New Survey Finds Almost Half of Millennials ‘Don’t Know, Believe or Care’ Whether God Exists

A new survey has found that nearly half of Millennials don’t know, believe or care whether God exists.

The survey, conducted by the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University, found that “our nation is undergoing a seismic generational shift in worldview driven by younger Americans—many of whom do not know, believe, or care whether God exists, and who overwhelmingly reject traditional moral values as irrelevant today.”

The poll was conducted as a part of CRC’s American Worldview Inventory 2021 (AWVI 2021).

AWVI 2021 found that Millennials (ages 18 to 36) are “significantly less likely to embrace key traditional biblical teachings, including the nature of God, ‘original sin’, salvation, creation, life after death, human purpose, and biblical morality.”

According to the CRC, Millennials are “far more likely than any other generation” to:

Define success in life as happiness, personal freedom, or productivity without oppression
Consider an abortion performed to reduce personal economic or emotional discomfort to be morally acceptable
Consider premarital sex with someone expected to be their future spouse to be morally acceptable
Deem reincarnation a real possibility
Be liberal regarding fiscal and social policies
Champion liberal theology
Be among the “Don’ts”—people who either do not know if God exists, do not believe that He exists, or do not care if He exists

The survey also found that only 16% of Millennials can be classified as born-again Christians, far less than the 40% of those age 55 and older, and the 26% of Gen X adults.

George Barna, who serves as the CRC Director of Research, said this about the results: “Gen X and the Millennials have solidified dramatic changes in the nation’s central beliefs and lifestyles. From a nationwide perspective, the Christian Church has done shockingly little to push back. The result is a culture in which core institutions—including churches—and basic ways of life are continually being radically redefined.”

“The Millennial generation in particular, seems committed to living without God, without the Bible, and without Christian churches as foundations in either their personal life or within American society,” Barna added.

But lest all the blame for the Millennial generation’s current crisis of faith be placed in their hands, Barna added that this cultural transformation has been underway for decades.

“In the Sixties and Seventies, Baby Boomers opened the floodgates of questioning cultural foundations. Baby Busters, or Gen X, continued that cultural transition, though less emphatically. Millennials are emulating the aggressiveness of the Boomers in their determination to reshape culture according to their preferences. It is hard to imagine a louder, clearer, and more direct challenge to the future of the Christian faith in the United States,” he said

These results are alarming for many reasons, not least of which harkens back to John Adams’ famous quote, in which he wrote that, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our government, which was founded to be limited in role and in scope, needs something to restrain the people’s passions and appetites. That necessary ingredient was intended to be religion. Unfortunately, that restraint on American’s vices seems to be slowly disappearing.

For parents who may be wondering what concrete steps they can take to help their children establish a solid biblical foundation, check out Focus on the Family’s “The Truth Project.” This home-based Bible study features R.C. Sproul, Os Guinness and Gordon Pennington, and is hosted by Dr. Del Tackett, who takes you through 13 video lessons on the importance of living the Biblical worldview in daily life.

You can follow this author on Parler @ZacharyMettler

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