Unaffiliated
Encyclopedia
Unaffiliated is a term used to refer to individuals who are not aligned with a particular religion.
According to the Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is an American think tank organization based in Washington, D.C. that provides information on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the United States and the world. The Center and its projects receive funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts. In 1990, Donald S...

, this group includes atheists, agnostics, and people who describe their religion as "nothing in particular".
However, not all individuals who are unaffiliated are necessarily irreligious.
The "nothing in particular" group can be further divided into "secular unaffiliated" and "religious unaffiliated".

Studies

The “Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.” study found that more than 16 percent of all Americans were unaffiliated,
while a report in 2000 based on congregation responses finds that number to be 37%.

According to a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, among depressed inpatients, "religiously unaffiliated subjects had significantly more lifetime suicide attempts and more first-degree relatives who committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

than subjects who endorsed a religious affiliation."
Moreover, depressed inpatients with no religious affiliation had fewer moral objections to suicide than believers.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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