One thing is for sure: Along with the rise of religiously unaffiliated Americans — many of whom believe in God — there has been a corresponding increase in the number of atheists.
Here are some key facts about atheists in the United States and around the world:. And the vast majority of U.
But the European country with perhaps the biggest share of atheists is the Czech Republic , where a quarter of adults identify that way. In other regions surveyed by the Center, including Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa , atheists generally are much rarer. About seven-in-ten U. The median age for atheists is 34, compared with 46 for all U. Self-identified atheists also tend to be aligned with the Democratic Party and with political liberalism.
Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings. At the same time, many do not see a contradiction between atheism and pondering their place in the world. In fact, the Religious Landscape Study shows that atheists are more likely than U. Atheists also were more likely than Americans overall to describe finances and money, creative pursuits, travel, and leisure activities as meaningful.
It is sometimes argued that Christians do good and avoid evil out of a desire for heaven and a fear of hell. Atheists counter with the list of all the atrocities of history in a Christian-dominated world. Still, others say there are no real differences in the morality of the two groups. A study conducted by psychologist Will Gervais found widespread and extreme moral prejudice against atheists around the world. Across all continents, people assumed that those who committed immoral acts, even extreme ones such as serial murder, were more likely to be atheists.
Although this was the first demonstration of such bias on a global scale, its existence is hardly surprising. The trend is clear, religion Christians is on the decline, and Atheists or religiously unaffiliated are on the rise. So the question of which group is moral is important to understand the future of where society is heading. One of the problems in answering this question is twofold. What are the measures that define morality? The other point is, that many people proclaim they are Chrisitan, but in fact, are Christian in name only.
Of course, people would be greatly offended if we tried to define these questions in any detail. One statistic we could look at is criminals as law-breakers of a moral code. Looking at Federal Prisons, whose population could arguably not be very moral — most are criminals after all — the population somewhat mirrors society except for two notable groups.
Protestants on the positive side and Muslims and the negative side — see below or click here. The point here is that pre-prison populations tend to be less religious Christian than the general population in general — though not by much. But answering the question of how Christian is a Chrisitan is rather dubious. Or is it just an excuse for virtue-signaling your righteousness? If one is really seeking morality via their religion, how much time does your shadow darkens a door of a church, or perhaps you spend time in self-study — it would be hard to judge.
Besides, who are you to judge me? According to a survey , 29 percent of Americans never attend church or synagogue, compared to 24 percent of Americans who attend every week. Despite only about a fifth of Americans attending church or synagogue on a weekly basis, almost 40 percent consider themselves to be very religious. Now, a quarter of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, and secularism can mean a wide range of things.
He cited the Humanistic Judaism movement, which sprang up in the U. This raises an issue for researchers, because it suggests their traditional measures of religiosity can no longer be trusted to accurately identify religious people. Sahgal said she was aware of this problem, and sought to make the survey questions more granular so they would capture reality more accurately than the traditional questions alone would have done.
It drilled down further, asking whether they believe in God as described in the Bible or whether they believe in some other higher power. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword.
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