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 The Reason Rally, sponsored by secular organizations, draws a crowd to Washington.
May 29th, 2013
03:06 PM ET
Poll: America losing its religionBy Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) – More than three in four of Americans say religion is losing its influence in the United States, according to a new survey, the highest such percentage in more than 40 years. A nearly identical percentage says that trend bodes ill for the country. "It may be happening, but Americans don't like it," Frank Newport, Gallup's editor in chief, said of religion's waning influence. "It is clear that a lot of Americans don't think this is a good state of affairs." According to the Gallup survey released Wednesday, 77% of Americans say religion is losing its influence. Since 1957, when the question was first asked, Americans' perception of religion's power has never been lower. According to the poll, 75% of Americans said the country would be better off if it were more religious. The poll doesn't reflect Americans' personal religiosity, such as church attendance, but rather how large events and trends shape shared views, Newport explained. For example, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War and the rise of the counterculture fed the perception that religion was on the wane during the late 1960s, he said. Views of a secularizing America peaked in 1969 and 1970, when 75% of Americans said faith was losing its clout in society. A similar view dominated from 1991-94 and from 2007 to the present. Americans saw religion increasing its influence in 1957, in 1962 and at a few points during the Reagan presidency in 1980. This number also spiked to its highest point ever - 71% - after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The pollster didn't speculate on the contemporary factors that led to the current views on faith's influence. Still, the poll numbers are dramatically influenced by church attendance, according to Gallup. More than 90% of people who attend church weekly responded that a more religious America would be positive, compared with 58% of Americans who attended church "less often." The Gallup poll was conducted via telephone from May 2 to May 7. A total of 1,535 people were sampled for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. soundoff (6,389 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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But I wonder why N America has more problems than before? Is it because of more atheists?
Nope. It's because of religious extremists, not athiests and the rest of us.
Nope. The United States has always had problems. I don't recall Atheists being involved in the Salem Witch Trials. I don't recall Atheists being involved in forcing Native Americans from their lands. I don't recall Atheists owning slaves in the United States either. (Not saying Atheists didn't, but they were definitely not causing the problem of the things I stated.)
God lives in hell. Satan lives among us. Evil lives in heaven.
That is the most stupidiest thing I have ever heard. When you have a chance read the Bible front to back.
"When you have a chance read the Bible front to back"
Yes please do, it is the greatest path to Atheism.
Allah Ahkbar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is what it will look like AFTER the rapture.
The only rapture this earth will ever know is when the sun no longer exists millions upon millions of years from now.
Hey I've got some quick advice, don't hold your breathe waiting for the rapture.
Wow. So sure. Absolutely positive, huh? Even people who have no Faith in God, have an unbelievable faith in what modern science is telling them. Just believe everything a scientist tells you. It's so much easier than studying, researching, and drawing your own conclusion. Lazy. Blows my mind how atheism is becoming a "trend."
It's too bad if this is indicating that people just don't believe in some form of a creator (IMO), I do... but, at the same time, it's sickening to have religious groups attempt to convince others they know exactly what should happen... hate is hate, ignorance is ignorance and denial is denial, regardless of what package you wrap it in! I gave up on organized religion long ago, but I believe there is more to my ability to be here and walk this Earth, than just coincidences that led up to my mom and dad having a baby... maybe one day when common sense and religion can co-exist, then we will be a world full of believers... but I'm not naive...
Jesus died for us and loves us all
Like this bigot hire is killing religion.STOP PERSUADING others!
Yeah Jesus definitely loves all those innocent little kids who died in the tornadoes in Oklahoma
Good there are more important things to worry about right now.
Jeebus Christ, I leave for a thousand years and look how fat you all have become.
Personally, I go to church every week. We have to keep getting there earlier and earlier to get a seat, so I guess I'm just not seeing this. I'm very happy with my religion and my faith.
To each his own but, if anything, I see more younger people attending church all of the time.
I honestly don't. Even some of my friends, who are religious, rarely attend church any more.
We have friends who attend church, we are atheists. They go to church on Sunday, we go for brunch while the restaurant is quiet. In other words, they don't bug us with their religion, we don't bug them about the fact they have one.
VEry few folks under 50 at any church I've been to in the past 10 years.
Religion is alive and well, Just another false poll. Less than 10% of america is atheist. 3/4 of americans identifiy as Christian. 2 and 6 people in the world are Christian and that number is growing.
Yes of course. Another "false" poll. But then religion has all the answers doesn't it – and the heck with facts.
If there are more and more Christians all the time, perhaps a large portion of them could quit acting as though they're an oppressed minority? Just because someone doesn't share your views, and would rather not have your religion shoved in their face, does not mean that you're being abused.
Thank God (pun intended).
Religion is the root of all evil. Not faith, mind you, just religion...
AMEN to that! You'd think the Dark Ages wiould have taught civilization the evil side of religion.
that is all.
Religion is a cancer and must be completely eradicated else we'll end up like the taliban.
true.
That sounds very Taliban-ish.....my way or the highway, huh?
Amen brother!
Lol so the poll was conducted on Christians only?
Based on the2nd to last paragraph.
I find it hard 75% would think becoming more secular like what our forefathers wanted, is bad.
The forefathers set up the country based on Christian morals with a freedom of religion for the citizens. I'm sure they didn't mean for any of the religious based laws to become part of the civil law though, such as Sharia.
America needs to introduce part of Shariya Law to stop Gays & Lesbians Rights and Religious will flourish again in America.
America needs to educate the religious bigots about the facts of the LGBT community, maybe then they'd see less moronic comments like yours.
yep we need more people telling other people what to do.
Go say your prayers and stay out of everyone else's bedroom. I doubt my wife and I could be happy under Sharia law. Seems to me it is based on a religion of misery and degradation, particularly for women.
What's really disturbing is that 75% of Americans think we'd be better off if the country was "more religious". What a primitive world we live in. Ironically, many of those who are into religious dogma are among the least ethical people around.
Please provide your irrefutable data. Thanks.
ImIrish: you just need common sense to be able to tell this. A lot of people are like you and don't have any
Hi Mohamud here and here is my picture 🙂
Good. I don't understand how people can believe in sky fairies today? 2000 years ago when we didn't have telescopes and thought that a guy in a chariot dragged the sun across the sky is understandable. But today...?
Religion is dead and it was killed off my the internet with immediate access to information and knowledge. Its impossible to live in a religious bubble. Society is just now waiting for all the people who don't know how to use the internet to die off to see it disappear the way of Greek Mythology.
I say just keep religion to your self. Don't go out and knock on doors,or tell you religion stories to persuade others.keep it to your self.
I the dinosaur God have awaken and will restore my great dinosaurs back to the rightful place as the leading life form on my earth that I made and your silly fake god, jesus, mohamud and other cretons tried to claim.
Allah Ahkbar!!