Religion, Science, and the “Nones”: Rethinking Faith in a Post-Awakening Age
It has been drilled in our minds since grade school that America was built on keeping religion and state separated. And yet, come election season, candidates still compete for evangelical endorsements, journalists tally denominational loyalties, polling firms continue to use religious identification as a decisive factor in voter behavior, and every two weeks, we hand over 30% of our income to the government, stamped with original Bitcoin "In God We Trust." This is nothing more than American religious propaganda. A way to keep the masses lulled with the illusion of groupthink, convincing America that we all share the same values and follow the same moral compass. This surface-level picture hides the deep structural change in American religious life. The past half-century has witnessed an unprecedented decline in religious affiliation, with many people often describing themselves as spiritual but not religious. The most recent data highlights this trend, stating, "34% of emerging adults answer 'None' to the question 'What is your religious affiliation?'" But is that all this decline is? A trend, neatly repackaged one oat-milk latte and full moon at a time, with spiritual wokeness treated as a personal identity, or is there a more complex interpretation of this sudden religious change among the youth?
This paper examines one major interpretation of this decline through the findings of "iPod or LP? Surprising Ways Emerging Adults Think About Religion and Science" by Greg Cootsona. This holds a magnifying glass over how young adults aged 18-30 perceive science, religion, and spirituality. According to Cootsona, "One primary reason for this departure from congregations? … emerging adults see the church as 'antiscience.'" This means that young adults often view churches as opposed to learning and addressing questions raised by technological progress. As a result, this first generation of internet-grown adults are resistant to religious authority, valuing knowledge backed by evidence, while religion's main selling point remains just simply having 'faith.'" But do not fear, emerging adults still have a thirst to quench the humanity of existential unease. And they are doing so by adopting a patchwork belief system from a variety of courses, rather than adhering to a single traditional religion. The idea that today's generation of adults are leaving the church because of its lack of progress and instead creating their own personal spiritual ideologies leads us to two central questions. First, how does Cootsona's study represent how young adults navigate the relationship between religion and science? Second, how can Cootsona’s studies be placed in a broader context of American history and theory
Cootsona’s study was done over the course of sixteen-months interviewing about 650 young adults, surveying 150, and having an in-depth conversation with 28 of them. Their goal was to find out how younger Americans understand religion and science, and how those views affect their ties to the church. During the study four things stood out. Emerging adults see science and religion as culturally at odds yet personally compatible, sexuality and gender as central concerns, being raised with technology, and lastly thinking of science and religion with a distinctly pluralistic outlook.
First, there is a paradox in perception. Cootsona's study shows "around two-thirds perceive conflict that's 'out there' in the culture between science and religion, although about the same amount personally seek collaboration or independence between the two." In other words, many recognize how science and religion are often portrayed as opposing forces, on topics like abortion, climate change, sexuality, gender, and the sophomore biology unit that lit the match, lighting the way through the dark, unexplored tunnel of one's mind of how we got here: evolution. Unlike the generations before them, this new wave of adults doesn't stop testing ideas once they leave the classroom walls. They carry the spark forward, questioning and reshaping the conversation and personally seeking ways to blend science and religion while allowing them to remain independent without conflict. This discovery exposes the old black-and-white narratives about science and religion as nothing more than outdated stereotypes that no longer represent American adults.
Second, because the boundaries of the science-religion conversation have shifted, so has the ideology of sexuality and gender. Cootsona notes, “Concerns about sexuality and gender issues have become a science and religion topic. (This is not something you’d find in standard religion and science textbooks.)” This means that, for these new adults, what really matters in religion aren’t theoretical or even abstract ideas like how the universe began, but more how religion speaks to their everyday lives. They do not rely on religion to define their sexuality or gender, nor do they connect it to scientific theory, they do, however, use it as a meaningful guide in personal matters.
This discovery by Cootsona is important because the media often highlight the rise of religiously unaffiliated young adults “Nones” as if they are rejecting all spiritually. This exaggeration can make it seem like emerging adults are hostile to religion, when that’s not true at all. They simply engage differently than older generations. Stories and headlines often focus on clashes over sexuality to paint religion as “out of touch” and emerging adults as rebelling against the system. The same system that we were taught was supposed to keep religion and state separated. By framing it as outright rejection, these narratives divide public perception, creating a sense of cultural fracture between older religious adults and the younger generation of adults. And by doing so the American media has created a polarizing divide between generations.
Third, and perhaps most distinctly, technology defines this generation of young adults by reshaping both the personal spirituality aspect of religion and the structures of institutional religion. Cootsona stated that," This generation has been formed in an age of dazzling diversity of all kinds, including worldviews, religions, sexual identities, and racial-ethic concerns." This suggests that these young adults have grown up surrounded by a plethora of information regarding many types of religions, which encourages them to explore and ask questions instead of simply following one faith by its traditional rules. This access to information outside of traditional institutions allows them to come to their own conclusions, rather than solely relying on curated religious content and guidance that has been handed down from previous generations. Technology, in this sense, does not create a pathway for this grand exodus from the congregation, but instead grows a garden of negotiation that allows young adults to pick their own bouquet of spiritual identities. When considered in this manner, the shift is not a generational conflict but a reflection of a new, self-picked approach to faith that complements the pluralism and intellectual curiosity highlighted in the Cootsona study.
Lastly, Cootsona's study has a large emphasis on pluralism. He stated that “Talking about ‘religion and science’ may sound like a conversation between two things, but 18-30 year olds see it differently. They have grown up in environments saturated with options and possibilities.” That emerging adults act as "spiritual bricoleurs," piecing together beliefs from different sources rather than adhering to a single religion. In this he is saying that pluralism among young adults does not equate to emptiness or a lack of deep connection to a religious context, but rather a self-directed way of making sense of spirituality, directly contradicting the idea that secularization automatically leads to the decline of religious affiliation that we have been seeing. The study effectively shows that faith remains meaningful for young adults, but it overlooks the broader political, economic, and cultural forces that could be the cause of the weakened institutional religion’s authority.
From an external perspective, this new generation’s relationship with religion could be understood through Karl Marx’s observation that “man makes religion, religion does not make man.” From Marx's perspective, religion was not inherently good or evil, but rather a reflection of human suffering and a response to systemic inequality. He believed that religion helped people, but that it also masks the root causes of oppression by focusing attention on spiritual solutions rather than social change. Suppose we apply that ideology and compare America's current relationship with religion to the Fourth Great Awakening (1960s-70s). In that case, we can see that events such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Civil Rights Movement, and the women’s liberation movement were taking place in the 1960s. The heart of this activism could be found in the church because churches were seen as a moral authority that could lead society to justice. Religious congregations mattered because they carried legitimacy and influence over social change. By contrast, Greg Cootsona’s study shows that today’s emerging adults no longer grant the church this authority. Instead, they view institutions with suspicion particularly when churches appear “antiscience” and turn toward self-directed, pluralistic forms of spirituality. Thus, while today’s events parallel those of the 1960s like America’s engagement with Israel, the Epstein files, racial justice, and women’s liberation, the difference lies in where young adults locate moral authority which is not longer in the church but in technology, and personal bricolage.
On top of that, there is what Cootsona calls “choice phobia.” By this he means the paralysis many young adults feel when faced with an overwhelming range of religious and spiritual options. As one participant in his study put it, “I can’t commit to any religion until I know more.” This hesitation can be interpreted both as a fear-based response, worrying about choosing the “wrong” faith and as a symptom of living in a world saturated with information. Technology amplifies this dilemma. The very thing that has set young adults free has also chained them down. There was no permanent digital record of older generations’ choices, so experimentation with belief carried little risk of future scrutiny. Today, beliefs are rarely private. Thoughts can be screenshotted, ready to be used against you in a future argument, job interview, or political campaign. In an era of cancel culture, religious identity becomes a public brand, and every choice is potentially scrutinized. From a broader perspective, this choice phobia also reflects systemic pressures. Economic precarity, student debt, and unstable career paths leave young adults with less time, energy, and social support for institutional religious engagement. As Marx might suggest, religion both consoles and responds to social conditions, when structural inequality is high, spiritual exploration may shift away from rigid institutions toward individualized bricolage. In this sense, choice phobia is not mere indecision, it is a rational adaptation to technology, explaining why young adults increasingly craft personalized spiritual pathways instead of following inherited religious systems.
Nonetheless, what could easily be dismissed as a trend of spiritual wokeness can actually be the signal of a profound reshaping of faith for a new generation. Cootsona’s study provides clear evidence of this shift, suggesting that the potential Fifth Great Awakening will not be centered in churches but will unfold in the self-directed ways youth engage with science, technology, and spirituality. For religious institutions to remain relevant, they must adapt to this playlist-like approach, collaborating with modern seekers rather than clinging to rigid systems.
Work cited
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Cootsona, Greg. “iPod or LP? Surprising Ways Emerging Adults Think About Religion and Science.” HuffPost, 4 Feb. 2016, updated 6 Dec. 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/four-surprising-things-em_b_8453820.
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