Study: More Americans Losing Their Religion

In a study released Tuesday conducted by the Pew Research Center, one out of every five adult Americans do not identify with any religion and one out of every three adults under the age of 30 have no religious affiliation.

"Other modern industrialized countries have majority of people who say they're not religious," Steven Gibson, a member of Atheist United, said. "So I think the same thing could happen in the United States."

The number of adults unaffiliated with any a religion in the U.S. continues to grow rapidly. Over the last five years, the number has increased from a little over 15 percent to just under 20 percent of unaffiliated adult Americans. More than 13 million people in the U.S. describe themselves as atheists or agnostic and almost 33 million people say they are unaffiliated with any religion.

"I think religion is something that should be personal that you experience with yourself and your community," said Jeff Shafran, a senior at USC. "If you don't want to be affiliated with a religion you shouldn't feel obligated to."

A new survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted with the PBS television program "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly" shows that the 46 million Americans who consider themselves unaffiliated with any religion are still religious or spiritual in some way. Over two-thirds percent of the 46 million polled say they believe in a god and 58 percent say they have or feel a deep connection with nature and the earth. More than a third of them consider themselves "spiritual" but not "religious," and 21 percent reported that they pray everyday.

"It saddens and frustrates me because the church has done so much harm over the years," said Ryan Seitz, the Director of Ministry in the First Congretional Church.

Most of the unaffiliated said they're not looking for a specific religion that would fit them and some thought religious organizations were more concerned with money, power and politics.