Nope. It depends on the question, but usually the question is “what is your religious affiliation?” So “no affiliation” does not mean “does not believe in god.”

if you mean on a list of religions, no, it's not necessarily the same as atheist. it means no organized religion. some un- or disorganized people still believe in some kind of deity; those people are not atheists but should check none. atheists are among the people who would check none, but they are not the only ones, so they do not mean the same thing. as a side note, i don't know what a casual atheist is. atheists are people who either don't believe there are any gods or believe there are no gods. why would a casual atheist want or not want to go to church differently from a less casual atheist, and does it have to do with liking perry como?

g

Checking "no religion" is a general statement unique to each person:

1. Raised with religion, but does not attend church or temple.

2. Grew up without religion.

3. Chose to be agnostic.

4. Chose to be atheist.

5. Unsure, etc.

Seen it defined a few different ways.

Think atheist is a subset of None. According to some definitions None can believe in an invisible (imaginary) sky daddy but have no affiliation with organized religion.

A none can be a deeply religious person who is not in accord with any organization. She might also be an atheist, but more likely she just doesn’t know and doesn’t give a damn.