I thought 20-30% of American identified themselves as either “evangelical” or “born again.” How is that consistent with these numbers? Or is that 20-30% not the case anymore?

@Percival
It probably wasn’t clear, but the breakdown percentages wasn’t of all Americans, but only of the 11-12% who identify as irreligious.

This is the part that confuses me–
Here’s a basic breakdown of Americans: 11% are certain of God; 6% say they believe with some doubts; 2% sometimes believe in God; 36% in a higher power or cosmic source; 31% don’t believe in anything beyond the physical world; 14% have no opinion.
This is the basic breakdown of all Americans?!

Did you read my response? No. It’s a breakdown of the 11-12% of Americans who identify themselves a irreligious.

Could be the results of “I’m a Christian but not religious” thinking.

@Percival
See the website for a breakdown of all of America.

To me it is just another indication of the lack of accountability being embedded in people’s thoughts nowadays. Without a higher power, you don’t have to justify your actions. You are free to pursue whatever lifestyle you wish and act in whatever way you wish, with no need for guilt or an internal “don’t do that” button. I can assure you that when things get tough or dangerous, the so-called atheists or irreligious will be praying to someone.

Duh. This guy is grasping for straws and almost sounds desparate.
He somehow seems to equate “irreligious” with “atheist” and then seizes on a bizarre assumption that “irreligious” people believing in prayer or maybe walking into a church is joyous news. It just means that many people who aren’t part of any religious sect do or believe some of the things that religious people do. He seems to see this as a sign of hope or a relvelation. This is “wild”? Ho hum.

@Fred,
I’m not sure what you’re getting at. I think the point of this post is to examine and understand more clearly what the 11-12% of people who identify as irreligious means. Many people would assume that the number of people identifying as irreligious nearly doubling in the last decade or two would indicate that religious beliefs had decline significantly. What these statistics show is that’s not really the case — in fact atheism has not really increased at all…
I certainly found it surprising that 42% of irreligious still hold to a judeo-Christian understanding of Heaven, 50% in angels, and 33% in Satan.
There is no desperation in trying to understand a demographic (in this case, those who don’t want to identify with organized religion) better.

Rick Presley,
What church do you attend?