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Given the growing population of “nones” in Singapore, they often encounter strained relationships with families and the public, resulting in them seeking out like-minded individuals. Although we may observe several common features among “nones”, we must recognise their heterogenous experiences and identities, to ensure that Singapore remains inclusive and harmonious. Hence, more efforts are required to facilitate conversations between groups, to foster an attitude of acceptance, and to include the voices of the non-religious in the national narrative.
“Nones” have been used to refer to people without affiliations to any organised religion, including atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers (Mohamed, 2016). Yet, although Singapore is the most religiously diverse country in the world (Cooperman & Lipka, 2014), the proportion of Singaporeans holding no religion has been steadily increasing over time, peaking at 20% in 2020 (Department of Statistics, 2021). Hence, this paper aims to explore the features of “nones” in Singapore through different types of relationships they have and discover how tensions between “nones” and other groups may be managed.
Three interviews were conducted for this research. The first was with Jane (pseudonym), a university student that identifies as non-religious despite growing up in a Buddhist household. The second was with <Redacted>, a member of NUS Interfaith which is a student group that holds conversations on topics that are infrequently discussed in public. The last was an email interview with Jianyue, who is the president of the Humanist Society which represents “nones” in Singapore. Transcripts of all interviews are in the Appendices. Additionally, findings are also supported by secondary research from journal articles and reports. Some of these research materials have also been kindly offered by Jianyue from the Humanist Society’s collection.
A few factors allow “nones” to embark on their personal journey with religion. While Singapore has no explicit constitutional principle of secularism, the government adopts a secular democracy (Thio, 2020), consistent with the increasingly secular world. This led to religion playing an increasingly smaller role in the lives of individuals, often leading to fewer people passing on their faith to their children (Chew, 2021). With strict rules on the conduct of religion, Singaporeans experience an expansion in public secular “common spaces” (Mohamed, 2016).
Additionally, the percentage of “nones” are positively associated with level of education (Tong, 2008). As Singapore becomes more globalised and connected to a greater flow of information, there is increasing scepticism about religious beliefs, and many find it difficult to reconcile them with science (Mohd Yunos, Koh, Tan, & Ong, 2022).
These factors have allowed many “nones” to develop their beliefs through a processes of questioning and understanding faith. In particular, individuals who were previously religious, such as ex-Muslims Andy and Bob, questioned religious scriptures and struggled with connecting science and gender identities with religion (Mohammad, 2018).
Personal opinions on religions often cause strains within families who might not be as accepting of differing beliefs (Tobin, 2014). Described as “hard landing”, “nones” who leave their faith face pressures from their family to return to the faith (Xue, 2023). They are often hurt by the invalidation from their families, where support and affirmation are expected.
“Nones” have to tread familial relationships carefully and stay silent on such topics with their families. For example, Jane notes how her family tries to make her feel guilty for not wanting to participate in Buddhist events (Jane, 2023), resulting in her not being transparently honest about her non-belief in Buddhism, in fear of her family’s negative reaction.
Special attention should also be given to the Muslim community, where the process of renunciation involves the submission of a legal document and is perceived as apostasy in Islam (Takashi, 2022). Hence, many ex-Muslim “nones” choose not to legally renounce Islam to guard family ties (Mohammad, 2018).
Topics such as gender and sexual identity, religious authorities, and stereotypes are usual issues for contention between “nones” and the wider religious communities (<Redacted>, 2023), causing several misconceptions about “nones” to arise. For example, it is most commonly misunderstood that “nones” lack a moral code (Tobin, 2014) and direction in life (Xue, 2023), despite “nones” being more positively engaged with religion (Lim, 2021). Hence, many often associate “nones” with antagonistic “militant secularists” (Thio, 2020), leaving them hyperconscious during their interactions so as to not offend others during conversations about religion (Jane, 2023).
Additionally, “nones” who leave their religion may be seen as trying to avoid following the strict rules of religion (Mohammad, 2018). However, the reason for leaving religion tends to be a fundamental disconnect between one own’s beliefs and religious philosophy, which cannot be characterised as a rebellion to rules.
Especially within the ex-Muslim community, “nones” often suffer stigma from the wider community (Takashi, 2022). The close association of race and religion within the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) model that Singapore adopts causes many to assume that Malays should be Muslims, thus resulting in Malay “nones” being scolded, insulted, and ostracised in public settings. This form of social exclusion causes many “nones” to adopt a strategy of “passing” to conceal certain information about themselves, usually by lying about false ethnic backgrounds, to avoid being stigmatised.
Given difficult relations between “nones” and their social circles, “nones” like Jane feel “like [they’re] not normal” and “out of place in the community” (Jane, 2023). Hence, “nones” in Singapore reached out to seek like-minded people, a process that was significantly expedited by the growth of the Internet and social media sites (Mohamed, 2016).
This resulted in the formation of the Humanist Society in 2010 to represent and support non-religious people in Singapore (Chew, 2021). Grounded in rationality, empathy, and compassion, humanism is a school of thought that is not associated with religion, but instead finds the value of other humans in and of themselves (Humanists Internationals, n.d.). This philosophy guides the Humanist Society not only to organise events allowing non-religious people to gather and connect with others (Humanist Society, n.d.), but also to represent them in public forums (Humanist Society, n.d.). Beyond that, they also conduct community outreach initiatives to assist the needy (Humanist Society, n.d.).
While it might seem that “nones” so far have been represented rather homogenously, we ought to caution against that perspective. In fact, experts have warned against hasty generalisations from data on religious identification since many differences are lost when doing so (Mathews, 2016).
Hence, it is essential to appreciate the heterogeneity among “nones”. Although the majority of “nones” in Singapore are Chinese, more than 23000 of them are of different races (Department of Statistics, 2021). Malay ex-Muslims often face stigma that other Indian ex-Muslims rarely do, as a result of the race-religion equivocation Singaporeans subconsciously hold (Takashi, 2022). Additionally, “nones” are spread out across different age groups and may or may not previously hold religious affiliations of different types. Even within atheists as a subset of “nones”, there is a continuum of positions that cannot be perceived as a singular absolute stance (Hoon, 2016). This creates extremely varied expectations and opinions placed on “nones”, resulting in vastly differing experiences, from which their identities emerge (Mohammad, 2018).
Viewing “nones” as a consistent entity greatly harms them, since dismissing their diversity places them at a “disadvantage regarding optimal social functioning, mental health, or engagement with the community” (Zuckerman, Galen, & Pasquale, 2016). For example, Jane feels like the dominant religious views often take precedence over opinions of the non-religious (Jane, 2023). This was evident to her after the repeal of Section 377A that criminalised gay sex, since the government took extra effort to pacify the religious groups, but the same care is not given to non-religious groups when concerns are raised without religious backing.
The significant increase of non-religious involvement in interfaith dialogues has already been widely documented (Mohamed, 2016), since more organisations recognised that misconceptions about “nones” still exist (Mohd Yunos, Koh, Tan, & Ong, 2022). Thus, more conversations not only would help soften the public image of “nones” (Xue, 2023), but also allow Singapore to move beyond mutual tolerance (Hoon, 2016).
Hence, the Humanist Society has made advances in representing the “nones” in dialogues with prominent religious scholars and activists to earn the trust and attention of students and academics (Xue, 2023). This allowed the Humanist Society to reach out to the local student body, giving presentations at events held by student group NUS Interfaith, and participating in student-led interfaith dialogues in NTU. They also represented “nones” at a conference on social fault lines in Singapore organised by the Prime Minister’s Office and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Despite this, more safe common spaces should be created to facilitate more conversations to improve relations between the religious and non-religious.
A significant obstacle is the attitudes of “nones” towards interfaith dialogues, since some “don’t want to be seen as ‘another religion’” (Xue, 2023), and “interfaith” is not a proper term for such a dialogue (Hoon, 2016). Instead, more neutral term could be used, such as “interbelief” or “interpath”, to describe these dialogues, and encourage more “nones” to join the dialogues (Xue, 2023).
The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA), which imposes stricter moderation of incidents of religious disharmony (Ministry of Home Affairs, n.d.), also imposes a chilling effect on “nones”, resorting to them not talking about religion at all. Hence, the government should balance out new and existing policies to reduce this fear that prevents effective dialogue from occurring (Mohd Yunos, Koh, Tan, & Ong, 2022).
More efforts are also needed in preparing Singaporeans during their schooling years for accepting and understanding attitudes. This is because the outlooks we hold about religion and faith are heavily influenced by where we are born and raised and is inculcated in us since young (Hoon, 2016). Hence, Singaporeans are exposed to different races and religions as part of their National Education, which emphasises why religious harmony is essential for Singapore’s security and survival (Lim, 2021).
However, beyond that, religion is often seen as an inappropriate topic for the education system (Tan & Leong, 2019). Instead of encouraging tolerance, more explicit attempts for conversations about navigating religious differences could be made, including “nones” and their perspectives (<Redacted>, 2023). Most importantly, the attitude that “it is okay for everyone to be different” must be inculcated from young, and youths must be allowed to have such discourses in their education, on which the ways they make sense of the world depends on (Hoon, 2016).
On the political level, more efforts are required to assure non-religious groups of overall inclusivity and equality. The Singapore government adopts a relatively “pluralist” model of democracy which affirms the role that religion plays in guiding public morals, but without favouring any one religion over another (Thio, 2020). Hence, the government should “ensure that policies remain secular and fair to all”, firmly assuring “nones” that their opinions are treated equally to other religious groups (Xue, 2023).
Hence, especially in social policies, the voices of “nones” should be heard. For example, Jane calls for actions by the government to listen to both religious and non-religious opinions (Jane, 2023) since she believes that they currently only favour religious opinions. This is possibly because the state frequently consults religious communities about concerns on state policies, and “nones” do not enjoy the same representation (Mohamed, 2016). Therefore, there is an urgent need to prevent the alienation of “nones” to allow Singapore to stay true to the diverse and harmonious society it aspires to be.
“Nones” could also be officially recognised in other forms. For example, there should be a greater spotlight on the contributions of non-religious Singaporeans in the national narrative (Tobin, 2014), similar to how Singapore embraces religion as a core building block of our national culture and identity. This may take the form of stronger mentions in school textbooks and local literature alongside other religions. Additionally, more academic research should be done on “nones” to document and better understand their wealth of experiences that would otherwise be forgotten (Tobin, 2014).
Given the scope of this paper, only one interview was held with a non-religious Chinese person, while the other interviews were with persons of authority from representative groups. However, to better embrace the heterogenous experiences of “nones”, individual perspectives of other racial profiles and religious histories should be explored. Given the adoption of the CMIO model in Singapore, it would also be useful to understand the experiences of “nones” from various race-religion combinations.
“Nones” are, and will continue, growing in numbers. Yet, they often face difficulties in their relationships with their beliefs, families, and the public. Although several “nones” have managed to seek out like-minded individuals, we must recognise their heterogeneity and diversity to safeguard Singapore’s inclusivity. Hence, there is a need for more dialogues and accepting attitude cultivated in youths. Lastly, the government should ensure that “nones” are included in the national conversation and recognise their contributions in Singapore.