Ryan Burge

One-third of nothing in particular people make $50,000 a year or less and have a high school diploma or less.

It's only 11% of atheists.

Like this group is struggling economically.

Socioeconomic status is the lowest of any religious group.

They're also the least likely group to participate in politics, whether that be putting up a yard sign, going to a political meeting.

They are struggling in every possible way because I think in many ways they've dropped out of this social fabric that sort of holds American society up.

And they don't have any rungs to climb up to move up that social ladder.

And here's what people don't understand about how a religion works in America.

The people that are the most likely to go to a house of worship this weekend are people with graduate degrees.

The people the least likely are those with a high school diploma or less.

I have never seen a single data source where the line between those two things is downward.

Sometimes it's flat, but many times it's positive.

More education leads to more participation in everything.

in American life.

I want to make that point clear.

It's not just religion.

It's also politics.

It's also culture.

It's also society.

And if you think about the things that religion does that are sort of invisible to the average person, it gives you the opportunity to move up in life because you can build a network of people who run businesses, who are managers, who can get your foot in the door at a new company or new corporation, where if you're a nothing in