An article in the LA Times tells of a new survey called, “American Piety in the 21st Century,” that reveals that Americans believe in four basic types of deity. The survey was conducted by the Gallup Organization for Baylor University.
According to the survey, 85-90% of Americans answered “yes” when asked if they personally believe in God.
But the study went further by asking respondents what sort of God they believed in. The results put the perennial debate over the role of religion in public life in a new light.The survey identifies four conceptions of God, which it labels A, B, C and D.
A is the Authoritarian God, worshiped by 31.4% of respondents. This deity is highly involved, responsible for Earthly events such as tsunamis or economic upturns and “capable of meting out punishment to those who are unfaithful or ungodly.”
B is the Benevolent God, the choice of 23% of respondents. He also is involved in human affairs but isn’t in the smiting business. This God is “mainly a force of positive influence in the world and is less willing to condemn or punish individuals.”
C is the Critical God, who “really does not interact with the world.” But believers in this God — 16% of the sample — still watch their Ps and Qs because God C “views the current state of the world unfavorably” and will punish evildoers “in another life.”
Last but not least is D, the Distant God. Twenty-four percent of respondents endorsed — “embraced” is probably too strong a word — this version of the deity, “a cosmic force which set the laws of nature in motion” but has no interest in human activities.
Finally, there are the atheists, who accounted for 5.2% of respondents. (They aren’t dignified with an abbreviation. F for faithless?)
This seems just a little too simplistic to me. If I had been polled, I wouldn’t have chosen any of those options because God can’t be limited to a simple label like these. The closest thing to who I think God is a combination of both A and B. And even that is still too simplistic for my taste.
One good thing I think this survey does is to dispel the notion that the religion of Americans is uniform.
From the actual findings:
Americans may agree that God exists. They do not agree about what God is like, what God wants for the world, or how God feels about politics. Most Americans pray. They differ widely on to whom they pray, what they pray about, and whether or not they say grace.
I must admit I am surprised at the numbers given in this study. According to the study, barely 1 in 10 Americans is NOT affiliated with a congregation; fewer than 5% of the US population claim a faith outside of the Judeo-Christian mainstream; and Fully a third of Americans, roughly 100 million people, are Evangelical Protestant by affiliation.
This study even found that those who claim to be unaffiliated still have some traditional forms of faith. The majority of Americans not affiliated with a religious tradition believe in God or some higher power; Almost a third of those unaffiliated with organized religion pray at least occasionally; Religiously unaffiliated people are unlikely to attend church. Nine out of ten report never attending religious services; and at least one in 10 religiously unaffiliated Americans has no doubt in the existence of God, believes Jesus is the son of God, and prays daily or more.
This is fascinating stuff to me. They even surveyed these folks on what term they think best describes them and nearly half of them called themselves “Bible believing.” Only 15% call themselves “Evangelical” and only 2 in 100 believe that is the best description.
This is only a small sampling of the findings, as the document is 74 pages long.
My question is this: It’s obvious that American religion/Christianity is incredibly diverse. So 1) When will people start recognizing that fact and stop lumping everyone together under the title “Fundamentalist” and 2) If this many people really do believe in God, Jesus, and attend church, where are the fruits of it?
