William Dinges, professor, religious studies, was quoted in an Aleteia story on a Pew survey on “nones.”
... William D. Dinges, who has been writing about Catholic disaffiliation for some time, is teaching a graduate seminar at the Catholic University of America this fall on nones and religious disaffiliates. He said in an interview that in the 1980s and 1990s, when the phenomenon of “nones” began to appear, they were predominantly what would be termed “spiritual but not religious.”
“They were in that kind of seeker modality,” said Dinges, Ordinary Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at CUA. “They weren’t conventionally religious but were kind of looking for something. And what I’ve noticed in the Pew data and other places, such as a recent study in Canada of religious trends, what we’re seeing is an increase in the number of people who see themselves as atheists, in other words, that this is not just a matter of ‘I don’t go to church but I still believe.’ We’re seeing a slow increase in the number of people who say that they simply question religious teaching or ‘I don’t believe that stuff anymore.’ Or another way this comes off is ‘I believe in science.'” ...
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