Drifting, Not Driven, Away From Church

A Pew study reveals that while half the people in the U.S. have left the religion they were born in, it's not necessarily because of the big issues:

"The reasons people change religions are as diverse as the religious landscape itself," [researcher Gregory Smith] told CNN by phone.

Some factors that might be expected to drive people away from religion -- such as sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, or a belief that science "disproves" religion -- actually play a very small role, the study suggests.

"I've been struck by the very large number across all the different groups who say they just gradually drifted away. Not all of this is the product of carefully considered, conscious decision-making that happens at a specific point in time," Smith said.