Why do you think the American public has drifted away from organized religion since the 1990s?

"Youth don't see the message of Christ in their parents and mentors. Christianity-- the organized institutions--have become more like the pharisees of old. If they had messengers/disciples with genuine charity, they would follow. Their "spiritual" affiliation are in an effort to seek this light of Christ."

• "I believe a major factor is access to the internet and global communications becoming more commonplace. This allows for a much higher rate of access to complaints and criticisms against organized religions where as in the past any stories of those could have been more easily been forgotten as a one-off occurrence."

"As society became more tolerant and the US became more diverse, most major religions didn’t adjust. This drove many young people like me away from religion. Once away from it, many people realized it never added much to our lives. Believing in science and searching for real truth in our universe does not make us less compassionate for our fellow man. Religion adds nothing positive to life that we can’t have without it."

• "Time! Religion requires your time and modern society gives less and less. Time stressed couples and individuals will tell you they are too busy already."

"While religion and belief in God is decreasing in the western world, it is rising in Asia and Africa where populations are greater. I think you should take a global perspective when it comes to religion. It’s tricky to just stick to Western thought."

• "I think that many people have turned away from organized religion because of scandals and corruption in some churches, and hard line policies on social issues that don't align with their own values."

"Religion has consistently (since the 70's - and especially since the 90's) preached contrary to Christ's word in the Bible. They cherry-pick verses to serve their purposes without reading in context either historically or within the passage overall. The recent generations are more focused on following the teachings, morals, and ideals without the need for organized religion telling them they're going to Hell every time they sin."

• "The sexual revolution changed the morality of our world. The pill and abortion took away "consequences" of our actions. No more responsibility for sex means men are off the hook and women either kill their baby in the womb or raise kids without dads. Abandonment of fatherhood correlates with the abandonment of faith."

"I strongly feel that politics and extremists have played a huge part in diverting people away from religion. God’s message is one of love not hate or judgement but many people have felt Christians only judge and that you have to follow a specific path. If more people modeled Jesus, I don’t believe we would see such a downward trend."

• "Religion has traditionally served society to explain the unknown and to provide guidance on living a good life. We now have a robust foundation of scientific knowledge to explain and explore the unknown. We also have secular governments which provide laws that help people get along and which reinforce a general moral code. So with rational ways to explain the unknown and guide our daily actions, what do we need religion for?"

"Since 1990, society as a whole has become much more open minded. Just look at growth and support for the LGBTQ+ community. With movement towards a more accepting world, it is more and more difficult to say "My god is the only real one" when there are so many other religions that make the same claim."

• "Groups of people are more interconnected than ever, and the sense of community that at one point was derived from local community (which in many cases was a religious institution) is now more accessible in many other places. Access to new communities and groups of people and travel engenders diversity of thought which is often at odds with religious gospel. Then couple all that with the numerous negative examples of religion we see in the public eye (scandals, extremism), and religion loses its luster to many."

"Republican politicians co-opting pulpits has driven away numerous congregants that I know personally. When one's spirituality can't be kept to one's self and is only brandished by Evangelical zealots and the easily-led, what intelligent, feeling person would want to identify with that?"

• "When we consider the character of Jesus Christ (from whom Christianity is derived), if we look inside real church congregations, it becomes very hard to find any evidence that his life and his teachings are being emulated by his alleged followers. This creates an inescapable sense of distrust in religious institutions and the religiously affiliated, because it's very apparent that churches have no desire to actually live by the teachings offered by their scriptures."

"One word: globalization. The internet has made the world a lot smaller, so people who previously would have been raised from a young age with one set of rules, one lifestyle, one belief system, are now exposed to all sorts of information while they're forming their own world views. The stories from the Bible may seem less convincing or important when you can learn lessons and morals based on what happens throughout the world every day."