New Delhi, June 22 -- A new Pew report shows that the number of people who have quit religion has risen. In such reports, people who say they have no religious affiliation are endearingly called 'Nones.' Between 2010 and 2020, Nones grew by 270 million, second only to those who identify as Muslim. There are 1.9 billion Nones in the world. So roughly every fourth human is a None, with their share of the population having risen over that decade from 23.3% to 24.2.%.

I suspect this news was received by atheists and their spiritual cousins who say stuff like, "I believe in a force" and other kinds of Nones as a reaffirmation of their superior inner lives. They may have felt the world is finally becoming safer. More sensible. More like them. ...