Tennessee - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics

     The Pew Research Centers data on religion in Tennessee shows a disjoint between the number of religious non-affiliated (none's) and those willing to come out as atheist. The data found at, Tennessee - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics , shows that with 14% identifying as none, only 1% were comfortable calling themselves atheist. Tennessee is a difficult place to be openly secular. I realize that there are other places around the world where being an atheist would be more dangerous. Yet, in Tennessee being an atheist or openly secular can have some serious repercussions. Although it failed to pass, Tennessee legislators have been pushing to have the bible the official state book.( NPR  RT)  The Tennessee constitution even gives a biblical definition of marriage( Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment) The interesting thing about this vote is that it was 81.25% for the amendment and 18.75% against. The Pew research data shows that Tennessee is also 81% Christian.
   
     The Roane county Tennessee county commission put up "in God we Trust" in the courthouse with only a single person in opposition.( Patheos) Tennessee has another bill introduced to allow counselors to discriminate based on their "sincerely" held religious beliefs.(Tennessee Equality Project) Tennessee isn't the only state with this types of laws. Yet, Tennessee appears to have only evangelical protestants controlling the government.  Tennessee also allows creationism in public schools under the guise of "teach the controversy". Included in Tennessee's "teach the controversy" law, is a legal blanket to teach climate change denial. Tennessee law makers need to "evolve" and teach factual science and leave the pseudoscience up to the churches.