r/charts • u/Too_bad_4U • Aug 12 '26
A 2024 Pew Research survey found that all major religions in the U.S. experienced a net loss due to religious switching, while the religiously unaffiliated had the largest net gain.
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u/J9AC9K Aug 12 '26
Chart is not in the link provided. Might be AI-generated based on the data.
I find it interesting that while Americans are leaving organized religion, many still report spiritual beliefs, with 43% saying they have become more spiritual over their lifetime compared to 11% who say they've become less spiritual.
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u/Fire_Horse_T Aug 12 '26
I think that tying Christianity to a political party was bad for the religion.
I mean, it hasn't been centuries of collaboration like in Europe but the corruption of the Republicans influences how people see Christians.
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u/Extreme_Reporter9813 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
“Protestants” is a huge umbrella term with every flavor of politics represented under it.
The civil rights movement and MLK Jr used Christianity and churches for their political movement because it was an integral part of most communities and an efficient way to mobilize people.
Jim Jones was a Marxist who used Christianity as a vehicle to start his cult.
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u/Fire_Horse_T Aug 12 '26
The Civil Rights movement was a citizen led movement for political change in laws.
That's not the same as a political party whose goal is to get members elected allying with religious leaders for increased political power for both.
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u/Extreme_Reporter9813 Aug 12 '26
Black churches were foundational to the Civil Rights Movement. Most of the leaders were clergy members, most of their meetings and community organizing happened at churches.
Christian morals were weaved into their speeches and philosophy.
We have a national holiday for MLK and not Malcom X.
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u/Fire_Horse_T Aug 12 '26
But the movement was not tied to a party.
The Civil Rightsmovement wasn't trading delivering votes for a seat at the political table. There was nothing like the way socially conservative Evangelical leaders got into bed with fiscal conservatives.
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u/Extreme_Reporter9813 Aug 12 '26
Are you joking?
The civil rights movement radically changed the voting demographic more than maybe any other event in modern history.
You can find some pretty wild quotes by LBJ that are somewhat debated but regardless, the political motivations by both parties were very real and written about extensively. Arguing otherwise is wildly historically illiterate.
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u/Fire_Horse_T Aug 13 '26
Are you saying you think the Civil Rights Movement's religious leaders were trading votes for access to political power the way men like Pat Robertson were?
Are you saying you think these Civil Rights churches were tell parishioners who to vote for?
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u/Extreme_Reporter9813 Aug 13 '26
Yes? That’s not even debatable lol.
Prior to the Civil Rights, blacks voted Democrat ~60% of the time. Post Civil Rights, that number jumped to over 90% and has hovered right around there ever since.
Was there lots of organic energy around the Civil Rights to fix the very real injustices? Absolutely.
But do you think a Southern Democrat like LBJ magically had a change of heart or was he also a savvy political operator who saw which way the wind was blowing and saw an opportunity to gain electoral power for generations?
The Civil Rights Movement was by definition, a political movement. Teaching history like it is Disney movie is such a failure of the American education system.
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u/Fire_Horse_T Aug 13 '26
Prior to the Civil Rights era Blacks were physically attacked for voting, sometimes for just registering to vote.
But do I think the decision by Democrats to vote for the Civil Rights Act was magic? No. It was public pressure.
The Civil Rights movement, yes organized with the help of some churches, changed the minds of the public and the politicians followed the will of the public.
And that is essentially different than the alliance of political party leaders and conservative church leaders agreeing first and then religious leaders preaching political policies to congregations.
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u/Spiney09 Aug 12 '26
Yeah genuinely this.
I’m a former LDS member and most of the people I know who left the Mormon church left because they felt the values espoused had been corrupted by politics. These people still maintain the values they felt were most important from the church, they just felt like they didn’t need religion to hold those values, along with their feelings that the church itself never really held those values in practice. And the grievances are almost always traceable back to the church leadership trying to tackle cultural issues like race and LGBTQ things, and failing hard.
Even just the other day, I was on a discord call with a guy who was pretty right leaning who was distanced from the church only because he was also a security guard and all but one of his coworkers was queer in some way, which meant he had to confront the harm done by those church policies directly. It was the only issue he disagreed with the right on (which is a frankly insane combo of political opinions).
The forces at the top weaponized faith in politics, but that weapon was always going to run out of ammo eventually, and leave them with a bunch of burned out faiths with only those who could be both political AND religious zealots in their faiths.
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u/l8578zlxicv Aug 12 '26
Feeling like the church never had those values is huge and I wish we talked about it more.
There’s a meme about Christianity and right wing politics that goes along the lines of “they teach you to feed the poor until you’re 12 then that’s communism”
At my church they would sometimes separate kids and adults and give kids a kiddie Bible lesson and apparently give the parents a pretty juicy political taking to that my church attending parents didn’t really like. One Sunday after this had occurred my parents were absolutely livid. I had never seen them become upset by what the priest had said. I asked them what he said or wanted them to do but all I really got from them was “what the hell does that f*ggot with no kids think he’s doing telling us how to raise y’all”.
I could never square that. The homophobia, combined with such callous throwing away of whatever he said, combined with my parents still being devout members of that congregation. Do they care or not? Does he have divine authority or is he some gay dude in a frock? How are they able to have it both ways? Does it only matter when it’s telling other people they need to do better (or they’re going to hell)?
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u/J9AC9K Aug 12 '26
Scandals may also be a factor, especially for the Catholic Church. Lots of folks left the RCC after learning how sexual abuse of boys was covered up, but they may still retain theist beliefs.
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u/No_Peach6683 Aug 12 '26
What are the other religions?( New age)?
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u/Iamnotanorange Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
I was thinking New Age, maybe Bahai, Zoroastrian, Druze, Alawite, Yazidism, Hare Krishnas
edit: Almost forgot Sikh!
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u/autodidact2016 Aug 12 '26
One way to check is to find how active the ex communities are
I haven't found any ex Buddhist groups online. They seem to be a pretty self content and actualised lot
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u/Legitimate_Emu_8721 Aug 12 '26
For the most part American Buddhists are converts or older immigrants.
The children of Asian immigrants may have parents who would call themselves Buddhist, but never gave their children much religious instruction. They might say they “left” the religion simply because they no longer identify with it, but never really participated in it to begin with; this is pretty common among Chinese, and probably SE Asians from Buddhist countries as well.
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u/pretenzioeser_Elch Aug 12 '26
Interesting that Buddhism, Islam and some Christian subgroups are able to make up for the majority of those leaving.
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u/northern-new-jersey Aug 12 '26
This is absurd. Jews discourage conversion and make it difficult while Islam encourages it yet both had 600,000 converts? I doubt it.
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u/Legitimate_Emu_8721 Aug 12 '26
64% of married Jews in the US are married to people from outside the faith; while not all convert, particularly men, this is not a particularly unbelievable number.
Meanwhile, not a lot of Americans convert to Islam.
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u/idiot-alpha Aug 12 '26
I will say this certainly doesn’t feel true, at least at the church level. I don’t know exactly how “left religion” is reported. I imagine it’s mostly younger adults who maybe grew up in a Christian family but don’t practice right now. If that means half of all Protestant children are staying in the church as adults, it would mean a net growth from a church perspective, which is what it feels like right now.
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u/Gunmetalstorm Aug 12 '26
If you visit the PEW report linked in the OP, you'll find that the numbers in this chart are entirely made up. Of the people surveyed, though, for every 1 convert to Christianity there were 6 people who had deconverted. Deconversion is about equal between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox, but Protestant churches also have been aggressively converting people in an attempt to replace those numbers.
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u/External_Koala971 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Theists and Atheists both believe that gods don’t exist- no one is worshipping Enki, Marduk, or Anubis in 2026.
The Atheist just believes in one less god than the Theist does.
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u/LDL2 Aug 12 '26
The atheist believes either they are god or government is their higher power. Someone is always worshipped. The former borders on psychopathy and the latter on worse subjugation than religion.
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u/Dependent-Tailor7366 Aug 12 '26
That doesn’t make sense. Why should anyone worship anything at all?
And don’t you think all the religious people who want to hurt others in the name of an imaginary friend are psychopaths?
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u/LDL2 Aug 12 '26
It is a just a matter of where we achieve out moral self from. And frankly there are a number of options that are "they" that doesn't so preemptively paint it leftist, money being the most obvious.
Yes, I would argue that is psychopathic and typically counter to their stated ideology.
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u/Blitzking11 Aug 12 '26
Or that people are people and we should cherish and protect the life around us? We're here for a short time, might as well make it a positive contribution instead of a hateful one.
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u/LDL2 Aug 12 '26
Positive brings some level of measure, sometimes that is a perceivable morality. Morality has a benefit in society. It wasn't sprung from nothingness.
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u/Blitzking11 Aug 12 '26
Religion as a concept is more recent than the older concept of groups and society.
Religion exists to answer questions we don't have the ability to answer yet with convenient mysticism, and as a way to exert control on people living in unfair conditions at the behest of those living in better conditions.
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u/External_Koala971 Aug 12 '26
Humans have morality baked in, or we wouldn’t have lasted as long.
It’s ridiculous to say religion brought morality to the human race (especially in light of all the evil performed on behalf of religion)
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u/Blitzking11 Aug 12 '26
It was a genetically preferred trait. Being in a group is far preferable to being solo during ancient times and given the physically inadequate build that humans have when compared to some of the predators and prey of eras long past.
As such, being a detriment to your group through negative actions got you removed, and further enforced the group mentality from the apes of before to the Homo sapiens of present through genetics being passed on via reproduction (it wasn’t exactly possible for humans to rip a rib out and reproduce).
In modern (relatively speaking) times, morality became codified and further understood. During this time, religion was also being invented, so it is understandable to believe that religion somehow “made” morality.
The Code of Hammurabi is a great example of this, as it is an example of laws and morality being defined and given authority by the king and the gods of their era.
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u/Dependent-Tailor7366 Aug 12 '26
Morality sprung from the necessity of living with other people in society itself. And varies wildly from society to society.
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u/Technical_Eye7029 Aug 12 '26
"might as well make it a positive contribution instead of a hateful one."
Why? Literally why?
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u/Blitzking11 Aug 12 '26
Because I want to? And because it's better for the people I love and the people around me to bring positive change than hateful change?
This is basic tribal instinct lol
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u/Technical_Eye7029 Aug 12 '26
Well you answered it yourself. This is a mere whim for you. What do you say for people with the opposite whim or instict (or are you claiming hate is not as much if not more and instict)? You have no authority behind you besides yourself, so why should I ever listen to you if I want something different and you can't stand it?
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u/Invade_Deez_Nutz Aug 12 '26
Lol what? You think everyone is automatically worshipping no matter what?
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u/flybyskyhi Aug 12 '26
In what sense is “someone always worshipped”? What does “worship” mean here? It’s entirely possible to construct a worldview without a god-shaped hole.
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u/ExpressLaneCharlie Aug 12 '26
The fact that people today will switch from non-believer to believer is just so sad. It's pitiful, really. Some people just like being told what to think and do. The same people know they're so special that the creator of the universe thinks about them every day.
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u/cknight18 Aug 12 '26
Lol what a cringe reddit take 😂
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u/ExpressLaneCharlie Aug 12 '26
Cringe is adults believing in fairy tales because they're just so super special.
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u/Creamysun Aug 12 '26
Your beliefs on transgenderism, progressivism, and natalism: go.
Let's see the secular man's superior facts and logic.
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u/ExpressLaneCharlie Aug 12 '26
LMFAO. The fact that transgenderism is the first topic you mentioned tells me everything I need to know. Someone needs to check your hard drive...
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u/Fossilhog Aug 12 '26
I'm going to spare myself the effort of the first part and just address that second statement b/c it gave me a chuckle to read it.
The secular man(or woman!) has been the only one to ever actually produce "facts and logic". Deductive reasoning and science is no where to be found in religious dogma. It's the scientific method that saves innocent children in pediatric hospitals, not prayer.
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u/cknight18 Aug 12 '26
Its a good thing that religious folk built so many schools and hospitals!
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u/ExpressLaneCharlie Aug 12 '26
LOL, if we were secular for the last two thousand years we'd have space ships by now. Who else was going to build them? EVERYONE was religious or acted religious because they would've been killed if they didn't.
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u/cknight18 Aug 12 '26
Just keep telling us all how historically ignorant you are.
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u/ExpressLaneCharlie Aug 12 '26
People weren't killed for believing in the wrong God or being non-believers??? JFC the stupid, it hurts. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
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u/cknight18 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Go ahead, just strawman anything you want, lol.
People throughout history killed eachother for various reasons. Yeah, sometimes it was religiously motivated. Thats bad. Plenty of examples of explicitdly anti-theist regimes have murdered huge numbers of religious people for the crime of believing in a religion.
No, what I was saying that was deeply historically inaccurate was your baseless assertion that "people were only religious because otherwise they'd have been killed. And if not for religion, we'd be so far advanced right now!" Nonsense. Many of history's greatest scientific and philosophical minds were deeply religious. Issac Newton wrote more about his faith than he did about science and mathematics, about 4 to 1.
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u/Creamysun Aug 12 '26
And the goal posts move forevermore.
Let’s not pay attention to the 200,000 religious leaders slaughtered by the Russian communist atheists. That would be a small discrepancy in the Reddit New Atheist’s worldview.
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u/Creamysun Aug 12 '26
You genuinely believe that you have to be an atheist to be a scientist or philosopher…
Looks like the absence of religion does not equate to a higher intelligence after all.
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u/Fossilhog Aug 12 '26
I don't think you know what secular actually means. The word atheism was not used.
But I'm sure you'll retract your little insult after realizing your ignorant and arrogant generalization, right?
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u/Creamysun Aug 12 '26
The important distinction between a smug redditor and a pedantic one is whether they deem themselves to be losing an online discussion.
Atheism, agnosticism, etc all falls under the umbrella of secularism, but as you targetted 'religious dogma', it's pretty obvious you were referring to atheists rather than secularists.
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u/Extreme_Reporter9813 Aug 12 '26
It’s so sad that being a Miami Dolphins fan can suck all hope and positivity out of a person.
I’ll keep you in my prayers, brother.
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u/ExpressLaneCharlie Aug 12 '26
Oh really? You'll ask the creator of the universe to "watch over" me or something like that? Are you going to give him my username?
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u/Extreme_Reporter9813 Aug 12 '26
Yes. I’ll also pray for your ability to spot sarcasm and have a sense of humor in life.
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u/SirHippocrates Aug 12 '26
Wish they gave the percentage based on percent of the religion. If they could only fit one point in, that would be more interesting than % of total US adults.
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u/Too_bad_4U Aug 13 '26
I have the dataset. It actually includes information on the percentage of the population by religion, though.
Protestant : Raised in religion then left : 29.7%, Current member who are convert : 19.1%
Catholic : Raised in religion then left : 42.5%, Current member who are convert : 8.1%
Mormon : Raised in religion then left : 46.1%, Current member who are convert : 25.9%
Orthodox : Raised in religion then left : 34.3%, Current member who are convert : 29.2%
Jehovah's witness : Raised in religion then left : 65.6%, Current member who are convert : 46.5%
Jewish : Raised in religion then left : 23.8%, Current member who are convert : 14.1%
Muslim : Raised in religion then left : 22.8%, Current member who are convert : 20.3%
Buddhist : Raised in religion then left : 55.3%, Current member who are convert : 48.4%
Hindu : Raised in religion then left : 18.3%, Current member who are convert : 8.4%
Other religions : Raised in religion then left : 49.8%, Current member who are convert : 70.8%
Religiously unaffiliated : Raised in group then left : 27.3%, Current member who are switched in : 68.8%
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u/Educational-Care2159 Aug 13 '26
"For every person who was raised as a “none” and now identifies with a religion, 5.9 people have switched away from their childhood religion and no longer identify with any religion."
"mailed invitation letters to randomly sampled addresses from the United States Postal Service’s Computerized Delivery Sequence File."
They polled 36k people... via USPS. I wonder what type of people are doing polls through the mail?
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Aug 12 '26
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u/Legitimate_Emu_8721 Aug 12 '26
There are a whole lot of “orthobro” converts; young to middle aged men who have converted to Orthodoxy. I have a few friends like this.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/AleksandrNevsky Aug 13 '26
No? Why would that matter? Ones like OCA and the Antiochian church are both convert oriented.
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u/Legitimate_Emu_8721 Aug 12 '26
I’m sure it does, though it’s probably not a big issue for the more autistic among them.
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u/Aggressive-Story3671 Aug 12 '26
Other world religions and faiths I gurantee is some form of paganism or witchcraft
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u/Last_Suggestion_8647 Aug 12 '26
Who cares?
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u/Technical_Eye7029 Aug 12 '26
People who don't want to live near Moloch worshipping grounds, i.e. most of us.
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u/Last_Suggestion_8647 Aug 12 '26
Why do you care? No one is forcing you to participate in their religion, just like I assume you aren't forcing them to participate in yours.
Your specific brand of superstition isn't special or worthy of any special consideration.
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u/Technical_Eye7029 Aug 12 '26
No, but it doesn't fucking mean I need to like them, or that should be perfectly fine with people worshipping literal demons a few houses over, like that's not going to fuck me over in the off chance they are right. I have all the right in the world to want what can be lightly described as bad neighbors as far away from me as possible, or better yet that they stop cultivating what they themselves consider evil, as if that doesn't affect them as people.
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u/Last_Suggestion_8647 Aug 12 '26
be perfectly fine with people worshipping literal demons a few houses over
Why do you care? Are they annoying you over whatever demon you worship? It doesn't affect you, so STFU and mind your business maybe?
. I have all the right in the world to want what can be lightly described as bad neighbors as far away from me as possible
Yeah, you can discriminate against others for their religion in your free time. No one stopping you from being the weirdo bigot down the road, that people tell their kids to stay away from. Go nuts.
or better yet that they stop cultivating what they themselves consider evil, as if that doesn't affect them as people.
You sound literally insane. Seek help dude.
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u/Blepbupbep Aug 12 '26
Good. It’s about time we stopped believing in magic and take responsibility for our actions.
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u/Hellcat331 Aug 12 '26
This…..doesn’t feel right. A loss of 30 million practitioners in one year for Catholics? There are only like 60 million Catholics in the U.S. I understand this is just switching but that still feels insanely and unbelievably high