Over at Uncommon Descent, vjtorley reports on a recent survey of 996 adults conducted between October 17-18, 2013 regarding American religious beliefs. Some of the more notable findings include:
- 3 out of 4 adults believe in God: 76% believe in God, 14% don’t believe in God, and 10% are not sure.
- Young adults aged 18-29 are the least likely to believe in God. Only 63% believe in God. A full 25% don’t believe in God, and 12% are not sure, for a total of 37% God doubters/deniers. That’s 2 out of 5! Compare this to other age groups:
- 30-44 = 14% atheist
- 45-64 = 9% atheist
- 65+ = 6% atheist
Atheism increases 50% or more from generation to generation. If this trend continues, the next generation of young adults may contain more God doubters/deniers than believers.
- The typical atheist profile is a white male Democrat postgraduate living in the Northeast.
- White people are 150% more likely to be an atheist than black people (15% vs. 6%), and 50% more likely than Hispanics (15% vs. 10%).
- Males are more likely to be atheist than females (15% vs. 9%).
- More atheists live in the Northeast than the South (18% vs. 10%).
- Postgraduates are 60% more likely to be atheist than high school drop-outs (18% vs. 11%).
- Democrats are 60% more likely to be atheist than Republicans (16% vs. 10%).
- Some people are just confused
- 1% of self-identified Protestants are atheists
- 4% of self-identified Catholics are atheists
- 7% who identify as “other Christians” are atheists
- Among Protestants, 1% identify as atheists.
- 22% of Jews are atheists (only 57% believe in God)
- 8% of atheists and agnostics believe in God.
Thinking to Believe 
November 14, 2013 at 11:03 am
so Jason does this kind of statistics makes you doubt God , do you think religion will vanish?
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November 14, 2013 at 11:11 am
Another question would be… How many people respond “I believe in god” in surveys because they have been taught that atheist are inherently evil or because they don’t even want to accept it for themselves for other reasons?
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November 14, 2013 at 11:20 am
No, these statistics do not make me doubt God. If I was basing my beliefs on head-counting, I would have more reason to believe than doubt anyway. But statistics are not the basis for my faith. I believe in God based on the evidence, as well as my personal encounters with God.
It’s possible that religious belief and practice could wane in this country, but it’s extremely unlikely that it will vanish altogether. At worst, it would become a large minority. But keep in mind a couple of things. First, religious belief is not static. Beliefs change. The young are often the most uninformed, and often form opinions based on a lack of information, or bad information. I would expect for many within the 18-19 age bracket to become theists of some sort as they grow older and have a chance to reflect on the question of God’s existence in more depth. By the time this age group enters the 30-44 age group, perhaps only 15-20% will still identify as atheists.
Secondly, keep in mind that these statistics are about Americans. We only constitute a small percentage of the population. While religious faith is waning in our country, as it has in many European countries, it is on the rise in many other large countries such as Russia and China. From what I have read, on a global scale religious belief is increasing.
Jason
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November 14, 2013 at 11:22 am
Atomic Mutant,
I could also ask how many atheists identify as atheists simply because it’s the cool thing to do, or because they don’t want to believe in God because His existence messes with their moral autonomy.
Jason
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November 14, 2013 at 12:00 pm
“I could also ask how many atheists identify as atheists simply because it’s the cool thing to do, or because they don’t want to believe in God because His existence messes with their moral autonomy.”
You could ask that.
The answer would be ‘a few, but not statistically many’.
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November 14, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Well in my country we have like 11 % of atheists , agnostics and other altogether and I live in Europe .
In my philosophy class we are now dealing with Einstein and his views on God , do you have any book in mind to recommend for our discussion for I am on the side who argues for a personal Creator and even tho I have good arguments I think I need something more ‘professional’ for the debate since there are some good arguments on the other side and Einstein was a brilliant mind ?
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November 14, 2013 at 12:31 pm
Actually 95% of people in my country are believers according to statistics which I believe is due to us being so near the center of Catholicism , those statistic according to which there are 11% atheist and agnostic are quite old.
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November 14, 2013 at 1:13 pm
NotaScientist,
That answer may be correct, or perhaps not. Likewise, that answer may be the correct answer to Mutant’s question, or perhaps not. The simple fact of the matter is that we can’t second guess people’s answers to get to their real thoughts or motives.
Jason
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November 14, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Emma,
That’s why I noted “many European countries” rather than “all.” Clearly not all have gone the route of secular atheism. I should note that there is a difference between looking at a country’s church membership rolls, and looking at the number of people who believe in God. It’s my understanding that in some European countries, they determine the number of adherents to various religions by looking at the number of people on that denomination’s roll books, which include people who were baptized there (for example), but may not have attended since they were children. So, for example, a country could show that 90% of the population is Lutheran, and yet only 50% of that number go to church, and 30% of the population doesn’t even believe in God. So it’s important that the poll you are looking at gives figures for a person’s self-identification to the question “Do you believe in God?”
If you are looking for good arguments for God’s existence, I could recommend a number of books, but I doubt you have time for that. Instead, check out some apologetic websites such as reasonablefaith.org, str.org, and http://pleaseconvinceme.com/academy/#course2. I would particularly recommend that you read up on the Kalam Cosmological argument for God’s existence, since Einstein’s general relativity played a key role in the discovery of the universe’s temporal beginning, a fact utilized in the argument for God’s existence.
Jason
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November 15, 2013 at 9:14 am
Thank you.
Actually I am going to a book fair in a few days and I was planning to buy some apologetic books ,which ones would you recommend?
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November 15, 2013 at 11:55 am
I have read all the articles on your site on onenesspentecostal and most of your articles here , I have researched for 3 years and I can say that the evidence for God is strong and overwhelming , Christianity makes sense of all things but I feel like I cannot surrender to it because I still struggle with the idea that God was invented because man fear death , I don’t see any other reason for atheism than that , apart from it atheism is dead , it is the only sound argument for atheism that I struggle with – all other arguments seem to be good on surface but when I really thought about them they seemed ridiculous , I have read your article about this but I still wonder (yes I know that the God of Christianity is not exactly the God mankind would invent).What are your reflections on it , have you ever struggled with this kind of doubt?
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