Lifeway Research Paper

Americans have been believing in God less and less in recent months, and new research is shedding light on why that may be.

Wilde quotes Eisenhower in “the transcendence of faith in Americas heritage,” criticizing the validity of his statement, bringing up Americans that have fought and died “for freedom while not believing in “spiritual weapons.” She gives the statistic of only 70 to 80 percent of Americans are affiliated with a form of Christianity and three percent with Judaism; therefore, several million Americans do not believe in the God the Pledge refers to.

I feel that it is more important than ever that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, put it all out there on the line. We should be telling everyone what the saving grace of God can do for them. We already talked last week about when you experience Jesus, you can’t help but love and it is our job to get that word out there to everyone. So why are there so many Christians who don’t do it? In 1991 authors James Patterson and Peter Kim took on the task of surveying America about several different topics. The results were given in their book entitled “The Day America Told the Truth.” In the chapter dealing with America’s religious beliefs they stated that 90% percent of the people questioned said that they believed in God. Yet they also discovered

The last of the study’s research questions is to find out “Demographically, who has no confidence in the federal government?” Demographic categories investigated include religion, race, education, sex, and age. Sociologists believe that those who are religiously involved and have liberal religious beliefs have a higher level of political participation and therefore a higher confidence in federal government (Brady, 1989). More specifically, “the closer a person is to a church, the more likely they are to support the political authorities” (Hoffman, 1985).

While the majority of Americans (almost 80%) identify themselves as Christians, religion in the United States is characterized by both a large diversity of believers and variable attendance and adherence levels (Eck, 2002). However, an August 2010 poll showed that almost 70% of Americans believed that religion was losing influence in everyday life, yet most feel that is a negative thing even though politicians continue to discuss religion while campaigning (Religion Losing, 2012). In light of these statistics, many religious scholars have turned to more quantitative methods to establish ways to both improve service attendance, solidify the financial health of churches, and establish a faith-based understanding of current psychographic trends. One of the predominant ways this is happening is through people like George Barna.

Bush had with Christians, Obama partook in religiously focused events in hopes of structuring an evangelical backing as well as quieting down his supposed Muslim faith. In the face of creating an advisory council specifically to reach Catholic voters and citing the Bible at different events, Patricia Smith in “Religion & the White House” claims that “18 percent of Americans still believe he’s a Muslim, according to a 2010 Pew Research Center Poll.” An individual can only go so far to convince an assemblage of people of a particular lifestyle before it simply becomes ignorance. In the 2012 presidential race, it was Barack Obama’s competition that was at the forefront of the religious

It’s been said the two topics never to discuss with friends are politics and religion. This is because both seem to evoke quite a few strong emotions. Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” This is a very broad yet accurate definition of what religion is for most people. It’s something that is in common household discussion yet many do not know what really makes something a religion in the first place. Religion or the belief in some supernatural God(s), is what people use to explain the unexplainable.

In today’s world, many Americans are religious--some more than others. Many Americans think that

How many Americans believe in some type of God? A poll taken in 2013, showed that 74% of U.S. adults claim to believe there is a God. In past years, that percentage has been in the 80’s (Jones). This could mean that people are taking other beliefs, such as agnosticism, into consideration. An agnostic is described as “a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God” (OED).

As he addresses extensively the subject of evangelism, it appears that Fay is very confident that is book is well needed due to the “sin of silence” that has gripped the Church and the body of Christ, in general. He has a powerful style that uses examples from his personal life and experiences to shows his reader that it is easy to share the Gospel. He also uses witnessing examples from the lives of various Christians to show the readers that they too can share the gospel without fear. He advocates a simple and non-confrontational approach to evangelism and states that God can use even imperfect attempts to share the Gospel. What God cannot use is the Christian’s silence about the Gospel.

However, in about portion of the nations where test sizes permit examination, including Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, the religiously unaffiliated are about as likely as Catholics and Protestants to state that administration approaches ought to advance religious qualities and that religious pioneers ought to have in any event some impact in governmental issues. Enthusiasm for legislative issues changes generously over the Latin American nations studied. Greater parts say they frequently or some of the time take after what is happening in government and open undertakings in Panama (65%), Puerto Rico (63%), Venezuela (63%), Paraguay (60%), Argentina (57%) and Chile (57%). In alternate nations surveyed, not as much as half of the general population intently takes after political news, with intrigue most minimal in Guatemala (31%) and the Dominican Republic

I hope this statistic is still true: At most 20 percent of people who live in any given community in America attend a religious worship service on any given weekend. I hope it’s true because, if its not, odds are the percentage has dropped instead of not

In a 2016 poll conducted by Gallup.com, 89% of Americans states that they believe in God. Moreover, in a different 2014 poll conducted by Gallup.com 75% of Americans stated that the bible was the word of God. Additionally, in a 2014 poll conducted by Pew research found that only 3.1% of Americans consider themselves atheist and 4% consider themselves agnostic. It is a common narrative that in recent years less people are following religion atheism is growing. This narrative is somewhat correct, as more people are becoming atheist, the trend is happening much slower then most people believe. The fact that 89% of Americans believe in God clearly shows that God matters in todays world. The reason that belief in God is proof that God matters in the present world is because people who believe in God have different views on society than people who do not. The 2014 Gallup poll referenced earlier also found that 28% of Americans believe that the bible is the exact word of God and should be taken literally. This implies that this 28% of people believe in verses from the bible like “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” Moreover, in more religious places in the world the idea of God has an even larger impact.

The U.S. News took a survey asking 1000 people questions about their belief in God, or how God played a role in their lives. As a result, 93 percent of people said that they believed in God or a universal spirit (Sheler, 8). Also, when asked to describe their beliefs about God, 76 percent said that they consider God to be a heavenly father who can be reached by prayer (Sheler, 8). That is a remarkable amount of people to belief that they have such a connection with something that they have no actual insurance of existing. Now, obviously America is considered a moral society, so wouldn’t all this faith play a key role in that observation?

Although the connections between religion and politics may be controversial to some, it really isn’t surprising that they overlap. For many people, religion and politics are significant parts of their ideology and morals; they both shape ethical decisions and certainly influence how we view society and the interactions within it. Politics and religion, along with ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, are important identities that shape how others see us, and how we see ourselves. Thus, it makes sense that religious beliefs may influence a person’s politics or vice versa. While I believe a mix of these identities, and thus personal experiences, has the greatest impact on politics, religion clearly is a significant influence