Number of atheists and non-believers increases

Observations of a growing trend in atheists and non-believers in organized religion were presented by Professor Mark Silk of Trinity College from Hartford, Conn. in "New Secularism: Threat or Promise," Tuesday evening.

    Silk, who currently teaches Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, said people across the country, particularly in the Pacific Northwest and New England, are increasingly holding an atheist view. Silk also offered some reasons why an increasing number of people may share these views.

    USU Professor Philip Barlow, the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at USU, said "nones" means those who indicate no religious preference in surveys. For groups in a survey Silk discussed, the number of "nones" increased to 14 percent in 2010. Those who indicated Christian affiliation dropped 1 percent since 2009. Silk said while many focus on the growth of the Muslim population since 2001, a study of the multiple religious surveys in recent months shows an increase in those not subscribed to any denomination.

    "(Nones) constitute the fastest-growing group in America in religion," Barlow said. "We don't understand religion as well unless we can understand secularism."

    Silk said according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the "nones" are the third largest religious group in America after Catholics and Evangelicals. Additionally, one-third of "nones" consider themselves atheists and 23 percent do believe in God.

    "(Silk's presentation) intrigued me with how the culture has been trying to go less with ‘I am what my parents were,' towards, ‘I'm not what my parents were, or I'm undecided or nothing right now,'" said freshman Shawn Taylor, who considers himself a non-denominational Christian.

    Eli Brayley, who USU students may recognize as the Evangelical preacher who spends many school days speaking to students near the TSC patio, said he felt a lot of valuable information was learned at the presentation.

    "Certainly, the lecture was informative," said Brayley, who has been preaching on various campuses nationwide for five years. "I find it fascinating, the whole American political structure."

    Brayley said he had doubts concerning Silk's comments that many American politicians would openly say they are a "none" in order to maintain a God-fearing, spiritual persona in the public eye. On the other hand, Silk said it is not uncommon for European politicians to openly say they are atheist or do not ascribe to one particular denomination.

    Silk said according to the Pew research survey conducted 20 years ago, 27 percent of Republicans and Democrats are "nones." In 2008, 34 percent of "nones" identified themselves as Democrat and 13 percent as Republican. These and other factors feed into Silk's hypothesis that the nones have significantly "contributed to Democratic rise, and the election of Obama," he said.

    Brayley expounded on a portion of the presentation that explored how history and information have a lot to do with souring people's opinions toward organized religion.

    "It's reactionary," Brayley said. "I think there has always been a lot of bad religion, but with the free media and the Internet, the public are able to see a lot of bad religion, and thus it's less and less of something they want to inherit. With the freedom we have to obtain information, it can be so easy to disregard religion. If you don't think and meditate on it, you can quickly develop a rash decision about all religion being bad."

    Silk said secularism is a difficult thing to identify, but is something very apparent to those with spiritual convictions.

    "While we can't define secularism, we can know it when we see it," Silk said. "If the Constitution is divinely inspired, that would mean that God desired for secularism to exist here."

– rhett.willkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu