Why doesn't religion rank higher among sources of meaning?

[MineralMan]

Where do most Americans look for meaning in their lives? Religion? Not so fast, according to a Pew Research poll. Now, don't blame me or other atheists. We had nothing to do with it. Truly. Religion is just losing ground to more mundane things, in people's minds, it looks like. Sorry, Guy...

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900046455/why-doesnt-religion-rank-higher-among-sources-of-meaning-what-pew-research-center-tells-us-christian-data.html

Why doesn't religion rank higher among sources of meaning?

SALT LAKE CITY — Religion shapes many aspects of many Americans' lives, affecting whom they marry, what they eat and how they'll celebrate the holidays.

And yet it ranks below things like family relationships, careers and even pets on recent studies of sources of meaning and identity in people's lives.

When asked an open-ended question about sources of meaning, just 1 in 5 U.S. adults mention something to do with spirituality or faith, compared to 69 percent who cite family members and 34 percent who mention their careers, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. The 2018 American Family Survey found that people are significantly more likely to say being a spouse or parent is an "extremely" or "very" important part of their identity than being a person of faith.

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For this reason, Pew asked about sources of meaning in two different ways: with a set of open-ended questions and a second set of traditional, close-ended questions. Twenty percent of Americans mentioned faith or spirituality when asked an open-ended question about sources of meaning. That figure rises to 36 percent when survey respondents are asked directly whether their "religious faith" provides a great deal of meaning and fulfillment, Pew reported.