A majority of Americans now say they should not sure concerning the existence of God, in accordance with a recent survey.
The General Social Survey, which has charted societal trends within the United States since 1972, found that just below 50 per cent of Americans were unwavering of their belief of God’s existence.
That’s in comparison with two-thirds of American adults in 1993, and 60 per cent in 2008, holding unshakeable faith.
The poll conducted by the University of Chicago’s research group NORC found that 34 per cent of Americans never go to church, the very best figure recorded in five a long time.
However, just seven per cent of respondents said they didn’t imagine in God in any respect. And nearly three-quarters of Americans said they did imagine in life after death, a figure that has remained regular for several a long time.
Church membership, attendance and non secular belief has been declining for a long time, gathering pace through the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a Pew Research Center study, as recently because the Nineties, roughly 90 per cent of US adults considered themselves Christian.
Roughly two-thirds of US adults now discover as Christian, with many of the shift coming from those raised within the church becoming disaffiliated as they get older.
A study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that 27 per cent of Americans claimed no religious affiliation in 2022, up from 23 per cent in 2020 and 16 per cent in 2008.
At the identical time, the variety of Americans who identified as White evangelical Protestants has declined from 23 per cent in 2008 to 13.6 per cent in 2022.
Declining religious belief and church attendance are highest amongst Generation Z
(AP2017)
White Catholics now make up 12.6 per cent of the adult population, in comparison with 16 per cent in 2008.
One group bucking the downward trend is nondenominational Protestants, or “nons”.
The General Social Survey found that “nons”, who typically attend mega churches, make up 15 per cent of the population and were the second largest religious group after Catholics.
Declining religious rates are most pronounced in younger generations.
A 2022 study by the Survey Center on American Life found that 34 per cent of Generation Z were unaffiliated to any church, in comparison with 29 per cent of Millenials and 25 per cent of Generation X.
The General Social Survey, conducted in-person, on the net and in phone interviews, is second only to the US Census as a reliable source of knowledge for social scientists, in accordance with a University of Chicago press release.
