Question

Prompt: According to Stephen Waldman, what are"Nones"? What do they believe? How do they characterize a growing trend in belief in the United States? Why do you think a majority of these individuals are coming from traditional religious backgrounds?

Answer 1

According to Stephen Waldman, "Nones" are a group of individual in the society who have no religious affiliation or alliance to any faith, sect, religion, etc. As they believe in "none" of the religions or faith, they are termed as nones by Stephen Waldman.

These nones believe in Deism. Deism is a 18th century popular philosophy where they believe in the existence of god but it is not based on supernatural revelation but on reason and nature to establish the religious knowledge by the individual.

The trend of Deism followers is growing and according to the survey conducted by American Religious Identification Survey in 2001, the Deism followers rose from 6000 to 49,000 between 1990-2000 and the number currently is still growing. The growing trend of belief can be characterized by Deism leading to a concept called humanism. This humanism is based on moral deed and values with the faith and locus of identity on the human moral capability which causes the rise of a growing trend in belief in the United States.

As we know that the Athiest make up for a very low number of individuals in the population and the Deists do indeed believe in the concept of god at a certain level, we can safely say that the majority of these individuals are coming from traditional religious backgrounds. The migration from other religion to deism and not straight to atheism does indicate a strong belief system in supernatural existence of god. But the focus is not on the creator completely but the reason with nature and the humanity and moral values and deed in focus of the Deists group. So with the focus on reason, respect and concern for the nature and impetus on humanism can be the reason majority of these individuals are coming from traditional religious backgrounds