Fewer Americans say they believe in God or pray regularly \u2014 yet more people believe in an afterlife nonetheless, a new study finds.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a generational thing, with millennials the least likely generation to say they\u2019re religious or to take the Bible literally, the team at San Diego State University, Florida Atlantic University and Case Western Reserve University found.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent years, fewer Americans prayed, believed in God, took the Bible literally, attended religious services, identified as religious, affiliated with a religion, or had confidence in religious institutions,\u201d the team wrote in the journal Sage Open .<\/p>\n
\u201cThe large declines in religious practice among young adults are also further evidence that millennials are the least religious generation in memory, and possibly in American history,\u201d said psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, who led the study.<\/p>\n
The team looked at the General Social Survey, in which up to 58,000 people are interviewed annually about a variety of factors, including religion.<\/p>\n
They answered questions such as: \u201cWhat is your religious preference? Is it Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, some other religion, or no religion\u201d and \u201cDo you believe there is a life after death?\u201d<\/p>\n
They found big changes since the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the late 1980s, only 13 percent of U.S. adults expressed serious doubts about the existence of God (choosing one of the less certain response choices such as \u2018I don\u2019t believe in God,\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t know whether there is a God and I don\u2019t believe there is any way to find out,\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t believe in a personal God, but do believe in a Higher Power of some kind,\u2019\u201d the team wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong 18- to 29-year-olds, 30 percent had serious doubts by 2014, more than twice as many as in the late 1980s (12 percent).\u201d<\/p>\n
Fewer also believe the Bible is the actual word of God.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1984, 14 percent of Americans believed the Bible \u2018is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men\u2019 rather than the word of God; by 2014, 22 percent of Americans believed this, a 57 percent increase,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
In 1998, 49 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds said they were moderately or very religious in 1998. By 2014 this had dropped to 38 percent.<\/p>\n
And while 15 percent of adults said they were \u201cnot religious at all\u201d in 1998, 20 percent did in 2014.<\/p>\n
Yet 80 percent of Americans said they believe in an afterlife in 2014, up from 73 percent in 1972-74.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was interesting that fewer people participated in religion or prayed but more believed in an afterlife,\u201d Twenge said. \u201cIt might be part of a growing entitlement mentality – thinking you can get something for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fewer Americans say they believe in God or pray regularly \u2014 yet more people believe in an afterlife nonetheless, a new study finds. It\u2019s a generational thing, with millennials the least likely generation to say they\u2019re religious or to take the Bible literally, the team at San Diego State University, Florida Atlantic University and Case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2577,1135,58,123,86,1132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}