A new poll is out athttp://religions.pewforum.org/reports It includes this tidbit:

"...young adults ages 18-29 are much more likely thanthose age 70 and older to say that they are not affiliated with any particular religion (25% vs.8%)."

That's quite a difference. A bit more than 3-to-1.

I'm not saying that those are all atheists. Thatgroup that calls themselves "unaffiliated" - the group which is growing rapidly among young people - includes those who call themselves: atheists,agnostics, "nothing in particular", "secular unaffiliated" and "religious unaffiliated".

One question: I think that I know what atheists, agnostics and "religious unaffiliated" means. I can maybe even figure out what "nothing in particular" means. But I'm completely stumped by "secular unaffiliated".

What is that?

There's also our old friend: "refused to answer"which is not included in that 25% number so I won't go near it.

While those people are not all atheists, it cannot be good news for organized religious groups to see that so many young people no longer feel that theyhave any need to be affiliated with any of them.

Of course, I personally feel that is WONDERFUL news. As I've said many times, in my view organized religion has done much more harm than good throughout human history. The fact that this poll indicatesthat the influence of organized religion is declining makes me smile broadly.

See: : -))))))))))))))))