Connect with us on social media
Project Mission: Project 573 will show to our audience who the Nones are, and how they are affecting mid-Missouri at a time when traditional affiliation with religion is declining.
Greyson Andrews, 25
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Senior, University of Missouri.
Raised: Nonreligious. “I went to a Baptist church … I come from a nonreligious family, but I would attend church socially.”
Affiliation: Atheist.
I can’t live without: My iPhone and social media.
I have faith in: Those close to me. “To me, the only things I think I can have faith in are the things that are closest to me.”
On morality: “Morality means conducting your life in a way where you are making the lives of the people around you better and you are making the world better.”
Who are the Nones?
None Voices
by Project 573 team
Shannyn Yalaoui, 36
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Systems analyst, Commerce Bank.
Raised: Methodist.
Affiliation: Unaffiliated. “I don’t call myself agnostic, or whatever (it is) where you don’t know what’s the right answer. I’m pretty accepting of a lot of things, but I don’t even totally identify myself as a particular religion.”
I have faith in: People and friends
I’m troubled by: Those you can’t rely on and don’t keep their end of the bargain.
I believe: “There is a lot of knowledge out there and I’m never going to understand it all.”
Khaymen Hoelscher, 18
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Senior, Rock Bridge High School.
Raised: Catholic.
Affiliation: Atheist.
I believe in: Myself. “I really believe that if I try and do something, then I will do it.”
I wonder about: The universe and where I am going to be in five years.
I have faith in: My fellow man and my friends. “I always know they’re going to be there for me, through thick and thin.”
Tom Kupferer, 65
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Retired.
Family: Divorced; one daughter in college; one son in a Columbia high school.
Raised: Catholic.
Affiliation: Atheism “comes closest to what I am.”
I believe in: Humanism. “We need to look outside of ourselves, but we need to cultivate the humanness that’s within us.”
I can’t live without: My children. “As I grow older, I want to make sure I’ve shared with them the things I think will help them make their way through the world and to be better human beings.”
Matthew Coleman, 22
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Junior, University of Missouri.
Raised: Presbyterian.
Affiliation: Agnostic, but leaning toward atheism.
I have faith in: Humanity.
I can't live without: Sports.
I’m troubled by: My self-consciousness. “I never feel smart enough, strong enough, fast enough for anything I really do, and it kind of depresses me to a point where I give up … I don’t quit on other people because I refuse to let somebody down, but I’m likely to give up on myself.”
Karissa Brickey, 15
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Sophomore, Hickman High School.
Raised: Muslim.
Affiliation: Atheist, with some Wiccan beliefs.
I can’t live without: My best friend.
I have faith in: What science can prove.
I believe: That everyone’s soul has a purpose, “and they go through multiple lives trying to fulfill that purpose.”
Chantelle Moghadam, 18
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Freshman, University of Missouri.
Raised: Jewish.
Affiliation: Atheist.
I believe: What you see is what you get.
I can’t live without: Music.
I wonder: “What might happen if I told my dad that I was atheist.”
Kristian Hellwege, 22
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Unemployed.
Raised: Christian.
Affiliation: Skeptical.
I believe: “When the shit hits the fan, some people will almost always find something they’ll put before themselves.”
I can't live without: An escape, such as things to read and think about.
I wonder about: Limitations on our senses. “I’m wondering if there could be an afterlife right in front of us that we could see if we could manage to open our senses up a little bit more.”
Adrienne Luther, 17
Jefferson City, Mo.
Occupation: Junior, Jefferson City High School.
Raised: Presbyterian.
Affiliation: Spiritual but not religious.
I wonder about: Everything. “I just kind of wonder what I’m doing and why I’m doing it and what’s going to happen next.”
I believe: That the universe has a plan.
On the existence of a higher power: There is a general higher power, but not a central one. “I don’t want to live with a central power governing how I live or being in the back of my mind all the time determining whether that action I just made was the right thing to do…”
Kenny Duzan, 65
Columbia, Mo.
Occupation: Retired. Farmer and owner of Broadway Brewery.
Raised: Catholic. “My mother was a Catholic. My dad … went along with things, but didn’t go to church.”
Affiliation: Atheist.
On faith: “Faith is believing in what you know ain’t so,” – Mark Twain.
I wonder about: Life’s deep questions. Why am I here? How did the universe get here?
I can’t live without: Water.
Heather Holliger, 35
Armstrong, Mo.
Occupation: Administrative assistant in a dental office.
Raised: Baptist.
Affiliation: Unaffiliated.
I believe: There is a God. That people know the difference between right and wrong. “If you’re a good person, you have nothing to worry about.”
I wonder about: The Bible. “How much has been translated word for word and how people interpret it over the years.”
I can’t live without: My kids. “They’re young ‘Me's,’ in a sort. I’ve molded them into what they are.”
Gavin Hunt, 15
Armstrong, Mo.
Occupation: Sophomore, Fayette High School.
Raised: Baptist.
Affiliation: Atheist, but “I’m still trying to figure it out for myself.”
I believe: In the common good of all people.
I wonder about: The God Particle.
I can’t live without: Being able to think. “That’s one thing people can’t take away from you. They can’t take away your thoughts, how you feel about things.”
Scroll down to hear their stories.
(1:43)
(1:37)
(1:46)
(1:31)
(1:52)
(1:06)
(1:32)
(2:06)
(1:37)
(1:17)
(0:50)
(1:29)