Comment by padobson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by padobson | Hacker News Reader

As the non-affiliated grow, this poll is starting to create more questions than answers. I think the vast mix of responses in this comments section shows that.

In the 2021 NPORS, 4% of respondents describe themselves as atheists (up from 2% in 2011), and 5% describe themselves as agnostics (up from 3% a decade ago). One-in-five U.S. adults (20%) now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,”

In the same way the poll is curious about Protestant vs. Catholic, and Mainline vs Evangelical/Born Again, I'd sure like to know a little bit more about the "nothing in particular" group - especially when 13% of them are praying on a daily basis. Who are the two percent of people responding to this survey who have no religion and pray every day?

Is it none because they think religion is evil? Are they indifferent? Are they spiritual but think organized religion is unnecessary? Are they unaffiliated for intellectual reasons? Or have they never been exposed to religion at all and are mildly curious?

> Who are the two percent of people responding to this survey who have no religion and pray every day?

Nothing in particular is very different than being atheist/agnostic.

In general they are dissatisfied with organized religion or believe it is actually evil.

I know several people who would describe themselves as "christian" but left the Catholic Church during the paedophilia scandal and, hence, would describe themselves as "nothing in particular". Some of them see "The Church" as evil now.

I also know people who firmly believe there is a higher power guiding the world but don't have a particular god in mind.

I also know quite a few people who believe in a Christian God but find all of the organized religions very unpalatable and hypocritical.

> I'd sure like to know a little bit more about the "nothing in particular" group

I suspect that this is at least partly because, in some parts of the US, people are quite hostile to atheism as a concept. So it's not that surprising that you'd have people who don't believe in a god but also wouldn't want to identify as an atheist.

> Who are the two percent of people responding to this survey who have no religion and pray every day?

Well, you can get 2% of people to give any weird answer in a poll. But there probably are people who don't have a religion but do pray; it's a social ritual as much as anything else, for people who grew up with it.

Maybe they are just not Christian, but still pray in their religion. Maybe they are agnostic and still want to try to have a connection with the divine, but not within an organized religion complete with dogma.

> Who are the two percent of people responding to this survey who have no religion and pray every day?

They might eat with their family, who are religious, and go along with the prayer because they think the slight inconvenience isn't worth rocking the boat over.

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