Religion (or lack thereof) in Oregon

Oregon, it seems, it's a very religious state. That isn't to say that people are all atheists or don't have any spiritual or supernatural beliefs. They do not, however, seem to put much faith in organized, traditional religious belief systems.

The Register-Guard explains:

The number of Americans who claim no religious identity in surveys, dubbed "nones" by experts, has roughly doubled in the past decade, making them possibly the third-largest group in the nation, after Catholics and Baptists. They rank No. 1 in Oregon - one of only four states where "no religion" was the most common answer in a religious identification survey commissioned by City University of New York in 2001. The other states were Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.

Other recent studies draw similar conclusions, including a 2002 survey commissioned by the Glenmary Research Center in Tennessee that identifies several cities in Southern Oregon and Northern California - including Corvallis, Eugene, Medford and Redding - as those where Americans are least likely to have a religious affiliation. Yet most of the 29 million Americans who pick no religion say they believe in God and often pray or meditate - habits not that different from the folks who fill the pews each Sunday.

Are Oregonians "ahead of the curve," or are they just strange? No one denomination has ever dominated in the Pacific Northwest, and that may make not identifying with a particular denomination or religion much easier for people - so in that way, perhaps they just are different. On the other hand, there is an overall increase in the number of people who don't identify with any religion, and not just in the Northwest. We'll just have to wait and see...

Read More:

• Recent Books on American Religion