(RNS) — Church leaders have been facing a grim reality that fewer Americans attend church each year.
According to the General Social Survey, in 1972, 29% of American adults reported attending religious services no more than once or twice a year. By 2022, that share of infrequent attenders had almost doubled to 57%.
This trend in declining church attendance has prompted a lot of pessimism and hand-wringing among pastors who are trying to sustain their churches through a significant downturn in both participation and donations. But in spite of the spike in those who rarely or never attend church — and a corresponding increase in Americans who claim no religious affiliation, commonly referred to as “nones,” being at an all-time high of around 30% — data reveals a silver lining that may give some hope to religious leaders.
Last spring, we surveyed over 12,000 American adults who claim no religious affiliation and asked them all kinds of questions about their general disposition toward religious institutions, as part of a John Templeton Foundation project. We also included a significant battery of questions about their beliefs regarding religion and spirituality. We found the vast majority of nonreligious Americans still believe in some of the core tenets of religion.
For instance, when we asked them to describe their belief in God, only 22% of the nones said, “I don’t believe in God and I have no doubts” while 27% took a more agnostic position. Over half of the nones still indicated they believed in a higher power.
This is a theme that runs through our research: While the nonreligious tend to express a lower level of religious belief than Protestants or Catholics, it’s simply not the case that they are completely turned off by a belief in something larger than themselves.
When we asked the nones about their belief in heaven, just 28% said it definitely did not exist, and only 32% were completely dismissive of the idea of hell. And when we pressed them on the statement “I believe spirits exist,” just 30% disagreed.
Taken together, these results show just how few Americans have no spiritual inclinations at all. The share of nonreligious Americans who have an atheist view of God and definitely don’t believe in heaven or hell is just 16%.
In other words, just because religious behavior and affiliation have taken a nosedive in the last 30 years does not mean America is suddenly a secular country. Religious and/or spiritual beliefs are an incredibly persistent aspect of life in the United States, and that’s true even among people who distance themselves from the traditional trappings of religious life.
While it’s become commonplace for pastors and religious leaders to decry what they perceive to be a rising tide of secularism washing over American shores, the nonreligious themselves tell a much more nuanced story.
And as very few nones show up in the pews this coming Sunday morning, they are still open to the possibility and wonder what it means to believe in something greater than themselves. The vast majority of nonreligious people don’t see themselves in active conflict with faith communities, but rather as individuals uncomfortable placing a label on their beliefs in today’s increasingly diverse faith landscape.
(Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, is research director for Faith Counts and the author, most recently, of “The American Religious Landscape: Facts, Trends, and the Future.” Tony Jones, a theologian and outdoorsman, is the author of “The God of Wild Places.” They co-direct the Making Meaning in Post-Religious America Project. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)