Why are people leaving religion? Researchers in the U.S. and Canada offer some answers

Earlier this year, I surveyed people about why they attend religious services and reported the results in this column. (Community was the No. 1 reason.) But why do some people stop going, or not consider religion as an option at all? That was the question on the mind of researchers in the U.S. and Canada recently. 

And what did they find? For Americans, it was religious hypocrisy, the idea that “religion doesn’t make sense,” religious bigotry, the harm caused by religion, the role of science and prejudice by some religious groups against LGBTTQ+ people. 

For Canadians, it was the belief that religion is anti-modern and anti-intellectual; too conservative, strict, inflexible and intolerant; the impact of the American Christian right; and the mistreatment of Indigenous people by the Christian churches in the form of the residential school system. 

Read more in my recent Free Press column.

Photo from Universal Life Church Monastery.