San Diego – The rate amongst Americans who usually pray or believe in God has been declining since the past few decades until it reached an unprecedented low in 2014, a study from the San Diego State University suggests. The study led by psychology professor Jean M. Twenge at SDSU found that the percentage of people in the United States with strong religion bonds has declined dramatically.
In order to ascertain a well-based study, researchers studied almost 60,000 volunteers from the U.S. General Social Survey. Researchers at SDSU were able to analyze the volunteers’ data from as far back as 1972 until 2014, thanks to the nationally representative survey of American adults.
According to the study’s results, the amount of Americans who claim they don’t believe in God doubled by 2014 while the ones who said they never prayed went up to five times in contrast with older generations.
Considering this data shows the comparison between the early 1970’s religious affiliation and the 2014’s more secular population, this could mean religion is becoming extinct among Americans.
It appears as if people born before the 40’s had a stronger link with their religion, religious traditions and principles, while people born after 1975 show to be less religious compared to the older ones. It’s a peculiarity worthy of mentioning, as the common population in churches and religious events are mostly elderly people.
Even though the findings show that today’s Americans don’t follow religious practices in accordance with previous generations, it’s significant to mention the study was only based on the major religions ruling in the U.S.
An overlooked feature
The considerable decreasing of Americans engaging in religious traditions showed in the study at SDSU could be credited in part to the wide variety of other religions being practiced in the United States.
Buddhism, Scientology and Judaism are only a few of the widely practiced religions among Americans, and although Christians and Catholics outmatch them, they pose a significant factor worth to be taken into account for the study’s veracity.
In addition to other religions applied by Americans instead of the “default” ones, the never-ending battle between science and religion could have also collaborated with the reduced number of people in the U.S. less likely to identify as religious.
As science continues to provide answers to the origins of the human being, religious-based theories of humans coming from God and many similar statements found in the Bible are being disproved.
“It was interesting that fewer people participated in religion or prayed but more believed in an afterlife,” said the led author of the study Jean M. Twenge at SDSU.
Source: US News