The Pew Research Center has released a huge new survey of the American religious landscape, showing how the demographics have shifted from 2007 to 2014. And the lede is very, very good for us:

[A] major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has jumped more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%.

As Pew points out, the non-religious as a whole now outnumber every individual Christian denomination in America – including the Catholic church...

How is America’s religious right taking the news of their declining numbers and influence? About as well as you might imagine. Rick Santorum says it’s because there aren’t enough anti-choice politicians, Rush Limbaugh said it was the fault of “gay activists” who were able to “bully and steamroll an entire country”, while Bill O’Reilly even more hilariously blamed it on the “rap industry“. As with many apologists, they’re institutionally blind to how their own insistent politicization of religion has turned people off.

One marginally more interesting response comes from “New Atheist God-hater”-hater Damon Linker, who insists, in all seriousness, that religion in America is doing just fine because even nones sometimes say “God bless you” when someone sneezes...