Barry Kosmin of Trinity’s Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture has been down in Washington at the Religion Newswriters Association talking about some of the preliminary results of our new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). Yes, the sample’s bigger than Pew’s big study, but who’s counting?
Politically, the most interesting news is that the number of religious “Nones”–those who, when you ask them what is their religion if any, say none–has, since the 2001 ARIS, held steady or slightly increased, to 15 percent; and that the number of Nones identifying as Republicans has dropped from 19 percent to 12 percent. They’ve not gone to the Democrats, who hold steady at 30 percent, but to Independent status. But my guess, based on other polls, is that they’re in fact voting Democratic.