US survey – American with "no religion", also Catholics and the like were in the majority

Recently the CNN.co.jp reported the following:

「無宗教」の米国人、カトリック教徒などと並んで最多に　米調査

2019.04.14 Sun posted at 15:34 JST

  （ＣＮＮ） 米国人の宗教観に関する調査で「無宗教」との回答がカトリック教徒やキリスト教福音主義派を上回って２３．１％を占め、初めて首位に立ったことが１４日までにわかった。

イースタン・イリノイ大学の政治学者でキリスト教バプテスト派の牧師でもあるライアン・バージ氏が、長年実施されている総合的な社会状況調査を新たに分析した結果となっている。調査の参加者は２０００人超で、個別での面談にそれぞれ応じていた。

同氏によると、カトリック教徒は２３．０％、福音主義派は２２．５％だった。ただ、これら３グループの数値は回答率の誤差の範囲内にあり、統計学的には同一の数字と見なしている。

同調査では４４年間にわたって信奉する宗教に関する同じ質問をしているが、今回のような数字の並びは初めてとした。

無宗教の層の激増は１９９０年代初期から始まった。９１年以降では２６６％も伸びたという。今後４〜６年間は明白な最大勢力になるだろうとも推測した。

無宗教と答えた層はさまざまなグループから成り、無神論者、不可知論者、心霊主義者や特定の組織的な宗教にはくみしないとする人々などが含まれる。

無宗教の層の増加の背景要因については専門家の間でさまざまな見方が出ている。無神論者の団体責任者はインターネットの存在が要因とも分析。ネットは無信仰者が同様の思いを抱く者を見出せる場所を提供していると指摘した。

１９８０年代以降生まれのミレニアル世代に独自な傾向との意見もある。この世代は、事実確認に貪欲（どんよく）で世界について好奇心を抱くとも分析している。

Translation

(CNN) In a survey on Americans' view on religion, those answered “with no religion" exceeded Catholics and Christian evangelicals to stand at 23.1% to become the majority for the first time, it was made clear on the 14th.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist of Eastern Illinois University and also a Christian Baptist Pastor, had the result of a new analysis of a long-standing, comprehensive survey on social conditions. There were more than 2,000 participants in the survey who responded individually to interviews.

According to him, 23.0% were Catholics and 22.5% were evangelicals. However, the figures in these three groups were within the error of response rate and were statistically regarded as the same figure.

The survey asked the same questions for 44 years about religions that one believed in, but this was the first time that the numbers were in such a sequence.

The proliferation of the non-religious layer began in the early 1990s. It increased  by 266 percent since 1991. He also speculated that in the next four to six years, it would be an obvious majority force.

The non-religious layer was composed of various groups, including atheists, agnostic, psychics, and those who did not want to be part of a specific organized religion.

There were various views among experts on the background factors of an increase in the non-religious layer. Atheist group leaders also analyzed the existence of the Internet was a factor and pointed out that the Net provided non-believers a place where they could find people with similar feelings.

There were also opinions on the unique tendencies of millennials born since the 1980s. This generation was also eager in analyzing the facts and had a curiosity about the world.

               I am always interested in knowing the role of religion in different societies in different historical period. Religion is a key component of the culture of a nation or a society. The development of a religion in a society could tell us a lot about a society’s situation socially, politically and economically. In the scholarly world, more than 100 years ago, as least two scholars have looked into the religion of a society in order to find out an answer for their research questions. The first scholar is Emile Durkheim. His research is contained in a book entitled “Suicide: a Study in Sociology”; it was translated by John A. Spaulding and George Simpson; edited with an introduction by George Simpson; printed in 1952 in London: Routledge. The other book is by Max Weber entitled “The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism”; it was translated by Talcott Parsons, with an introduction by Anthony Giddens and published in New York: Charles Scribbner's Sons in 1976.