American Secularism is Growing, and Growing More Complicated

Americans are getting less "religious," you've probably heard. They do fewer traditionally religious things, such as belonging to a denomination, attending worship services or feeling certain that God exists. But what does that lead to? As research in the past couple of decades has reflected those drops in behaviors and beliefs, conventional wisdom has lingered on a superficial understanding about what it really means -- for our identities, our yearnings for something "bigger than ourselves" and our ideas about the role of religion in politics.