This just in: Most Americans believe in God

_{Denyse O'Leary

June 26, 2011

Atheism, Culture, Religion}

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… as usual:

Despite the many changes that have rippled through American society over the last 6 ½ decades, belief in God as measured in this direct way has remained high and relatively stable.

– Frank Newport, “More Than 9 in 10 Americans Continue to Believe in God: Professed belief is lower among younger Americans, Easterners, and liberals,” Gallup (June 3, 2011)

The new atheists have played a central role, sources say, in strengthening belief in God.

Comments

its not just Americans but mankind. mankind has insisted that there were greater beings then man. As if its a common opinion of great and small that the world was created by someone very smart. To reject the opinion or conviction of all men, almost, that there was a God(s) is to say a great thing about mankinds thinking on these matters. If everybody could be so wrong could those who believe in evolution be wrong despite claims the smarter people think its true.?Robert Byers_{June 28, 2011
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I wonder if they thought about the alienation the US Open might have caused to 9 out of 10 people... unless the Open has a disproportionate number of young liberal Easterners. :D Guess not: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/19/nbc-us-open-under-god_n_880114.htmlQuestionMark_{June 26, 2011
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I'm actually surprised that as many as 8% of the population say they don't believe in God. I thought that the number of hard-core atheists was down around 3% or 4%, so I guess the rest must be agnostics who lean against belief in God. Of course, the bald question "do you believe in God" can hide a multitude of sins. It's clear, for example, that only 80% of Americans believe in a God that Christians would recognize, and that number undoubtedly shrinks more, the more conservative (in a religious sense) the definition becomes. I believe that the same question in the UK stills elicit at least 70-75% in the affirmative, but it's clear from other questions, like do you adhere to a specific religion, that many of those people (as many as half) simply have some vague belief in some higher power of some kind. The US, being more conservative, has a much higher core of serious believers, but I think it is fraying at the edges a little. Gallup wonders if the spike in young people who don't believe in God will last as they get older, but from other long running surveys of religious belief, it's pretty clear that it does not. Repeated surveys of specific generations show that once a generation reaches adulthood, their religious beliefs, as a whole, tend not to change very much as they age. (Individuals do all the time, but as a national group, those changes don't add up to much.) So I would predict that as the younger, less religious generation grows up (and the oldest generation dies off) the balance will change over time, but very slowly. Twenty years from now, the "do you believe in God" question will probably still elicit between 85% and 89% in the affirmative.tyke_{June 26, 2011
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9 in 10 Americans are anti science?Mung_{June 26, 2011
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