Unaffiliated/Atheism
Who are the ‘nones’? New Pew study debunks myths about America’s nonreligious.
By Kathryn Post — January 24, 2024
(RNS) — 'Today, the ‘nones’ kind of look like everybody else,' said sociologist Ryan Cragun. 'At some level, we're saying, hey, actually, this is just your neighbor.'
Church without God: How secular congregations fill a need for some nonreligious Americans
By Jacqui Frost — January 19, 2024
(The Conversation) — A sociologist of religion explains how atheist churches are helping people find meaning and community – serving many of the same purposes as religious churches.
First meeting of After School Satan Club at Tennessee elementary school draws protesters
By Associated Press — January 12, 2024
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The launch of the club Wednesday drew dozens to protest outside the school, WMC-TV reported.
RNS reporters look ahead to the big religion stories they expect in 2024
By RNS staff — December 30, 2023
(RNS) — From papal reforms to psychedelics to presidential elections, here are the big religion stories RNS reporters anticipate this coming year.
Church for ‘nones’: Meet the anti-dogma spiritual collectives emerging across the US
By Kathryn Post — December 20, 2023
ATLANTA (RNS) — These spiritual communities discard doctrine, prefer questions over answers and have no intention of converting anybody to anything.
Americans are becoming less spiritual as well as less religious
By Mark Silk — December 11, 2023
(RNS) — But you'd never know it from the latest Pew survey.
Yule – a celebration of the return of light and warmth
By Helen A. Berger — December 8, 2023
(The Conversation) — Yule, celebrated by Wiccans and many other Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere on Dec. 21, the day of the winter solstice, is a time for reflection.
Young people define ‘sacred moments’ broadly: From God to nature to relationships
By Adelle M. Banks — November 7, 2023
(RNS) — ‘Inviting young people beyond the traditional and typical provides room for them to experience something beyond the ordinary,’ a Springtide Research Institute report states.
250 years later, ‘Amazing Grace’ has filled churches, concerts, even commercials
By Adelle M. Banks — October 31, 2023
(RNS) — Says author James Walvin: ‘its words speak to a human condition of suffering, and people coming out of suffering, and its music has a kind of haunting refrain that soothes.’
How ‘nones’ − the religiously unaffiliated − are finding meaning, purpose and spirituality in psychedelic churches
By Morgan Shipley — October 31, 2023
(The Conversation) — A scholar who studies alternative expressions of spirituality visited secular, atheist and psychedelic churches and interacted with attendees. Here is what he found.
Documentary on Black millennials depicts wide range of religion, rebellion
By Adelle M. Banks — October 24, 2023
(RNS) — ‘We show the pluralistic nature of the African American religious experience,’ said creator Teddy Reeves, ‘from those who are of some formal faith tradition to those who are not.’
My friend’s inspiring life was a reminder: We need to see each other’s humanity
By Greg M. Epstein — October 23, 2023
(RNS) — It's natural to retreat into our own pain and fear, and to stay there. But then none of us gets the world we long for and deserve.
Nonviolence, rebellion and the Palestinian attack
By Andre Henry — October 13, 2023
(RNS) — In the famous words of John F. Kennedy, 'Those who make nonviolent revolutions impossible, make violent revolutions inevitable.'
Is religion good for you? The answer is complicated, new global Gallup report finds.
By Bob Smietana — October 10, 2023
(RNS) — A review of 10 years of global polling looks at the complicated connection between spirituality and health.
An atheist in northern Nigeria was arrested. Then the attacks against others worsened
By Chinedu Asadu — October 9, 2023
KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Nonbelievers in Nigeria said they perennially have been treated as second-class citizens in the deeply religious country.
