God Is Back!

WS: Study Says 82 Percent Of Americans Are Christians

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Mark D. Tooley.

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Is America getting more secular? Not according to a new survey on Americans' religious beliefs, "American Piety in the 21st Century," published this month by Baylor University. According to the Baylor survey, 82 percent of Americans are Christians, 90 percent believe in God, 70 percent pray regularly, and half attend church at least once a month.

If Baylor is correct, Americans are demographically as religious, and as Christian, as they ever have been. But their denominational affiliations have become somewhat less structured. Less likely now to be Methodist or Lutheran, they are drifting towards more informal forms of evangelical Christianity.

Similar surveys in recent years have shown an increased number of Americans claiming no religious affiliation. But the Baylor survey proposes that those seemingly-secular increases merely reflected the decline in formal denominational affiliation. When Baylor delved into the practices of supposedly unaffiliated respondents, it discovered that many of them do attend church or Bible studies, pray, and associate with some form of Christianity or other organized religion.

Many, especially in evangelical churches, do not realize that they are worshipping as part of larger organized bodies. Mega-churches, such as Rick Warren's 20,000 member Saddleback Church in California, do not advertise their denominational flavor — which may help them attract the religiously uninitiated. Saddleback, for instance, is connected to the Southern Baptist church, but does not broadcast this affiliation.

The Baylor survey found that only about one in ten Americans is not religiously affiliated, a statistic similar to past decades (and less than the 14 percent claimed in other recent surveys). This difference may not sound large, but it represents 10 million Americans.

Many of those 10 million Americans who had inaccurately been counted as non-religious belong to evangelical Christianity, which now accounts for one third of the American population, and is the nation's largest religious demographic. Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics account for a little over one fifth each. Members of black Protestant churches account for 5 percent and Jews for 2.5 percent. Frustratingly, the Baylor survey lumped together all other categories — Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus — which together account for less than 5 percent.

Some results are expected. Easterners are likelier to be Catholics. Southerners are the most likely to be evangelicals. Westerners are the most likely to have no affiliation. Young adults are three times as likely to lack a religious affiliation as older Americans.

Even among that 10 percent who are firmly nonaffiliated, 60 percent believe in God or a higher power, and one third pray regularly. Ten percent of the unaffiliated are attending church regularly. Ten percent of the religiously unaffiliated believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

[plsthink]

alanrobisch2, I agree it's between two perspectives of faith and skepticism, but my point was that the burden of proof lies on those who claim such of an existence. I do not make such a claim, so I do not have to prove or disprove anything. As the late Carl Sagan said: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." And these claims are sometimes force upon to non-believers or to those who believe in a different religion.

[alanrobisch]

plsthink my point is that you can't prove that god exists nor that god doesn't It is a matter of faith for those who believe and it is a matter of sakepticism that a god does not exist. You stated unequivocally that God didn't It is virtually impossible to prove a negative and I believe impossible to prove this.

[plsthink]

"The obligation to prove does *not* lie with the believer." - My goodness. Majority does not equal to being correct.This is what I mean by it is futile to argue/debate with such minds. Majority of Americans believe in ghosts, majority of children believe in the tooth fairy, santa claus, easter bunny (btw, children do not naturally grow up believing in god. They are indoctrinated. Everyone is born as an atheist until their family or community are forcing the child into their cultural beliefs). If it's by numbers, they are more mulsims than christians...so are you willing to convert inot islam as the muslims wish upon you to do? After all, there are more of them than you, therefore they must be right.

[catholicalta]

Not true. The obligation to prove does *not* lie with the believer. The vast majority of humans believe in *some* kind of God (I believe the statistic is greater than 90%). The onus, then, lies with the atheist.

This belief is built right into human nature, the soul, if you like. In addition, children believe naturally in God, until somebody leads them to believe otherwise, or until their own actions lead them to, for convenience's sake, abandon their beliefs. The atheist call that "growing up," while the believer calls that "being corrupted."

[aesop2-2009]

These surveys are interesting. I do not have any friends who identify themselves with any religious group. We were all exposed to the tenets of the Christian religion and rejected them. I would say we are in good company.

[adventurepa]

This is what's wrong with religion in general.

Police were speaking to Roberts' family members and examining suicide notes he left behind that indicated he was "angry at life" and "angry at God," said State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller.

Another religious nut killing kids because he was upset with GOD.

People need to wise up.

[getcentered]

Beware the source of the survey. It's a Baptist school. It is in the interest of the school to make the christian God look alive and well in America. They need all the religious people to feel like they are not alone and that they are part of something big, which in my mind is the exact same reasons that people, accept religion.

It's funny to me how people would rather accept an easy answer for questions about our existence. I think it's kind of lazy and self-righteous, but more and more these days I see people wanting the easy answers for everything.

I believe in God but I do not try and assume I know what it is. If I DID except a man made version of what God is, then I would feel I am lending myself to ignorance.

Even our holidays like Christmas; our children connect the giving of presents to the birth of Jesus. At a time when their minds are most susceptible to influence, we tell them, the reason they get what they want is because of Jesus. My mom celebrated Christmas every year with tree and lights, but never connected the events to something chimerical. For her, GOD is LOVE and the best she could do was give LOVE to us so when we went out into the world we could understand it and pass it on.
Religions are the political systems of the past.
Just like TIME, GOD is man made.

Deep down in every one of us IS a philosopher. Being philosophers is the source for our humanity. We can predict our own deaths and we hope to predict what happens afterward.

[talsian]

"I said that a christian school isn't going to lie. It would look bad on them."

They probably didn't, but they over sampled the elderly and did not correct for it. That's incompetence.

BTW, when I said "11.25% average of 45-64 year olds" I meant "11.25% average for 31-64 year olds"

[bluestardad]

Congressional Righteousness
A grave injustice is upon us and so to a double standard, that the very Republican led Congress, who was shouting from their righteous podiums for accountability of the Catholic Church Leadership for not reporting suspected pedophiles within the ranks of the church clergy, has now been responsible for covering for a member of Congress who is and has been openly soliciting underage Congressional Page Boys for over a year. This blatant betrayal of public trust by those entrusted to make the very Laws of the Land can not be permitted to go unanswered, must immediately be investigated, and those responsible for the cover up and the crime held accountable to the American People.

Michael C. Boetjer
Captain U. S. Army
Double Blue Star Father

[plsthink]

"mperkel prove it"
the burden of proof is on those who claim such existence. But if I lay some logic and reasoning to conclude there is no evidence of such an existence, you won't beleive me anyways. It is futile to argue with such minds.

[intn1]

In response to a list of lying christians a couple of comment pages back, I never said christians don't lie. I said that a christian school isn't going to lie. It would look bad on them. An individual christian will lie (we, all humans, do) but an upstanding christian institution isn't going to. I also agree with the fact that the survey is merely an observance, and to the person who asked what the point of christianity is, it's about being able to be safe and secure in an increasingly darkening world and have confidence in knowing you'll spend eternity in heaven with God, the maker of the world. For some, this isn't much hope, but for us christians, it is. It seems often that everyone expects christians to be perfect and never make mistakes, but one of the key parts of christianity is forgiveness for sins and being not so quick to judge.

[alanrobisch]

mperkel prove it

[alanrobisch]

pls think you couldn't be more inuterably wrong if you tried to be on purpose. Mankind is essentially selfish and children if you haven't noticed learn early the word mine and no. children must be taught to share things to not just think about themselves first. this is a learning process whether in a secular family or religious family.

the frailties of humanity are just that whether you call it sin or what. We human beings are inherently selfish for survival but need to learn to get along with each other. christ's values are those of a loving giving nature where christians are taught to be servants of other even those who are your enemy.

christians often don't follow these values and this can be fairly said, but as you well know the communist party and the attempts to spread it resulted in the death of in excess of 30 million people in the last century. this was a purely secular movement.

Note also that abortion is opposed by many religious groups but secular humanists accept the destruction of over 1 million lives each year for no reason or very good reasons and see nothing wrong with it.

[mperkel]

It doesn't matter how many people beieve in God - God doesn't exist. People are moving to the Church of Reality and embracing Realism as an alternaitve to theism.

There is no god. Get used to it.

[winsors1]

Having read most of the "Comments", it amazes me how societies and cultures feel they have to defend their "religious ideology" when they think it is being threatened!
HELLO!!!! THIS IS A SURVEY!!!!
It is acquired information based upon the responces of X-number of people specific to a questionaire as to "THEIR" religious ideology and it's effect upon our political, social, economic, and religious makeup as a country and culture.
When compared to exisiting information specific to our social and cultural activities there is a direct behavioral and fairly accurate correlation.
Don't take it personally....IT IS A SURVEY!!!!

[talsian]

I just read the study myself. The conclusions drawn are flawed. I will give one example. "No religion" by age group: 18-30= 18.6%; 31-44= 11.4%; 45-64= 11.1%; 65+= 5.4%. Total sample = 10.8%. Notice the "total sample" percent is below the 11.25% average of 45-64 year olds. Now notice that the 18-30 year olds deviate stronger in a positive direction than the 65 crowd's negative (7.35 vs 5.85-). There is a stronger pull up if their pops were equal, but alas they are not. There are more 18-30 year olds than 65 in the total pop, so they should get a stronger representation than the seniors. However, this is not what happened in the survey. This strongly shows that there has been an over-sampling of senior citizens (probably because they are home all day to respond to telephone surveys)! Baylor has not stratified their data to account for possible over sampling! What is this, the amateur night at the science barn?!

[vipaka]

Which God are we referring to here? The god of greed, the god of gossip, or the God of our hearts. The God of my heart is a love-wisdom combination. The wisdom part I had to learn through life's ups and downs and life's jars. The love part is permanent memory. I just know that, and don't have to have an explanation of science to prove that someone greater than man put love in my heart. The wisdom I've learned through the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned from those mistakes, is to follow what I feel in my heart, and not to follow what my head is telling me to do. My heart always tells me the right thing to do. The advice coming from my heart I have learned, is Mother Nature's pschology

[gentryfunk-2009]

I teach world history at a high school in New Mexico. In informal surveys I have done, about 60% of students do not believe god affects their lives and of that group 52% believe in god. From ancedotal evidence I have collected, while folks may say "I believe in god" that belief is not often based on any real experience or knowledge. Even among church going students, few can name the tenets of their religion or even express what their belief is. Not only that, 45% said they would change their beliefs if another, "better" religion came along....

[adventurepa]

This is a good example of how the scientific community has failed to teach the world about Darwin and Natural selection. How the fossil evidence points to every animal evolving.
How the fossil evidence shows at least two species of man exsisted on this earth and how modern man killed the other species.
This article has also shown the lack of education of most americans in these subjects concerning man and the world we inhabit.
There is absolutly no scientific evidence that god exsists nor the devil. Zero evidence that there is a heaven or hell.
However there is ample evidence (remains) that humans evolved from an up right walking ape species in Africa.
That the answers to our questions can be something other then GOD.
Scientist's need to organize and educate.
This is what this article reveals more than anything.

[gentryfunk-2009]

What is interesting about the survey is that people claim a belief in a god, but my informal survey in a high school shows otherwise. Among 665 high school students in my school, 60% believe that a god does not affect their daily lives and of that group only 52% "believe in god". Just from ancedotal evidence, I believe this survey does not reflect what is happening on the ground.