spotify and others. ray suarez is coming up next with "inside story." have a great holiday weekend. >> there's been a large and rapid run in the number of americans who say that they aren't affiliated with any religious community and don't believe what religions teach. the united states has a higher percentage of people who say that they believe in god than other wealthy industrial nations, but moving in the direction of other countries. will those trends give religions less clout in the future. will america have a different

result? it's "inside story". welcome to "inside story". i'm ray suarez. we have known for a long time that americans are less religiously affiliating with each passing year. the percentage of people when asked to name their religion who say none will be as large or larger than major religious groupings in this country. when senator ted cruz, a candidate for president in this country said any president who doesn't begin every day on his knees isn't fit to be commander in chief of this country. i wonder if that means that the president must pray, must be a god believer will make sense to 20-year-old voters and 30-year-old voters n. a country

as religiously diverse as this one. the report on the pugh center's latest study on religion in america. ♪ >> the religious layup study suggests that overall, americans are becoming modestly less religious. so we're seeing changes, for example n. people who say that they believe in god or attend religious services regularly or pray regularly. >> reporter: 63% say that they're absolutely certain that god exists, whereas 71%. divide. >> with the older generation, we see a lot of stability when it comes to measures of religioniosity. but the younger generations are much less by

comparison. the most interesting change is the number of people, including atheists, agnostics, or even those who believe in god who say that they're unaffiliated. >> the religiously unfill nateed, we refer to them as the non-s, they have no particular religion, and they tell us that they're either atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. and this group has grown quite a bit in the u.s. >> reporter: the change shows up in politics as well. 28% of democrats say they're part of the non-s, and in 2013, 82% of the people in the republican party who say they're christian, down a modest 5%. 5 -- 8%.

>> it shows that there's decline in religioniosity as a whole in the u.s. the largest number of americans tell us that they're affiliated with religion, and those affiliated, the religioniosty is very stable over this time period. a nation of believers that's very religious comparatively speaking. >> losing my religion, this time on the program, joining me now, greg smith, the associate director of research at the pugh center, which in its most recent findings found unaffiliated americans becoming each more secular. what does that mean? >> well, it means that you're seeing big changes taking place in the religious layup. growing number of people who say that they have no faith and don't agree with any group, and

not only are they growing, but less religious as they grow. and they're less likely than before to believe in god. and less had likely to say that religion plays an important role in their lives and less likely to say that they pray. as it grows, it's tugging down on the nation's overall rates of religious observance, and that's why we're seeing modest declines in the share of americans who are highly religious. >> so if we had talks to these non-s in years past, when a greater perjury of them didn't report being as secular as they are, how would they have gun different? would they be adults who teamed religious services and don't now, families who were religious, and they aren't now? help me understand that. >> i think all of the above.

the nones are come from a religious background. there's something to keep in mind when we talk about the religiously affiliated nones, they are not all religious believers. some of them say that they believe in god and some of them say that religion is an important part of their lives. but the share who say that they don't believe in god is growing, and the share who say that they don't believe in god is growing, so the nones are even more uniformly secular. >> as i watch my own kids grow up, i notice that more of my children's friends come from houses where not only were they not raised in religion, but often one of or both of their parents weren't. and does that point to a future where you get more critical mass, where those people marry each other, and there's not

even the memory of religious observance in a household? >> it's possible, but we have to be careful with we look to the future. there are so many things that determine the future. differential fertility, immigration patterns, and religious switching. it's extraordinarily common in the united states. i mentioned that most nones were raised in a religious take. you have many people who are raised with no religion who wind up identifying with a religion adults, so these trends work together in multiple direction at the same time. >> but when you see, and it's just a seven--year span, an 8% drop in the number who believe in god for instance, it's not hard to see that eventually, you'll get to new americans and that would be new territory for us. >> i would urge a little bit of caution, and we can't look at

the trends in recent years and project the them out to the future. we have done research at the pugh research center, where our demographers have looked at religion all home run around the world and looked at fertility and the gender of the religious groups, and what that projects for the united states is the growth of the nones is likely to continue through the coming decades, ought to 2050, but not at the same rate. perhaps leveling off. those are not predictions, they can change, but that's what the research shows us at this time. >> greg smith is the associate professor of research at the pugh research center. even for religious people, identity play a role in the culture, setting the parameters

for debates and legal battles, and setting the country's thermostat. will it always be that way? or have the friends of secularization gone so far that the faith will be one way of competing what is seen ahead, head and shoulders above other influences. losing my religion?

>> you're watching "inside story," i'm ray suarez. we're looking at the growing number of religiously unaffiliated americans, and asking what it means for the future. the so-called new atheists,

like sam harris, richard dawkins, christopher hitchens, and if you want to laugh, bill maher. a much wider voice than their ancestors, o'hare and ingersol. in a country with more than 50 million religiously unaffiliated people, only a relative handful of the 535 members of congress, and no president or presidential candidate would say straightforwardly, i doubt there's a god who created the world and interferevenes in houma fairs. joining me now, the executive religion editor at the huffington post, and the west end pastor of the collegiate church in new york, and a professor of philosophically at boyd state university. professor, is the way that we talk about the unaffiliated so-called nones, even caught one how unexceptional they are?

>> they're very ordinary folks. we have them as friends, neighbors and colleagues, perhaps not yet as representatives in congress as you mentioned earlier, but they're there, and they're measured by the expert polling that pugh undertakes, and they're growing, and it looks like these trends, which have been going on for about 20 years, are going to continue in the direction of less and less religioniosty into the future. >> you wouldn't know it, professor, in looking at the recent republican prim ear debates, would you? >> well, politics involves a lot of talk about god. but there are less and less signs that people, even meaning the same thing by god, or as the pugh report suggests, that people consult the bible about guidance on moral matters, and in fact, the pugh report shows that the younger an american

is, the less likely it is that they will rely on their domination or their bible to give them answers. >> well, it's still happening, so i don't want to ask why it's happening. the earth is shifting under our feet as we speak, but how do people leave aside centuries of familytrition, and leave aside what they learned growing up, and why is it so easy to shed that? like changing your clothes? >> well, i think that we're in a moment where people are looking around and exposed to many different ways of seeing the world. and i think that sign tisk advance wants are important in that. it's people, and recognizing that my tradition is not everybody's tradition, and maybe i need to question my tradition. i wouldn't say that we're in a moment politically, because we have a major candidate who says that he does not believe.

and that's bernie sanders. and he probably perhaps has been a problem for his campaign ultimately, but we have representative who say that they don't believe. what i find very interesting, you have secular humannists who are organizing societies, and they're gathering in much of a way that religious communities gather. and in some ways mirroring that. >> reverend, if we went into a reformed church in america 100 years ago, first of all, we wouldn't have found a woman pastor, but that aside, the people sitting in the pews would have had parents who were reformed and neighbors who were reformed but i'm guessing that the people who come through your front door today in the 21st century in upside

manhattan, come for a variety of reasons, is that fair? >> that is certainly fair, and i think that that's also fair to say of my own faith. i did not grow up in the reformed church in america, and commuted to this domination. so i'm part of the trend that we're noticing here. in ouring congregation, we're looking at nones and believers meeting together to express a faith that's curious, and intellectual, and expansive for those who doubt in belief. >> you're a young person, and do you feel confident that as we talk here today, in 20 years, in 50 years, that there's going to be a place for a congregation like yours, that there will be enough people to keep the lights on and the heat bill paid? >> that's a great question. i think that i'm noticing an anxiety among my colleagues and

clergy, but that's unfortunate. this is a time of creativity. i think of the christian scripture in isaiah, behold, i'm doing a new thing, and if we follow that, and allow for the spirit to guide us, to not fear, but we can involve ourself in creative endeavors, and getting into our faith in brand-new ways, i think that we'll see faith differently. >> well, i want you to all stay right where you are. stay with us, i'm curious, is increasing secularization a trend that only goes in one direction? or one that can ebb and flow overtime as we heard suggested. for the rest of the century, are we looking at an america that will only become less religious overtime, and will the immigrants and their children bring a religious vitality to the mix? or over time, will they become more like their secular american-born neighbors?

losing my religion, it's the "inside story".

>> welcome back to "inside story". i'm ray suarez. we're looking at the fast-moving trend of increasing secularization in america, especially among the young. america still has higher levels of professed god belief than other western democracies. but the gap is narrowing. in 50 years, will the u.s. be like other european countries, even with established religions. with religion to be a tiny share of the public. where churches are kept for their historical and artistic value, but not much else. right now, paul, i think that we do make a mistake if we talk about this as only moving in one direction, but the last 20

direction. could there be ebs and flows in the coming century? >> i think that it's interesting to think in he retrospect of the awakenings. the fear that everyone was losing their religion as they were saying, and becoming heathens, whatever, and them all of a sudden, there was a great blossoming of faith. i'm not sure that we're going to have that, and i'm not sure that we're not going to have that. i'm not sure what's going to happen. but what we're concerned about, we don't understand each other. the folks are becoming much more hardened in their understanding of atheism. as well as religious being folks are becoming actually more religious. i want to make sure that there are ways for us to talk society. >> professor, that's something that we have to get the in that

knack of if we're going to be a mix of religions growing in number, but people with no religion, and everyone wants a moral base from which to talk to other people. >> i think that's right. and i agree with the other panelists, and we can see this by looking at younger americans leading the way. millennials are already 80 million among us, more than the baby boomers, and they're demanding values. studies show that they're leaving conservative religions and liberal religions over ethics, and questions of civic value. and big questions. so the millennials are leaving the church not because they're abandoning values, but quite opposite. their values are leading the way, and i think that an interest in spirituality and a sense of wonder is part of that. we're entering a new complicated territory for america, and i think that we

need to listen to young people to find out the values that they're prioritizing, and to think about how organizations for them, either religious or secular, are going to be exemplifying those values, because they will walk away if they're not hearing what they need to hear. >> pastor, could there be a silver lining here, that not only churches but other religious bodies will have to make a more coherent or better argument to the world, to the country, to be affiliated? that just assuming that people are going to come back because their parents did and their grandparents did isn't going to work anymore. game. >> i think that's why this is an exciting time to be a minister. i myself am an older millennial. and i'm in conversation with our jewish and muslim friends and people of no faith.

and there's a religious fluidity that i find in my colleagues, people who care about tradition, but care about compassionate connection across the expect trum, an spectrum, and i think that that's what we'll engage in in the next years. >> i wonder if that weakens your argument for orthodoxy. not you personally, but the church and religious bodies are so worried about people coming at all, that commanding orthodoxy is way, way down on the list of to dos. >> well, i would actually say that it's part of orthodoxy, as a christian minister, i'm called to love god and love my neighbor as myself. and i said this in a lot of interfaith forums that i've been part of, i'm obligated to

be in a relationship with my interfaith neighbors that deepens my own faith in christianity while expanding faith experiences. >> professor, even as the number of nones increases, will religious teaching still have a tremendous influence in the kind of place we are, the kinds of things that we talk about, and even the way this we mark the year? >> well, no doubt, america's culture is quite religious, but it's also becoming very pluralistic. i think in time, we'll have to stop did i could themizing religious sector atheists. this panel today is talking about how people are searching for their own meaning that makes ethical sense to them and gives them organization that's they can believe in and put their trust in. these things aren't going to go away, so what we need to do is try to make sure that america is giving especially younger

people opportunities to put their values into practice. those that won't are going to be judged and they're being judged right now. >> so even though andy williams is still belting out oh, holy night at the mall, it's dewally. thank you. the reverend jess in new york, blown, and editor of huffington post and minister in the american baptist church. i'll be back with a final thought on religion in america, and america less religious. it's our "inside story." and send us your thoughts on twitter, or follow me and get in touch at ray suarez news. or visit your facebook page and tell us about your own lives, and america as a less religious

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>> i don't know if it's a particularly american trait, but which sure love to misinterpret our history, to understand today and the past. and americans aren't always getting less religious, obama, and less affiliated. in the first half of the 19th century, americans were much less church affiliated, less religious, and less obama than we would later become, and today i can't help but think that we aren't a great deal less religious than in previous decades. all we have done is release the be social sanction, and the judge. that was attached to being religious. the pressure of sitting together in your church as a family is not there in many communities in america.

no one is taking attendance, and not being affiliated won't block your rise in business, your ability to make contacts, or your participation in the civic scene. as an active boomer, i welcome that change. it's time when religious bodies can finally tell who their real friends are. instead of having their headcounts swelled by the reluctant, rainy the validity of the cause. we in churches and mosques and synagogues will have to work harder convince others in the value of what we believe. and if we can't do that, we'll have to shut or doors. i'm ray suarez. and that's the "inside story".

the least to five people have been killed i in in a firea hospital in saudi arabia. ♪ you are watching al jazeera live from dough has, come up in the next half hour, afghan reinforcements arrive at britain announces it is sending troops to support them. fierce fighting against the taliban. russiaishs an international arrest warrant for creme lick critic. and the resistence tree. overshadowing beth a