Who are religious nones and what do they believe in? All we know about the single largest group in the US post new study findings

Religious nones are now the single biggest group in the United States. According to a new study published by the Pew Research Center on Wednesday, January 24, 28% of American citizens, or 1/4th of the population, belonged to a group often called the "nones" when it came to their religion. These religious nones included atheists, agnostics, and those who believed in 'nothing in particular.'

Most of the survey analysis came from a sample size of 11,201 respondents surveyed for a week between July and August last year. The respondents were members of the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel. About 29% of nones do not believe in a god or other higher power, while the majority do. However, most nones have a disconnect from religious institutions.

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63% of religious nones believe in 'nothing in particular'

A Pew Research Center survey found that 28% of American citizens are religious nones. The survey states that religious scholars have been using the term nones to describe the religiously unaffiliated since as early as the '60s. The group consists of atheists, agnostics, and those who believe in 'nothing in particular.'

The survey conducted from July 31 to August 6 of last year states that 20% of these nones are agnostics, 17% are atheists, and the rest, a whopping 63%, believe in 'nothing in particular.' The survey reported that the latter faction has less education than religious Americans on average, and the two smaller factions have more education than religious Americans.

According to the survey, 67% of nones, either questioned religious teachings or did not believe in God. 55% of them did not like religious organizations or had a bad experience with religious people. 44% of them did not have any time or need for religion in their lives.

When it came to civic duties, the nones were found to have lower civic engagement than religious people, but there was a catch. Atheists and agnostics participate in civic duties like voting at equal or greater rates than religious people.

However, the 63% that identify their religion as 'nothing in particular' have lower civic engagement. They are the only subset with a lower voter turnout than the religious.

Surprisingly, only 29% of religious nones completely deny the possibility of the existence of a higher power. Most are less likely to say they believe in God "as described in the Bible," but they do, in fact, believe in some form of higher universal power.

Despite being religiously raised (mostly Christian), nones have a high disconnect with religious institutions. They do not have religious labels and are not involved in the church, mosque, or any such organizations. 90% of them rarely or never really attend any kind of religious service. 49% of religious nones think themselves to be spiritual or that spirituality is an important facet of life.

Nones have mixed feelings towards religion, as a whopping 43% say that religion does more harm than good in the world, and only 14% say that it does more good than harm. However, 41% of nones think that religion does equal parts good and harm to the world.

When it came to science, 44% of nones believed that everything had a scientific explanation, while 56% felt like not everything could be scientifically explained. 56% of nones also said that science does more good than harm, while 5% said that it does more harm than good. 37% believed that it does both in equal parts.

A majority of nones believed that a person could have a moral compass and value set without believing in God, while a smaller majority of religious people thought so too. When deciding between right and wrong, the desire to avoid hurting another person was chosen by 83% of nones, while logic and reason received 82% support. 69% voted that doing the right thing felt good.

As mentioned above, a majority of the survey results come from 11,201 members of Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel, including 3,317 interviews with religious nones. It also includes data collected from further ATP surveys and NPORS surveys.