Ryan Burge: a Year in Religion (w/ graphs)

Dr. Ryan Burge is back on the podcast with his most popular charts of data on religion. The graphs we discuss are the 5 most popular he shared over the last year on his nerdy twitter.

Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of
numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.

Previous Visits from Ryan Burge

Here are the 5 most popular Chart Tweets we discussed

In 1991, 87% of people aged 18-35 years old were Christians. 8% of them identified as religiously unaffiliated.

By 1998, 73% of young people were Christians (a 14 point drop) and 21% of young people identified as nones (a 13 pt. increase).

America lost its religion in 1990s. pic.twitter.com/oPL2UYzswY

— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) April 4, 2022

The drop in fertility over the last decade is primarily among Democrats.

Peak parenting in 2010:
65% of Republicans in their late 30s were parents.
62% of Democrat

Peak parenting in 2020:
60% of Republicans in their late 30s were parents.
50% of Democrat pic.twitter.com/m3HmjaT1Up

— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) November 28, 2022

Do people become more conservative as they age? This data tells a nuanced story.

For those born between 1930 and 1949, they did move rightward between 2008 and 2021.

1950-1964 saw no change at all.

Those born in 1965 or later have moved to the left between 2008 and 2021. pic.twitter.com/WqpGXy3T43

— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) April 20, 2022

In 1988, 6% of white Democrats took an atheist or agnostic position about God. It was 3% of nonwhite Democrats.

In 2021, 32% of white Democrats were atheist/agnostic. It was 8% of nonwhite Democrats.

There’s never really been a racial God Gap for Republicans. <2 pts in 2021. https://t.co/eUz6NHngnf pic.twitter.com/R7tFKTl3HA

— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) July 17, 2022

Doing interviews for 20 Myths, I often get asked what’s the biggest falsehood I see when it comes to data about religion.

It’s education leads people away from religion.

14 survey waves. Total N of ~550K.

In every single survey the less educated are more likely to be nones pic.twitter.com/4hC8hN2oJA

— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) April 1, 2022

Experiencing God: an Open Online Class

Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.