One in five Americans is religiously unaffiliated, and the figure is growing.  Yet just one of 535 members of the new Congress, Arizona Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, is a declared non-believer.  “Unaffiliated,” is defined as people who are atheist, agnostic or who describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” That means only 0.2 percent of Congress is unaffiliated, compared with 23 percent of U.S. adults. That group is faster-growing than any religious group in America, as Pew found in 2015.  Meanwhile, nearly 91 percent of congressional members are Christian, compared with 71 percent of U.S. adults.

Part of the reason for this is that unaffiliated people tend to be young, and the young do not vote in great numbers. The inverse is also true: older, religious Americans vote more often and are more politically cohesive.  This is reflected in the makeup of Congress: in the 114th Congress, the average age for House members was 57 years old and for senators it was 61. (To a modest extent, this is a reflection of age rules: Senators must be 30 or older, and representatives have to be at least 25.)

I believe in belief.  One has to have something good to believe in rather than money, power, sex and material possessions.  This is why I personally follow the teachings of Epicurus .  Epicureanism is the closest thing I know to Christianity without being an organised religion and without the trappings of priesthood, buildings, hierarchy, doctrines and sectional squabbles.  If young Americans and Europeans decide to believe in  Epicureanism – moderation, consideration for others, tolerance, equality, generosity to those less well off, and simply getting on cheerfully with others –  then the intolerant christians and moslems who anethematize the “unaffiliated” can be ignored.  Time is on our side, in the United States at least.