The number of religious ‘nones’ has soared, but not the number of atheists – and as social scientists, we wanted to know why

  The number of individuals in the United States who do not identify as being part of any religion has grown dramatically in recent years, and “the nones” are now larger than any single religious group. According to the General Social Survey, religiously unaffiliated people represented only about 5% of the U.S. population in the 1970s. This percentage began to increase in the 1990s and is around 30% today.

  At first glance, some might assume this means nearly 1 in 3 Americans are atheists, but that’s far from true. Indeed, only about 4% of U.S. adults identify as an atheist.

Charles C. Haynes: Religious freedom: not just for the religious

  Atheists, humanists and other nonreligious people face discrimination and persecution in many parts of the world, according to “Freedom of Thought 2012,” a report released this week by the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

  The survey is the first to highlight how people with no religious affiliation — sometimes dubbed “religious nones” by pollsters — are often treated as second-class citizens, outsiders or, in some societies, enemies of the state.