Mohamed Fetaih moved to Canada at age 40 so his children would not have to live in Egypt, a country he says was being “destroyed” by religion.
An atheist, he had nonetheless enrolled his daughter in a Catholic school there so she would not have to wear head coverings at school.
“I saw the pressure coming in for anyone who did not think the same way [as the Islamic teachers],” said Fetaih, 74.
Canada, by contrast, offered a life free of religious pressure. For Fetaih, who says religion harms society, that was important.
Many non-religious Canadians agree with him. According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of Canada’s religious “nones” say religion is bad for society.
Despite this, many non-religious Canadians also report believing in God, an afterlife or spiritual powers.
Experts say this shows the diversity of non-religious beliefs.
“Many people consider it totally normal and acceptable to hold certain beliefs and practices tied to a faith or worldview, but not others, even when many religious leaders are convinced that you must have one with the other,” said Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, director of the Institute of Religion, Culture and Societal Futures at the University of Waterloo.
‘Nothing in particular’
About 12.6 million people — or one-third of Canadians — reported having no religious affiliation in the 2021 census. This makes religious “nones” the second largest group after Christians, who represented just over half of the population that year.
The new Pew research, which was based on surveys done in 2022 and 2023, suggests as many as 41 per cent of Canadians now identify as non-religious.
But many non-religious people do not identify as atheists or agnostics. Atheists do not believe in the existence of God, while agnostics are unsure of God’s existence.
According to Pew, only 10 per cent of Canadians identify as atheists, and just seven per cent as agnostics. The biggest group of religious “nones” identify as “nothing in particular.”
Most atheists and agnostics are reacting against religious upbringings or negative religious experiences, says Joel Thiessen, a sociologist of religion at Ambrose University, a Christian university in Calgary.
More people say their belief is “nothing in particular” because people are increasingly raised without any religious upbringing at all, he says.
“Nothing in particular” does not mean people are “undecided, or that they’re even necessarily open to joining religious groups,” he said. “It just reveals that they’re, by and large, part of a fairly secular social environment where the topic is not a prominent one for their consideration.”
Wilkins-Laflamme agrees.
“Most [non-religious people] don’t even think about religion all that much and so don’t feel the need to adopt a stronger non-religious identity,” she said.
Afterlife and ancestors
Most non-religious Canadians hold some spiritual beliefs. In the Pew survey, only 14 per cent of Canadians said they were completely secular, meaning they are nonreligious and do not believe in God, an afterlife or any spiritual presence in the world. More than a third of Canadian religious “nones” say they believe in an afterlife.
But belief in an afterlife does not mean people believe they will go to a heaven and be reunited with a deity after they die, says Lori Beaman, a sociologist of religion at the University of Ottawa who researches non-religious perspectives on death.
“When some people talk about life after death they are not necessarily talking about a supernatural vision,” she told Canadian Affairs in an email.
Some non-religious people describe the afterlife as “energy,” although that can mean different things, she wrote.
Nearly half of non-religious Canadians told Pew they believed some parts of nature can have spirits or spiritual energies, while slightly more said the same for animals. Almost a third said ancestors’ spirits could help or harm them.
Beliefs in ancestral spirits may not be supernatural, says Beaman. She has spoken to gardeners who say they feel connected with their deceased grandparents and parents through the plants they are growing or their gardening knowledge.
The gardeners “invoke their [ancestors’] wisdom and the knowledge they’ve acquired from them as a form of ‘help’,” Beaman wrote. This might be what people mean when they say ancestral spirits can help them, she says.
‘Honest assessment’ of religion
According to the Pew report, nearly a third of non-religious Canadians reported praying, although not often. Slightly more said they attend religious services, but often less than once a month.
George Cordahi, who has been an atheist since his early 20s, says he is not surprised to hear that some religious “nones” have spiritual beliefs.
He hears many secular people say that belief in an afterlife gives them comfort. Cordahi, who was raised in Egypt, in a Greek Orthodox home, does not see it this way.
“I never felt a need to believe in the afterlife,” said Cordahi, 74, who says he has not seen compelling evidence to believe in God.
Cordahi says it is hard to say definitively if religion is good or bad for society. “Organized religion has done evil and has done good,” he said, adding he thinks it is harmful when religions exclude people.
Many people believe religion is harmful because of personal negative religious experiences, or because of media reports about religious scandals, says Thiessen, of Ambrose University.
Some Canadians may also want to distance themselves from American Christianity’s ties to the Republican Party, he says.
Religion — particularly conservative religions — can be seen to contradict Canadian values of inclusion and tolerance, he says. In the Pew report, two-thirds of non-religious Canadians said religion encourages intolerance.
But non-religious Canadians were not the only ones critiquing religion; about a third of religiously affiliated Canadians said they thought religion hurts society.
Many religious people, particularly Christians, are increasingly quick to acknowledge churches’ role in residential schools, or abuse in some religious communities, says Thiessen.
This reflects an “honest and sobering assessment” of religion, he said.
“Ordinary religious affiliates within Christian contexts are aware of those things, or don’t have their heads in the sand.”
Correction, October 22, 2025 2:19 pm: Clarification: An earlier version of this article said George Cordahi has met many atheists who believe in an afterlife. In fact, he says he knows many secular people who do not believe in an afterlife.
Interesting. Australia is having it’s 5 yearly Census next year in 2026 and it’s expected the ‘No Religion’ respondents to the religious question will overtake all religious people combined to become the majority for the first time ever. This will impact more than prayer in parliament. Laws will be adjusted and education. Churches might even be taxed. Shared to the Australian Atheist Association Forum http://www.AustralianAtheists.com We like Canadians over here in Australia. You aren’t as loud as Americans.
Great article! I am with a worldwide spiritual organization. We knew there was decreasing numbers of religious people but wondered why our membership numbers were not increasing (in our small Canadian city). This article put some numbers and research to the situation, shedding light on this topic for us. thanks. We are rethinking how we are being attractive and public.