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A new study by the Pew Research Center revealed the motivations behind the growing number of "nones" in the United States today.
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Many Americans are cutting their ties with organized religion. While many of them simply do not believe in God, some merely dislike church hierarchy, and still others are too busy to go to church.
With the percentage of U.S. adults who do not identify with a religious group growing, we asked these people to explain, in their own words, why they left.
About half of U.S. adults have looked for a new religious congregation at some point in their lives, most commonly because they have moved.
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"I dislike organized religion."
One fifth (20 percent) of the "nones" said they rejected their childhood religion because they dislike the organization itself.
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"I'm not sure about religion."
If those two reasons seem natural and almost self-explanatory, the third explanation is where it really gets interesting.
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"Church is just too inconvenient."
Perhaps the most surprising cohort of the religious "nones" are the "inactive believers." They account for 10 percent of those surveyed: 8 percent described themselves as "non-practicing," and the other 2 percent said they were just "too busy." This group included zero atheists and only 3 percent of agnostics.
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Nearly half (49 percent) of the "nones" in the survey reported leaving religion because they just don't believe in it.