Belief in God, Angels, Heaven, Hell, Devil Reach All-Time Low
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new study shows that Americans believe in God, angels, Heaven, Hell and the devil less than ever before.
While most Americans still believe in each religious entity, the percentage of those who do has dropped three to five points since the poll was last conducted in 2016, a nationwide survey of 1,011 American adults revealed.
The study found that 74% of Americans believe in God, 69% believe in angels and 67% believe in heaven. Belief in Hell dropped to 59%, while 58% of Americans believe that the devil is real.
The decline in each of these continues a trend of growing disbelief since the poll was first conducted in 2001.
“As the percentage of believers has dropped over the past two decades, the corresponding increases have occurred mostly in nonbelief, with much smaller increases in uncertainty. This is true for all but belief in God which has seen nearly equal increases in uncertainty and nonbelief,” Gallup’s Megan Brenan explained.
Surprisingly, the poll found that not all Christians believe in all five entities, including only 94 percent of Christians believing in God. Among religious people, Catholics were less likely to believe in all five entities than Protestants.
The study also found that Republicans are more likely to believe in the entities that Independents or Democrats, and households with an annual income below $40,000 were more likely to believe than those making above $100,000.
Belief also changes generationally, with adults aged 55 and older most likely to believe in each of the five concepts, while Americans aged 18 to 34 are less likely to believe.
Women were also found to be more likely to believe than men.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Just under 80% of Americans pray to God, according to a new study.
In a recent podcast appearance, Christian Post reporter Leonardo Blair discusses statistics from a recently published General Social Survey, which provides insights into the state of Christianity in America.
“What the study does, is it reveals how much of a crisis of faith the nation is in right now,” Blair said. “You have more than half the country fully accepting the existence of God or simply just deciding there is no God.”
The study found that 49.6% or Americans believe in God without a doubt, 16.4% said they believe in God with doubts, 5.4% said they believe sometimes, and 14.4% said they believe in a higher power. Only 6.4% of respondents said that they didn’t believe in God at all.
“[Those statistics] really give you an idea of the complexity of the faith landscape we’re dealing with when it comes to God,” Blair said.
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