One-fifth of Americans do not believe in God

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The percentage of God believing Americans is on decline, as according to latest Gallup poll, the percentage of Americans who say they believe in God has dipped to the lowest number in the past nearly 80 years.

According to media reports, the Values and Belief poll, conducted from May 2 to 22 this year showed 81 percent of people answered that they believe in God, which is down six percentage points from the 87 percent of respondents who said they believed in God in the 2017 poll.

This year is the lowest percentage in Gallup’s trend since the public opinion polling company first asked the question in 1944.

This year’s poll found 17 percent of Americans said they do not believe in God. When asking the question first in 1944, again in 1947, and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s, a consistent 98 percent of respondents said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92 percent of Americans said they believed in God.

A subsequent survey in 2013 found belief in God dipping below 90 to 87 percent, roughly where it stood in three subsequent updates between 2014 and 2017 before this year’s drop to 81 percent.

The poll found that the belief in God has plummeted the most in recent years among young adults and people on the left of the political spectrum, namely liberals and Democrats.

Gallup said those groups show drops of 10 or more percentage points comparing the 2022 figures to an average of the 2013-2017 polls. Most other key subgroups have experienced at least a modest decline, although conservatives and married adults have had essentially no change, according to the polling company.

The poll found the groups with the largest declines are also the groups that are currently least likely to believe in God, including liberals (62 percent), young adults (68 percent) and Democrats (72 percent). Belief in God is highest among political conservatives (94 percent) and Republicans (92 percent), which Gallup said reflects “that religiosity is a major determinant of political divisions in the United States”.

Why such a large number of Americans have become non-believers or not believing in God is certainly an important question. One of the many reasons would be frustration and lack of opportunities that had prevailed in the United States even three decades ago. Another reason is, American societies are increasingly becoming politically polarized while psychological hostility between the liberals and conservatives in on rise at an alarming level.

It is not only Americans but majority of the people in the Western nations are becoming non-believers particularly during the COVID crisis period that has been continuing since the beginning of 2020. Western politicians had given hope to people stating a vaccine would help people from getting freed from the fear and health risks of the pandemic. But after taking two consecutive shots and even a booster dose, politicians and medical experts in the Western countries are gradually becoming silent in telling people the reason as to why vaccine does not help people from getting infected by COVID virus. Now mental stress of the American people in particular and those in the Western countries would significantly intensify as those nations are suffering from unbearable inflation as well as fear of a possible cruel hunger or food crisis in the near future.

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