This Many Americans Believe In God, Ghosts & UFOs

Just in time for Christmas, the one time of the year that even the most reluctant Christians go to church, a new poll finds that the percentage of Americans who believe in God is at an all-time low.

A Harris Poll found that, while most U.S. adults believe in God (for all religions), the percentage of believers has declined from 82 percent in 2005 to 74 percent today. Faith in religious phenomena has also decreased, with less people believing in miracles, heaven, hell, the resurrection of Jesus, and the Virgin Birth. Conversely, belief in Darwin’s theory of evolution has increased 5 percent from 42 percent in 2005 to 47 percent today. Let's also note that of all the political parties, Republicans are the least likely to believe in evolution (36 percent Republicans, 52 percent Democrats, 51 percent Independents).

Unsurprisingly, the poll found that older generations are more likely to believe in God and religious phenomena than their younger counterparts. In fact, since 2007 the number of Americans who identify themselves as “not religious at all” has nearly doubled from 12 percent to 23 percent.

The poll also included statistics on some non-religious beliefs. The survey also found that “42 perfect of Americans believe in ghosts, 36 percent each believe in creationism and UFOs, 29 percent believe in astrology, 26 percent believe in witches and 24 perfect believe in reincarnation.” The generational divide in this section generally worked the opposite way — the older the survey participant was, the less likely they were to have these beliefs.

Depressing recap: More people (58 percent) believe in the devil (that red guy with horns) than Darwin’s theory of evolution (47 percent), and almost as many people as those who believe in Darwin’s theory believe in ghosts (42 percent).

On a brighter note, get at me 26 percent who believe in witches…let's swap spells!

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