Results of a new Gallup poll show that a majority of Americans feel religion can answer all or most of today’s problems, but a significant number say religion is out-of-date and not relevant to them. Fifty-seven percent of those polled believe that religion has the answers to life’s problems, a decrease from 60 percent in the 2000s and 63 percent in the 90s. The 30 percent who feel religion is out-of-date is the highest number recorded since the question was first asked in the 1950s.
Interestingly, the number of Americans with “no opinion” on this question has dropped in recent years compared with previous decades. This may indicate that Americans have a somewhat higher degree of certainty about their views on religion now than in the past.
The Gallup report concluded as follows: “Clearly, the 30% who say religion is not relevant today differs markedly from the 7 percent who felt that way in 1957 or the 15 percent who felt that way in 1981. Still, the majority of Americans continue to believe that religion can answer today’s problems, another indicator that the nation, by far, remains a religious country. And, with the trend leveling off in recent years, it appears this aspect of the secularization of U.S. society may have slowed, if not halted, for the foreseeable future.”
