Non-theism among Quakers probably dates to the 1930s, when some Quakers in California branched off to form the Humanist Society of Friends (today part of the American Humanist Association), and when Henry Cadbury professed agnosticism in a 1936 lecture to Harvard Divinity School students.
[4] Os Cresson began a consideration of this issue from behaviorist, natural history, materialist and environmentalist perspectives.
Nontheist Friends draw on Quaker humanist and universalist traditions.
[11] One study of Friends in the Britain Yearly Meeting, some 30% of British Quakers had views described as non-theistic, agnostic, or atheist.
[12][13] These surveys should not be seen as representative of the global Quaker population which is majority Evangelistic (Gurneyite).