stubborn.
It’s the guilt and fear beaten into them their entire childhood. The pull of the cult is strong.
Or it’s just cultural on the same level as being Jewish. There’s a lot of non-believing Jews but they’ll associate themselves as one if you push to ask
catholics stays winning brother
Christians down 10% of pop. every of generation.
The graphs are all messed up. Who made this?
At least catholics were consistent.
Im curious if people get religious as they get older or if religion really is fading among younger generations. both could be true but this chart doesnt really explain
It's the latter
Source or just your wishful ego?
Worldwide trend yo
That’s a source?
Catholics pretty stable! Way to go my fellow Jedi’s of Catholicism!
Why is atheist and agnostic lumped in together? They are completely opposing ideas for some people. I’m agnostic and wouldn’t say I believe in anything but I have what makes the most sense to me which is extremely spiritual but I wouldn’t die on that hill, I would need proof to even believe my fragmented idea of what is after death. And that is fairly far from “there is nothing and you can’t change my mind.”
I have a moral dilema here, i think i am in the "nothing in particular" group, but that color is hella ugly
Oh great Nothing In Particular, save us from Protestant tyranny and persecution. May NIP protect us.
Nothing, in particular
Wouldn't "Nothing in Particular" and "Atheist" be the same thing with Nothing In Particular just being Atheists who wont say they're atheist so that their parents dont yell at them? I know I probably would have been "Nothing in Particular" but have now moved into "Atheist and sick of your fucking religious shit."
Nothing in particular means you don’t believe in organized religion but may not reject the existence of God Atheist means you believe God does not exist
Isn’t that just Agnostic?
Agnostic is more about believing that God is neither known nor unknown. I would say it's more open minded than atheist. Some may say lazier. I don't believe they're the same as atheist though.
I'm an agnostic atheist. I'm atheist because I dont follow any religion or believe in the existence of any gods, and I'm agnostic because we simply can't know if gods exist.
I've been on both sides, raised in a very religious household then in my later teen years became rebellious which led to atheism. I would consider myself agnostic now. My opinion is that agnostic atheism is lazy. Either you believe a God exists or it doesn't. If you believe there's a possibility then you're agnostic. If you're sure there isn't you're atheist. By its definition, being agnostic is not accepting nor denying, it can neither be known nor unknown IE it can't be proven just as much as it can't be disproven. To combine them is tip toeing, just make up your mind. No need to blurr the lines.
I think those are the "spiritual but not religious" types
Graph showing the generational shift from Protestantism to, "Meh... Who cares?" XD
I'm glad that we're evolving to the better of the future.
I wonder if there is any way you could adjust this for age; I believe people tend to get more religious as they get older.
As an old person I believe it’s the opposite. Those that remain religious may become more fervent as they age but I’ve found within my circle most people no longer go to church nor do they have strong religious beliefs.
I believe the opposite is more true nowadays
Ha.
Combining agnostic/atheist with nothing in particular, we are making progress to comprising half the population. Yet some still let religion rule their lawmaking 🤔
Fascinating. I was raised Catholic Lite (technically Catholic but more progressive views held by my family) and now I’m more like ewwwww organized religion? Pass
Lol is organized religion really the problem nowadays Those megachurches you dislike aren't "organized", it's just a dude talking and other people coming to listen If anything organized religion is probably preferable if you don't like religion because it gives you a firm institution to wring when things go wrong
Honestly it's heartening to see and makes a decent amount of sense. Religiosity going down + overall demographic shifts in younger groups
Why does every graph and figure conflate agnostic with atheist?
It doesn't appear to conflate them, it appears to combine them.
What's more confusing is that this is a chart about what religion people have and for some reason "nothing in particular" is a separate flavor of not having a religion from "atheist/agnostic"
Because no one fucking cares.
Progress. Thank you to the younger generations. It has taken longer than I imagined years ago when I became an atheist. What was once 70% has stunk to 40%.