81% of Americans Believe in God, Down from 92% in 2011

81% of U.S. adults say they believe in God, down six percentage points from five years ago and the lowest in Gallup's trend. https://t.co/IZ9b1NC9bc pic.twitter.com/Ky6JC77qy0

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) June 17, 2022

For the 2011 number, see here. Note also that "Gallup has found that Americans are much less likely to attend church, become members of a church or rate themselves as confident in organized religion than to simply believe in God's existence."

Comments

[Noscitur a sociis]

Good.

[DaivdBehar]

Although an atheist, I support religion. I am with Weber Religious societies are more prosperous. Religion is 100 times better than government at persuading people to be nice to each other.

The religious Pyramids still bring in $5 billion in tourist dollars to Egypt. We are far more well off economically than shithole Europe. They live like animals, no matter the leftist fake propaganda.

It is ironic that this shit profession plagiarized the supernatural doctrines of the Medieval catechism and perverted them. Not even the Medieval Church believed in mind reading, in forecasting by men. Those were supernatural powers they attributed to God in accordance with their faith. The lawyer profession is more atavistic than the Catholic Church. The Church renounced Scholasticism in the 19th Century. This stinking profession remains steeped in it, which is illegal in our secualr nation. They also picked up the business model, the methodologies and the language of the Inquisition, a successful racket that lasted 700 years, and greatly enriched the Vatican. It only ended when French patriots beheaded 10000 high church officials, the model for the remedy for our Inquisitors.

[DaivdBehar]

Maybe as our nation becomes more secular, this shit profession can stop dressing like priests, stop sitting atop altars, as if they were superior to us, stop the standing the sitting, the standing, the sitting. You stink. You are not superior to us. All you have to validate your profession in utter failure is men with guns. They will not be hard to overcome. You need to repent you stinking, toxic, failed lawyers.

[SRG]

We are far more well off economically than shithole Europe. They live like animals, no matter the leftist fake propaganda.

Either you've not been to Europe, or you have and are lying.

[Michael P]

We are economically better off than all the major countries of Europe. Europeans don't literally live like animals, but they do live more like lower-midlle-class Americans. One of the things that I remember most from visiting Granada -- right up there with the Alhambra -- was that all the single-family houses in town had walls around their property that were topped with large chunks of broken glass embedded in mortar. It said a lot about crime.

[Sarcastr0]

Europe is not a monolith, just like America.

But come on, you don't need to defend 'they live like animals.'

[David Nieporent]

Either you've not been to Europe, or you have and are lying.

You omit the possibility — the established fact, specifically — that he's mentally ill.

[Mr. Bumble]

So what do they yell out when having sex?

[Bob from Ohio]

"Good."

When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything.

[BadLib]

"When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything."

When men stop believing in a god they believe in science, logic, and cause and effect.

[Bob from Ohio]

"they believe in science, logic, and cause and effect"

Like believing a man is a woman because they feel ["identify"] like they are one?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Like not believing -- or at least claiming to believe -- that silly fucking fairy tales are true.

Choose reason. Every time. Especially over sacred ignorance, dogmatic intolerance, belligerent ignorance, and childish superstition. Be an adult. Or, at least, please try.

[JasonT20]

Like believing a man is a woman because they feel ["identify"] like they are one?

If a person does not have a religion telling them that God made the first man from clay and the first woman from the first man's rib or similar fantasy, then that person might accept that the human mind might have states and experiences other than what God intended. That person might also be more open to learning new information that contradicts their priors and personal experience.

As a cis-gender man, I cannot relate to the idea that my gender does not match my XY chromosomes and unambiguously male genitalia. Of course, I also cannot relate to the idea of finding men sexually and romantically attractive, since I am heterosexual, but I am glad that there are women that do. So, it is does not seem so out of the realm of what is 'natural' to accept that there are some men that are attracted to other men. Given how much of the human mind that we don't yet understand, I don't think it impossible by any means for a person to have an experience of feeling like their gender does not match their biology. Nor do I think that it is necessarily some kind of mental illness that needs to be 'cured' if they do feel that way, any more than homosexuality would be (which it isn't, despite what people's biases led them to think in the past).

[Don Nico]

Oh, sure. Can you actually believe what you wrote?

[LawTalkingGuy]

That would be way more persuasive if human history (and present) wasn’t filled with believers (or pretend believers) causing great harm to people (and themselves) either explicitly in the name of the deity or with the belief that the deity will forgive and reward them in the end.

[Bob from Ohio]

Religion has likely killed fewer people overall than 20th century non-believers did.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Even accepting this dubious proposition - so what? Why would it be better for more Americans to believe something that isn't true because in the last century other people who also didn't believe the untrue thing did something bad?

[LawTalkingGuy]

Wow. What a great defense of religion. "Likely killed less" (and that's not even getting into harms that don't include killing.)

I mean, FWIW, the Nazis' most enthusiastic collaborators in Europe were typically Catholic partisans (Croatia, Slovakia under Tiso, Hungary, Vichy France, etc.) And of course they were put into power with support of Protestant traditionalists. Oh and European antisemitism, with its long and murderous history, was in major part driven by Christian religious beliefs well prior to the formation of Nazi race pseudoscience.

[Stephen Lathrop]

LTG — Mark Twain, who was as accomplished as an essayist as he was as a humorist, wrote a challenging essay which puts the origin of anti-semitism back to the pre-Christian era. The essay is based on the kind of amateur sociological–historical generalizations which lately get denounced as anti-semitic cliches—Bernstein would not like it. But it is clearly written from an overwhelmingly pro-Jewish premise. We will never have the chance, but it would be a delight to unleash Bernstein on Mark Twain, and see what Bernstein got back in return.

The Twain essay is titled, "Concerning the Jews."

[gormadoc]

You either fucked up your order word or did you really mean to say that religion, over the millennia it has existed, has killed fewer people than non-believers? The partition of India killed 1-3 million, due almost entirely to sectarian violence. The Japanese, driven by religious certainty in their divine right to rule all of the East (hakkou ichiu), killed 10-30 million civilians alone and 3 million more Chinese personnel. Thankfully US casualties were barely a blip on the overall loss.

Once you get out of the 20th century you start getting into more religious wars: Muslim conquests from Arabia, the Reconquista, Crusades, etc. Christian wars over denomination in 1547-1648 killed millions, depleting many of the German states.

[Toranth]

You think the Japanese Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere and preceding actions were driven by religion?
Do you also think the American Civil War was a religious war because some people cited God and the Bible as their reasons for fighting?

Most "religious" wars have little to nothing to do with religion. Even in the Germanies during the Wards of Religion, most of the fighting was purely political, with various princes changing religions like clothes to gain justifications for doing whatever they were going to do to their neighbors anyway.

[Krychek_2]

Bob, your argument would be far more persuasive if not for all the crazy shit theists have believed over the years.

[Sarcastr0]

Aren't you the guy who thinks lying to help your side win in politics is the smart thing to do, Bob?

I believe in God, but I also note that there are plenty of atheists on this thread who evince more morality and principle than you.

[Voize of Reazon]

Of the 81%, 11% think his name is Donald.

[Doug Heffernan]

Silly Voize, they know Donald isn't God. God sent Donald to save america, much like he sent Jesus. Being God's chosen one is very different than being God.

It doesn't matter if Donald's entire worldview makes a mockery of core Christian values like humility and empathy. God wouldn't have chosen him if he didn't have good reasons. To say otherwise is to say that God doesn't know what he is doing.

[Sarcastr0]

Is God speaking to you on this matter?

[Frank Drackman]

The rest still believe Barak America is, (Peace be upon Him)

[DaivdBehar]

Islam is a patrilineal religion. Barak attended a madrassa in his formative years. There, he learned, Death to Omrika.

[MatthewSlyfield]

How many think his name is Hunter Biden?

[Sarcastr0]

People think Hunter Biden is God?

[BravoCharlieDelta]

The other 19% worship the State. They also bootlick the Federals every chance they get.

[SRG]

Oh you fucking idiot. You clearly have no understanding about atheism whatsoever.

[JasonT20]

I think that the proper response to anything BravoCharlieDelta has to say is WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot.

[Jerry B.]

I’m surprised. I thought most Democrats didn’t believe in god, based on how they blame religion for so many problems.

[LawTalkingGuy]

You can believe in a deity and still be extremely skeptical of organized religions and their role in society.

[Doug Heffernan]

Yes. The two hardly seem to hardly even be related. Church is something like the kiwanis club or the elks lodge, only with the membership dues of a high end country club.

Metaphysics is something else entirely.

[Sarcastr0]

I don't see Democrats blaming religion for much. I've not heard 'opiate of the masses' in years.

I think that's a persecution complex you're bringing in there.

[Bob from Ohio]

"I don't see Democrats blaming religion for much. "

Really? No blaming Evangelicals or Fundamentalists for bad things?

You might need new glasses.

[wolfefan]

Hi Bob. That's not blaming religion. That's blaming adherents of a particular sect, denomination, or theological viewpoint. I've seen many conservatives, and conservative Christians, over the years blame Muslims for things too. Neither is necessarily fair nor just, but also neither is blaming religion itself.

[Jerry B.]

Read the comments in the Washington Post any time there's a story about religion, and you'll see plenty of blame from Democrats.

It could be that the Post's commentariat is more hateful than the average Democrat, but that's where I see most of their opinions.

[Don Nico]

"It could be that the Post's commentariat is more hateful "

Jerry,
Not "could be," but "is."

[Sarcastr0]

...I'll take your word for it.

I hear more class war nonsense in the lefty sites I read.

[JasonT20]

It could be that the Post's commentariat is more hateful than the average Democrat, but that's where I see most of their opinions.

As someone that frequents the comments of a nominally libertarian publication and that used to frequent the comments at the Wall Street Journal when I subscribed to it, I can say from experience that the commentariat of any publication is not at all likely to be representative of its readers. There seem to be two main types of people* that comment on articles online. Those that are highly partisan or ideological and want to be seen 'owning' those on the other side by like-minded folk and people that just feel the need for intellectual debate and aren't getting it anywhere else. Only one of those groups really gets what they want most of the time.

*This is the set up for one of my favorite jokes: There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary numbers and those that don't.

[Toranth]

Have you not been reading anything about abortion these last few months? You've posted many times on posts here, so I assumed you actually read some of them.
Many people, including posters here, attack religion and blame it for many ills.

[Sarcastr0]

I’d say around here it’s a counterexample. Religiosity incomes up rarely. I do have Rev. muted maybe you don’t ?

[Sarcastr0]

The only observation I've seen is that a lot of these conservative Christians are not very Christ-like.

[CJColucci]

Then you're an ignorant rube who thought wrong. Plain and simple.

[Frank Drackman]

Best response I heard from a Marine Fighter Pilot, when asked why he didn't go to Church.
"Because it's made up superstition"

Frank

[DaivdBehar]

It is a lawyer immunized, and empowered scam. Give us your money now, you will be rewarded after your death. Best ever. Yet it is the sole path to resisting government quack tyranny according to the Supreme Court.

[ah....Clem]

Glad to see that the USA is moving in the direction of rationality and away from superstition.

It would be interesting to see data from the US that Pew has on Western Europe. Instead of a simple up or down "Believe in God or not?" they ask about

After asking respondents whether they believe in God or not, the survey asked further questions to better understand what belief in God (or lack thereof) means to people. Based on their responses to follow-up questions, researchers categorized respondents into one of three groups:
1) those who believe in God as described in the Bible;
2) those who do not believe in God as described in the Bible, but do believe there is some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe; and
3) those who do not believe in God or any higher power.

Results are here:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/05/29/beliefs-about-god/

[Dan Schiavetta]

Good.

People who don't have a sense of certainty about ultimate things tend to treat each other better.

[AmosArch]

Yup those Jacobins, and Callesists and communists sure knew how to treat their fellow men.

[Dan Schiavetta]

They were among the most religious people in history. That their religion was ideological instead of theistic makes no difference at all.

[Sarcastr0]

But right there you are using a standard that the survey in the OP does not. Maybe that's what you're looking for, but we have no idea if that's going on.

I also think plenty of those who believe in God use it as a spur to treat people better.

[LawTalkingGuy]

The belief in a supernatural being with infinite power, infinite knowledge, and infinite capacity to forgive offering eternal paradise to people who have faith and follow the rules (however they interpret them) seems to prevent a distinct motivation for action than just fervent belief in an ideology.

[Sarcastr0]

I would say the number of religiously-motived charities shows that's not quite right.

I don't love how evangelical a lot of those charities roll, but faith leading to charity is absolutely a thing. Plenty of exceptions, and plenty of secular charities, but churches do give big too often to ignore.

This is how it is with faith - it lead to a lot of abolitionism, and also rationalized slavery.

[LawTalkingGuy]

There was a typo I meant “present” not “prevent”

And when I say motivation I mean to do good or ill. Belief in god as a motivator is always distinct from a fervent commitment to any ideology because stakes and source of authority are different.

[Sarcastr0]

Ah, gotcha. I thought it parsed a bit weird.

I can't really disprove the 'faith makes you what you are, only moreso' hypothesis, but it has not been my sense that it's that simple.

[AmosArch]

You're just proving my point. Look at your newsfeed. It certainly doesn't seem like people are any less willing to ruin their fellow man over a difference in opinion.

[Don Nico]

Do you care to prove that crisis?
with hard fact as from the 21st century

[AmosArch]

Of course people are still pretty much as religious as they've always been and probably always will be. They're just moving on to the new post modern religions of social justice. Of course this iteration is the final TRUTH(TM) thats fundamentally different from the silly superstitions that preceded it just like the Muslims believed and the Christians before them and the pagans before them.

In 1000 years after countless subsequent iterations there will probably be another set of cults with incomprehensible ideologies.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Of course people are still pretty much as religious as they've always been and probably always will be.

This is a nation founded among (not on) rival religious principles. Over time, it has experienced massive upheavals in religious tradition, and highly variable levels of overt religious practice—with variations both temporal and regional. Pre-Enlightenment Calvinism had little in common with that tradition as practiced today, or even as practiced as long ago as 1730. History acknowledges at least two, "Great Awakenings," and ruminates over whether there have been more. The founding era was probably the least religious in the nation's history, unless the last 50 years surpass it.

A notion of continuous religious devotion as a thread running steadily back to the beginning of American national experience is one of the more commonplace historical errors. It was not like that.

[Polaris]

It would be one thing if a shift away from theism were the result of an elevation of reason, logic and critical thinking. But why do I suspect it's actually more a result of rampant self-involvement and apathy towards anything not on social media?

[Noscitur a sociis]

Because you're a fucking moron?

[AmosArch]

You know the TRUTHTM unlike that other guy in that other sect with his silly superstitions. Its not like you're reenacting all the petty squabbling between all the other past sects in history you've dismissed. You're special.

[Sarcastr0]

You sure seem to think you have special insight.

[AmosArch]

Nah, even dumb people should be able to see what is obvious. But everyone is stuck on the 'God equals fanatical religion and vice versa' meme for some reason.

[Sarcastr0]

Your posts are pretty fanatical!

[apedad]

But isn’t (real) belief in some fairy tale kinda ‘fanatical?’

[AmosArch]

Like belief in the 89 genders?

[AmosArch]

The atheists like to claim its due to society suddenly being enlightened but that doesn't really make sense since various historical periods from the Greeks, to the Romans, to the early 20th century also had a burgeoning secular class and a secular philosophical system that seemed to nearly satisfactorily explain the world like we do today. Not to mention all you need to do is to look at Tiktok for a minute to dispel the notion people are much more intelligent these days.

Nah, its primarily due to the amount of distractions we have around us. Secondarily its due to the unprecedented shift from family/local community to atomized nationstate societies that go along with this. Tertiary factors are the rise of postmodern religious systems which have managed to seize the reins of power to marginalize traditional belief systems and have adapted themselves to the ADHD Internet/Social media driven dispersal systems much better than their competitors.

Personally this feels like ultimately just the turn of another cycle and fits in the pattern with the rest of history of ideologies rising and falling and eventually there will be a new crop of ideologies to displace the current crop of sjw religions then war with each other online and on the battlefield, rather than the post religion nirvana atheists posit. Religion/creed/justice whatever you want to call it, has shifted a bit to adjust to the new societal structure but they are still here and as strong as ever and probably will always be here.

[apedad]

So you acknowledge that you’re on the losing side now.

[AmosArch]

Due to firsthand experience I do have some specific dislike for the fad cult du jour but really there is no winning or losing except for those who wish humanity's fundamental nature would change since truth is not a popularity contest. And since today's state religion will be displaced by whatever meme people obsess over tomorrow and that will be replaced in turn and so on.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

If new religions are on the way, they may differ substantially from the old-timey ones because they are likely to take care not to conflict with scientific understandings and general levels of education and understanding that traditional religions did not take (and could not have taken) into account when crafting their dogma.

In other words, fewer dopey stories that a reasonably educated and moderately intelligent 15-year-old would recognize as nonsense.

[Shamie Ervin iv]

The great American novelist, Herman Melville, believed in God in a way, of sorts. He was mad at God because perhaps He didn't exist.

Mark Twain believed in God but committed a sort of comic blasphemy by writing his book, _Letters from the Earth,_ a series of letters written by Satan back to angels in heaven after he had been dispatched to earth to see what was going on. Twain would not allow the book published as long as he was alive, but you could tell, even from the time he wrote his great novel, _Huckleberry Finn,_ he took quite a few pokes at God. IIRC, even after Twain's death his daughter did not want the book published.

I don't know which I enjoy reading more -- Henry Miller or Mark Twain. And Charles Dickens took pokes at a non-intervening God too, in every Dickens novel I read. So did Jonathan Swift.

As an old man, I also commend to any young lawyer the poetry of Robert Burns.