TruthBook Religious News Blog

Sept. 18, 2008

By Sommer Ingram
Staff Writer,

More than 40 years ago, the first two major surveys of American beliefs and practices were published in American Piety. For the first time, Americans could examine the many different facets of religion and the impact on people's lives.

Now, a team of Baylor professors picks up where this survey left off.

Do Americans really believe in Santa Claus? Does God directly speak to people? Should the Bible be taken literally, word-for-word?

These, along with other in-depth questions relating to religion, belief in the supernatural, and the voice of God, comprised the new wave of the National Baylor Religion Survey on Americans' Beliefs and Practices.

Baylor scholars from the Institute for Studies of Religion have released the results from the follow-up to their 2005 landmark study on American religious attitudes.

The results, which are compiled of mailed questionnaires from fall 2007 collected by the Gallup Organization, represent a national sample of 1,648 English-speaking Americans aged 18 and older. The John M. Templeton Foundation provided funding.

The first wave of the study was conducted in 2005, and included questions that dealt with controversial books, such as the Da Vinci Code, whether Americans are truly losing their religion, and how often Americans pray.

The results of the most recent study were published in "What Americans Really Believe," written by Dr. Rodney Stark, Distinguished Professor of the social sciences and co-director of ISR.

The book will be available in stores Sept. 19.

Participants in the study had to identify what religious denomination they could most accurately identify themselves as, as well as the name of their current place of worship.

The questionnaire included questions about the strictness and structure of the church, and spiritual experiences.

The study found that 20 percent of the population has heard God speak to them, 16 percent believe they have received a miraculous physical healing, and 55 percent believe they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel.

Women, blacks and Republicans are more likely to have spiritual experiences.

The Baylor survey found that belief in traditional Christian values actually decreases the tendency to be superstitious, as measured by beliefs in the paranormal and occult. The religion survey was also the first to ever ask about a belief in Santa Claus.

"An argument out there says that these beliefs are the same as religion," Bader said. "They think that believing in UFOs is as crazy as believing in the divinity of Jesus. But we have been able to discount the fact that Christians will believe anything."

The researchers also assessed the attitudes of various churches to issues in the general culture.

Fifty-two percent of the population said their place of worship would forbid abortion, while 32 percent said their church would merely discourage it.

Only 44 percent of the population said their church would forbid homosexual behavior, and 38 percent of church members said their church would forbid premarital sex.

Despite the myth that the Atheist population is growing, the study found that the percentage of Atheists living in America hasn't changed from 4 percent of the population over the past 60 years.

Fifty-six percent of Americans who claim to be irreligious actually pray.

Megachurches, which are congregations comprised of more than 1,000 members, were also addressed in the study.

It is a widely-held belief that one must worship in a small congregation in order to have an intimate relationship with God, but the study shows that mega-church members actually display a higher level of personal commitment by attending services, tithing, and attending a Bible study group.

People in megachurches also participate in more outreach activities and witness to others more: 83 percent of the megachurch population had shared their faith with a friend within the past month, compared to 52 percent in small churches.

The team will continue their research until 2018 and will come out with new studies every other year. The gap between myths surrounding the religious attitudes of Americans and what Americans really believe is continuously shrinking as these Baylor professors persist in their research.

Labels: American Piety, National Baylor Religion Survey on Americans' Beliefs and Practices, Sommer Ingram, spiritual experience