Non+Religion Research Brief

The provided text examines the growing faith crisis within the LDS Church, driven largely by the proliferation of historical documents and information on the internet that contradict the institution's official narrative. It highlights how grassroots surveys and high-profile departures, such as that of Area Authority Hans Mattsson, forced church leadership to confront widespread disillusionment...

Living Faith, by Susan Crawford Sullivan, examines the role of everyday, lived religion in the lives of low-income urban mothers navigating welfare, low-wage labor, housing struggles, and single parenting. Based on qualitative, in-depth interviews with low-income mothers recruited from social service programs and local pastors. Most of the mothers interviewed do not regularly attend institutional...

This study by Bruce Hunsberger re-evaluates previous theories regarding the antecedents of apostasy, specifically challenging the widely accepted notion that leaving one's faith is primarily a form of adolescent rebellion against parents. By comparing 51 apostates with 51 matched controls through detailed questionnaires and statistical analyses, the research investigates the actual psychologic...

John Seidler’s sociological study investigates the structural causes and consequences of resignation rates among American Catholic diocesan priests between 1966 and 1970 using a national survey of priest-informants. The research reveals that rather than being directly triggered by internal episcopal leadership styles, resignations were primarily facilitated by bureaucratic structures, regional dom...

This longitudinal study investigates religious deidentification among young adults by tracking religious doubt and engagement trajectories across adolescence. Analyzing data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, the researchers utilized latent class growth modeling to categorize participants into distinct developmental patterns regarding their beliefs and participation. The findings indic...

This study investigates whether the religious residue phenomenon—where formerly religious individuals display intermediate levels of belief compared to current believers and lifelong non-believers—applies to racial-ethnically diverse sexual minorities. Analyzing data from nearly three thousand participants, the researchers discovered that sexual minorities do not exhibit the typical stair-stepped...

This research paper investigates the link between rising secularization and the falling birth rates in Finland from 1995 to 2019. By analyzing administrative records of church tax payments , the authors demonstrate that religiously affiliated individuals maintain significantly higher fertility levels than their secular counterparts. A central finding is that homogeneously religious couples are the...

Research by Perl and Gray investigates how Catholic schooling impacts the likelihood of adults leaving the faith, a process known as disaffiliation. While previous studies on adult religious commitment yielded inconsistent results, this analysis of cradle Catholics suggests that attending Catholic high school for at least three years significantly lowers the risk of converting to other religions o...

This podcast explores how institutional secularization influences individual supernatural beliefs in the United States. Researchers found that while traditional church participation is declining, belief in magic and the paranormal often increases among individuals who identify as secular rationalists . This phenomenon suggests that a scientific worldview does not necessarily lead to disenchantment...

The review of the book by Strhan, Anna, and Rachael Shillitoe. 2025. Growing Up Godless: Non-Religious Childhoods in Contemporary England. Princeton University Press. The number of those identifying as “non-religious” has risen rapidly in Britain and many other parts of Europe and North America. Although non-religion and non-belief are especially prevalent among younger people, we know little abou...

This research article by Zuckerman and Myers investigates the prosocial motivations and behaviors of deeply secular individuals living in Estonia , one of the world's least religious nations. By interviewing participants who were raised without faith in an atheistic culture, the authors challenge widespread stereotypes that suggest godlessness is linked to a lack of morality. The study reveals tha...

In his book Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species, psychologist Will M. Gervais explores the evolutionary and cognitive foundations of human spirituality and nonbelief. The author draws on his professional background in cultural psychology to challenge the "New Atheist" narrative that religion is merely a product of irrationality. Instead, the text argues that faith is...

This research explores how non-religion is institutionalised within a South Welsh primary school, a region notable for its high concentration of individuals identifying as "religious nones." Using the conceptual lens of the infrasecular, the authors illustrate how secularized Christian residues persist in school rituals and assemblies even as explicit religious instruction and worship ha...

This study introduces a dual-path effect hypothesis to explain how different aspects of religion interact with wealth to influence a person’s subjective well-being. Using decades of global data, the researchers distinguish between religious faith, which offers internal meaning, and religious practice, which provides external social advantages. The findings reveal that while both boost happiness, t...

This podcast episode, based on Lucy Elizabeth Potter's 2026 article "Conceptualising Identity Transformations of the Apostate Refugee through Un/Learning," explores the non-linear, deeply precarious journeys of ex-Muslim asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. Breaking away from traditional, linear deconversion models, the discussion introduces the "un/learning" framework, which illustrates how leav...

This podcast episode, based on Timo Duile and Prince Kennex Aldama's 2024 article "Seeing Through the Lens of Atheism: Plural Societies, Religion, and Harmony Ideology in Southeast Asia," examines how maritime Southeast Asian nations utilize "the religious" as a vital benchmark for national identity and social cohesion. The discussion explores how atheism—as the explicit negation of belief—reveals...

This academic research article investigates how individuals in Flanders, Belgium, manage their social relationships during the process of changing or leaving their religious faith. By analyzing interviews with 43 participants from Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and secular backgrounds, the authors explore how (de)converts use strategic communication to anticipate or mitigate negative reactions from fa...

This academic article explores why Anglo-Canadian Millennials are increasingly distancing themselves from organized faith in favor of being "spiritual but not religious." The authors argue that the concept of religion has undergone symbolic pollution, becoming a "branded" term associated with negative traits rather than sacred values. Through extensive interviews and ethnograph...

This study investigates how race and religion intersect to influence American attitudes toward life extension technologies. While traditional research suggests that religiosity typically reduces interest in medical life extension, these authors find that the relationship varies significantly by racial identity. For White Americans, high religiosity correlates with a decreased desire for longer lif...

The provided text explores Maria Vliek’s research on the gendered experiences of women who have distanced themselves from Islam in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Based on twenty-two life-history interviews, the study examines how personal encounters with inequality and patriarchal structures during childhood often spark religious doubt. These women navigate a complex social landscape, fre...

This podcast episode, based on Panagiotis Pentaris and colleagues' 2025 scoping review "Religious Disaffiliation and Sexually Minoritised Groups," explores the intricate and often non-linear journey of LGBTQIA+ individuals as they navigate the tensions between their faith and their sexual or gender identities. Drawing from an analysis of 29 peer-reviewed studies, the discussion highlights how nega...

This podcast episode, based on Elizabeth E. McElroy, S. Abby Young, and Cyrus Schleifer’s 2025 article "The Stalled Revolution versus Secularization," investigates the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between gender attitudes and religiosity in the United States. Utilizing longitudinal data from two national panel datasets, the discussion explores how an individual's support for gender egalitar...

This research explores how Latter-day Saint religious doctrines inadvertently foster gender inequality within Utah’s modern technology sector, known as Silicon Slopes. Through extensive interviews and ethnography, the author demonstrates that the LDS Proclamation on the Family creates a cultural logic that prioritizes motherhood over careers for women, leading to economic precarity and professiona...

Lois Lee’s research explores the complex identities of non-theists in Britain, moving beyond highly visible, organized groups like "New Atheists." She argues that many individuals possess ambivalent non-religious identities, often choosing generic labels like "not religious" to express indifference or non-partisanship rather than active atheism. These self-representations are multifaceted, as they...

The provided academic text examines how white American evangelical "purity culture" negatively impacts the marital and sexual health of Christian women. By analyzing a large survey, researchers found that internalizing sexually restrictive and coercive tropes—such as the idea that men have uncontrollable sexual needs—is strongly linked to higher rates of sexual pain disorders like vaginismus. The...