Why the Non-Religious Come to Need Churches

A poll reveals that most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one to fill a need for spirituality.


Defecting to Faith
Charles Blow
Published in the New York Times, May 1, 2009


“Most people are religious because they’re raised to be. They’re indoctrinated by their parents.”

Maybe, but a study entitled “Faith in Flux” issued this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life questioned nearly 3,000 people and found that most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one. Indoctrination be damned. By contrast, only 4 percent of those raised Catholic and 7 percent of those raised Protestant later became unaffiliated.

Read the whole article here.