New Study: Why Americans Leave Religion and What It Means | Goodbye Religion by R. Cragun & J. Smith

The new book “Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization” by Ryan Cragun and Jesse Smith, explores why Americans continue to leave religion and how this shift affects society. It examines the significant differences between religious and nonreligious Americans, highlighting how their lives and values change when they abandon religion.

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Author's Bio:
Ryan T. Cragun is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tampa, where he was worked since 2007. He earned his PhD from the University of Cincinnati in 2007 and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in 2000. He has published extensively in the sociology of religion and life stances, with peer-reviewed articles in a variety of academic journals, including: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion, Social Compass, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Social Currents, Nova Religio, Secularism and Nonreligion, Secular Studies, Journal of Sex Research, and Social Science and Medicine. He is also the author, co-author, or editor of a number of books, including: Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society (NYU Press 2023), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), Secularity and Nonreligion in North America (Bloomsbury Academic 2024), and Organized Secularism in the US (De Gruyter 2017).
Dr. Cragun is the co-founder and an original co-editor of Secularism and Nonreligion, the first scholarly, peer-reviewed, international journal focused on the study of aspects of social life that are nonreligious.

Jesse M. Smith is Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University. His research and teaching are centered on religion and secularity, social deviance, self and identity, and qualitative methods. Primarily a qualitative researcher and ethnographer, much of his work employs a social psychological lens, and focuses on the nature of collective behavior, identity, and worldview formation.

He has published original research articles and other works in a variety of journals including the Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Journal of Religion and Health, and Qualitative Sociology. He is also co-editor of the book Secularity and Nonreligion in North America (Bloomsbury). He has presented his research at national and international conferences and is active in advising and mentoring graduate students in the sociology program at Western.
He is past editor of the journal Secularism and Nonreligion and serves on many committees and councils at the university and in his professional field.

[Mr.PeabodyTheSkeptic]

I've been the guardian to my elder disabled mother and special needs brother over 15 years. I also run a dog rescue. 54 y.o. Atheist 40 years.

[billybobwombat]

Australia did this 30 years ago, not that we were ever as batshit crazy about religion as the US, you guy's got the puritans, thank christ we got the convicts 😂

[trishakoury-stoops]

If religion goes away… we will have a better future better world and better people!

[Dabordi]

To be honest I don't think there's much of a puzzle in regard to what a much more secular America looks like - setting aside that America is already a lot more secular than the numbers indicate, since many religious Americans have VERY watered down religious beliefs, as you yourself note repeatedly... but we already have a bunch of "most people identify as secular" countries to look at and compare. They often have a more left-wing-leaning population and a stronger social safety net, somewhat better average life spans and such due to that, but no real massive shocking changes. A lot of particularly ugly policies that harm people in first-world countries tend to come more from people with religious backgrounds, but aside from just being a bit more likely to do mass-harming stuff like reduced reproductive rights or LGBT rights, most stuff is pretty similar. Unless somebody wants to claim that Finland or Switzerland are utopias, you can't say that a more secular America will be *that* different. Better, sure, but better in a very mundane way that's just one factor amongst many that contrasts various first world countries.

I feel like this is an issue with a lot of non-religious social movements as well. Whether decriminalizing hard drugs, universal healthcare, rehabilitation-focused prisons, etc - we don't need to guess, really. There's often already at least a small country or three that has tried this and can clearly show the results. It's always sad to see incredibly myopic people act like the results of some of these policies or social shifts are slippery wild guesses.

[pzuckerm]

So solid! So accessible, interesting, informative, and engaging!

[PlumpClump]

Excellent essays! I love your content!

[LuisAldamiz]

Because it's a blatant lie? The real question is why it took them so long?

[EarnestApostate]

I enjoyed this video and may have to pick up this book.

[PlumpClump]

Gen Z women leave religion in greater numbers then men. Men of that generation seem to be more religious. Bill Mahr mentioned that last week in his show, I think. Good for Gen Z women!

[benakencupad]

Thank you for this elaborate review. Very informative.
We are stories; stories guide our existential choices, we will always need stories to share and tell. If a story, ancient or modern, after reflection scares you or harms you, let it go. But we can't live without stories to share and tell. Don't forget to keep listening to stories; that's how you will continue living instead of isolate and despair or turn to hate. Existence is well before religion x secularism. May 'stories' bind us from the divides forstered by our honest struggle to make sense of and have meaningful lives here and now. 🎉

[karenabrams]

Have you experienced a Christian-free workplace? It really is utopia!

[albionicamerican]

I'm an atheist, but i believe in the rapture: I can see that Christians are starting to disappear.

[battlerushiromiya]

24:49 I think a lot of this is particular to the west and certain other societies, with a degree of modernization.

The primary thing seems to be that religious organizations dont seem to know what exactly youngsters want out of their lives, have not bothered much and are hence unable to retain those who are born. This kind of research will be useful in the future to religious organizations in tailoring their strategies.

[bobwatson]

I'll note that, in my view at least, the number one reason for people leaving American-style Christianity is the way that many Evangelicals have embraced positions that are radically non-Christian in any moral or traditional sense.

[leoinsf]

Maybe this movement to secularization will start Christians helping their neighbors in soup kitchens and charity food banks.
All this focus on "self", the focus on outmoded liturgies, the focus on avoiding sin will cease and people will realize that we were put on Earth
to help others and not to save our souls with a focus on sin.
I was an elementary teacher for 36 years. I helped a lot of children grow and mature!
This is what I was put on Earth to do. Meanwhile I haven't darkened the door of a church for ten years!
God is our Father and we don't need to earn His love.

[Mr.PeabodyTheSkeptic]

Just because people might not live a religious life daily, like secularists, doesn't mean they don't vote based on religion. Religious nationalism is demonstrably harmful, intrusive, and influential movement in the USA.
I'll read the book. But guaranteed, if it is as you described, I will have plenty of disagreement with the authors.
Thanks

[skylinefever]

I make a similar point on religion or non religion.
Masses of people state their religion makes freedom. Other argue atheism creates freedom. I argue that some people have a totalitarian personality and have a religious or non religious excuse for going totalitarian.
I argue some people just suck, an Godpill is going to make a difference.

I was stuck with the Southern Baptists Convention and given a bunch of hellfire and brimstone sermons. I was made paranoid by it. However, I could not "Believe" no matter what I tried to do.

I said that as far as I see, that organization is about using hellfire and brimstone sermons on children, until they are borderline paranoid schizophrenic. Then they get loyal butts in pews. There must be some unoffocaial code that anything that "Converts" is morally good at any cost.

Pascal can take his wager and cram it.

I love when someone shows that it isn't a bunch of edgelord teens or redditors with reddit takes leaving religion.

I heard the godless communist argument when I was young. As time went on, I called the argument "The false dichotomy of following Jesus or Marx." I find it kind of interesting that Ayn Rand was atheist, yet Atlas Shrugged was highly popular with people who hate communism with a passion. What I don't get is why feelings against the USSR didn't translate into feelings against Red China.

I often discussed how many people even have genetic proclivities and personality traits to "get" religion. I often suggested that at certain times, people faked believing it for social stability.

There may be certain upsides to religion, if and only if, one can actually get it. I made fun of that crowd by saying weebs and otakus should go shinto.

I had a different take about people having less family values and people having less children. I argued that what happens is people who never wanted famlies and children in the first place will simply go extinct. Nobody bothers to ask how many people marry spouses they don't want, all to make kids they hate, in the name of Jeeeesus. I just ask what the point of propping up the birth rate of the sick, stupid, and criminal?

[stefanolacchin]

Hopefully we're outgrowing these fairy tales. It will never be soon enough.

[toddmanes]

It took you 6:11 to finally say "let's begin". That's about 6 minutes of completely wasted video. No one needs or pays attention to long preambles. Just get to the content!

[toadster_strudel]

There is a higher percentage of people attending church today (32%) than in the 1780's (around 15%). This is not a surprising phenomenon and it has more to do with culture than anything else. Even up until the 2000s, church attendance was still relatively high (70%). I remember what our culture was like back then. We were far less pessimistic, much less divisive than we are now. Today, people have less friends than ever before, and people are less engaged in their communities than ever before. Rates of suicide and depression are about 30% higher than in the 2000's. Our culture is in decline. People have turned away from each other and towards themselves. Money is consistently the number one concern of voters in America. This has nothing to do with religion itself. It has more to do with obsession over material things, the absence of meaning/purpose, and quick access to mind-numbing distractions (porn, internet, Netflix).