Originally published at crisis magazine
By this point, most people have heard of the term “nones,” which refers to religiously unaffiliated individuals who claim to be agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular.” Have you ever considered that religious disaffiliation might be the very first step a person might take on the path to getting trapped in occult practices?
A 2023 Pew Research Center study surveyed approximately 11 thousand U.S. citizens and found that 17 percent of “nones” identified as atheists, 20 percent as agnostics, and 63 percent as holding no particular religious beliefs. According to the 2024 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS), “nones” comprise 28 percent of adults in the United States, a number which has increased from 16 percent in 2007. On the other hand, the number of practicing Christians continues to steadily decrease, dwindling from 90 percent in 1972 to 64 percent in 2020. These two data sets together could very well hold a major insight into those who lean into occult beliefs and practices.
To understand the journey that a person makes into the occult, let’s consider: What does that first step look like? According to the study data set from Pew Research in 2024, a religiously unaffiliated person might hold
