The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the second installment of its American Worldview Inventory 2025 on Wednesday.
The research found that overall, 60% of Americans do not believe God exists or that He “affects lives.” Nearly half of self-identified Christians (47%) and a slightly smaller share of theologically identified born-again Christians (40%) said the same.
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He added, “It seems obvious that political, economic, legal, or institutional improvements are not what America needs most desperately today. Those cultural arenas merely provide prescriptions that address the symptoms, but not the disease.”
The report, he said, is evidence that God has been “reconfigured into our own image in order to fit within our personal comfort zone.”
Among Americans who believe that God exists and “affects lives,” a plurality (38%) defined God as the “most important element” in their lives, while 23% described God as “extremely important” in their lives, and 18% characterized God as having a “very important” influence on their lives.
Fourteen percent of respondents who believe in God agreed that He was “somewhat important” in their lives, while 5% considered God either “not too” important or “not at all” important. The remaining 3% placed their views on God’s influence in their lives into the category of “it varies.”
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Eleven percent of those surveyed identified their relationship with God as “arms-length,” while 18% said “He exists and is capable of all things, but do not have a personal, interactive ‘relationship’ with Him.”
The remaining 7% of respondents remained uncertain whether or not He interacts with people and did not “know how to describe their relationship with Him.” One-third (33%) of “those who believe the God of the Bible exists and affects lives” defined God as having a “total” influence over their lives and choices, while another third (33%) reported that He had “a lot” of influence on their lives, which “often” reflected His guidance.
Nineteen percent of respondents who believe in God contended that He had “some” influence over their lives, which “sometimes” reflected His guidance. Six percent pointed to God as having “not much influence” on their lives and indicated that any influence He did have was “hard to identify.” Four percent credited God with having “no identifiable or conscious influence” on their lives, while the remaining 3% maintained that His influence on their lives was “consistent or unknown.”
When asked what they believed God provided to them, a majority of those who believe in God cited Him as a source of hope (72%), comfort (71%), peace (65%), guidance (64%), compassion (60%), joy (60%), mercy (58%) and purpose (54%). Smaller shares of respondents listed God as a source of miracles (47%), opportunities (41%), security (38%), responsibilities (33%) and power (31%). Less than one-quarter of those who believe in God think He provides identity (24%) and boundaries (19%).
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“Discovering that fewer than one out of five of the people who acknowledge God’s existence and influence are aware of any life boundaries that God provides to them explains even more” he concluded, reflecting on the connection between the research and “the trials and tribulations, as well as the multifaceted demise of the nation.”
According to Barna, “Finding that two-thirds of those who believe He exists and is influential nevertheless say that God has not given them power to serve Him and pursue His agenda reveals even more about the deceptions and weakness of American Christianity. And the list of startling insights into a Christian faith that bears little resemblance to biblical teaching and to God’s intent could continue.”
The data in the report is based on responses collected from 2,100 U.S. adults in January. The survey has a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
* Original Article:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/less-than-half-of-americans-believe-god-exists-barna-survey.html
