I Want Everybody to Have the Same Chance to Find Happiness

This chapter deals with political and civic engagement, once more comparing the actively religious, marginally religious, and unaffiliated. In terms of political engagement, the focus is on the many ways individuals are or are not politically active, including who they vote for. Discussion is similarly given to volunteering and charitable giving habits, such as if people volunteer or donate money (or not), how frequently and where they volunteer or give, and motivations for volunteering and giving. The chapter concludes with some possible social and civic implications on the horizon for those in the United States and Canada, should religious nones continue to hold a sizeable proportion of the population.

Nones of All Shapes and Sizes

This chapter explores the internal diversity among religious nones when it comes to their beliefs, their meaning systems, and their religious or spiritual behaviors. This includes five subtypes of religious nones: involved seculars, inactive nonbelievers, inactive believers, spiritual but not religious, and involved believers. This chapter unpacks the size of these subgroups among religious nones in the United States and Canada, including how the sizes of these groups have changed over time. It also focuses on the composition of these subtypes based on age groups and regions. Ongoing space is devoted to what these subtypes look like when interviewees describe their own experiences.

Introduction

This introduction charts out the rising rates of religious nones in the United States and Canada, including in several subregions within each nation. Attention is given to the reasons religious nones have grown, as well as to the demographic composition among current religious nones. This chapter then frames the entire project against the backdrop of three theoretical frameworks used in the sociology of religion and religious studies: stages of decline, individualization and spiritualization, and polarization. The chapter concludes with an overview of the remaining sections in the book.

We Are Just as Moral … If Not More!

This material examines the different ways that the affiliated and unaffiliated talk about, define, and measure morality. Analysis and discussion centers on the ways that the actively religious, marginally religious, and the five subtypes of religious nones view a wide range of social and political issues, including abortion, same-sex marriage, women in the workforce, environmental laws and spending, government aid to the disadvantaged, and immigration. This chapter builds on the regional analysis throughout the book, demonstrating where and why some pockets of the population—affiliated and unaffiliated—seem to be more liberal or conservative on different social and political issues.

It’s Too Bad Your Parents Aren’t Christian …

This portion of the book considers the level of dislike, apprehension, indifference, or respect among religious nones toward individuals affiliated with various religious traditions and actively practicing their faith. It also considers attitudes and perceptions among affiliates from different religious groups toward the nonreligious. Along the way this chapter gives attention to how perceptions toward the “other” are affected by region, where there are higher or lower proportions of different religious groups (or religious nones) present. Last, it wades into religious diversity waters insofar as Canada and the United States are navigating the role and place of religious nones in social and institutional spaces currently characterized by important levels of pluralism.

I’m Done … and I’m Not Going Back!

This chapter investigates the biographic pathways that lead people to say they have no religion. It shows that religious nones have historically grown among those raised within a religious tradition who for various reasons outlined in this chapter decided to disaffiliate. As these religious nones have children, there are growing signs that irreligious socialization helps to explain the rise of religious nones in the United States and Canada especially. This chapter also deals with the influence of growing up and living in more secular social environments, before exploring the demographic factors affecting the size of the religious none population moving forward.

Conclusion

This chapter concentrates on four concluding questions, tying together common themes and projections to arise from the book. First, how does the religious none phenomenon, and all that comes with it as described in this book, intersect with broad social realities in late modern society? Second, in what ways are religious nones similar or dissimilar in the United States and Canada? Third, what might the future hold for religious nones? Might religious nones grow, decline, or plateau, and depending on the answer, what impact might such a trajectory have in society? Fourth, what opportunities arise for further research in this field?