"Not religious at all" is poised to overtake "moderately religious" as plurality self-ID response

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The General Social Survey has been running since 1972 asking questions on topics with broadly similar question wording.

Details on trends are here

https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/trends

Thanks, Andrew.

Ferguson, in the future please try to link to sources other than contextless tweets or images when starting discussions about anything technical or statistical on boards I moderate.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is a victory for rationalism and a downturn for medieval superstition.

Americans nowadays can see the fallacy of organized religion and the ways it has been incorporated into the nastiest people in society. This has been a long going problem throughout the centuries. The Catholic Church through years of child abuse hiding from the clergy. The Evangelical churches which have propelled reactionary movements in the country history. The Ku Klux Khan which took much of Christianity into their practices. Islam for murdering countless women over the years for daring to speak out against their misogyny.  Scientology which has silenced those behind closed doors for exposing their fraud. Donald Trump for instigating the religion right on the Supreme Court and across the country.

In a age of technological advancement why should people turn to backwards freaks when they can be served better through the means of science. Nobody needs to be brainwashed by the Bible, why should they self identified with organized religion.

Knock it off or develop your arguments more.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I do somewhat question polling questions that showed mostly stable results followed by one sudden spike (without an obvious precipitating event).  I have no doubt that the general trend has been in this direction, but the sudden spike in the last couple years doesn't feel accurate at all.

The pandemic did do a number on religious practice; perhaps that affected self-identification as well?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I do somewhat question polling questions that showed mostly stable results followed by one sudden spike (without an obvious precipitating event).  I have no doubt that the general trend has been in this direction, but the sudden spike in the last couple years doesn't feel accurate at all.

The pandemic did do a number on religious practice; perhaps that affected self-identification as well?

I don't think religion numbers were particularly down in immediate post-pandemic polling, though. Although it's difficult to say for sure, my best guess would be a Dobbs effect.

Look at the dates on the chart again. The most recent numbers are from 2021. If they were from 2022 then immediate-term Dobbs backlash would be an even stronger explanation, yeah.