By Mark Tooley
A recent survey that received major publicity asserted that nearly 20 percent of Americans are now religiously unaffiliated, up from 15 percent just a few years ago. This number of course is concerning though perhaps the media and some Christians have exaggerated its importance. The same survey shows about 40 percent of Americans regularly attend church or other places of worship. Remarkably this number has remained almost exactly the same going back 80 years. And although we often like to imagine that American in the distant past was much more devout than today, there’s historical evidence that as a percentage more Americans are regular church goers today than were in the 19th and 18th centuries.
This survey showed that over 90 percent of Americans still profess to believe in God, including two thirds of the religiously unaffiliated. Only 6 percent are atheist or agnostic. Even 20 percent of the unaffiliated pray daily and many even of them attend church. 76 percent of Americans say pray is very important, the same number as 25 years ago. 76 percent of Americans say religion strengthens morality. Nearly 60 percent say religion is very important to them.
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