Three Things You're Getting Wrong About Religion Data

Posted because the overarching topic of the piece is "challenge your priors," with examples provided, which I think is always a valuable muscle to flex as a curious person.

One thing I've noted in talking to people. Religion used to be the "default".

TLDR: The actual number of self-reported religious folks used to be higher than the actual number of religious folks.

I'd tell a story about me being in church, and people would say something like, "Oh, I'm a Christian too."

I'd ask what church they go to, and I'd get the deer-in-the-headlights look. It wasn't meant as a challenge; it felt like the best follow-up question to their response.

Nowadays, more people are more likely to say they aren't religious.

Since a lot of the research is simply polling people on their religious views, the number has been inflated for a long time.

If we actually looked at religious attendance, like counted the number of people in a town and counted the number of people walking into a religious building in a week we'd have a far more accurate number.