Almost half of US millennials ‘don’t know, believe or care if God exists’, study finds

Four in ten millennials are atheists or apathetic towards God, an Arizona Christian University report found

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More than four in ten millennials in the United States do not know, believe or care if God exists, according to Arizona Christian University research.

A report produced by the university’s Cultural Research Centre concluded that the generation of Americans currently aged between 18 and 36 are “threatening to reshape the nation’s religious parameters beyond recognition”, with 43 per cent either atheists or apathetic towards the existence of God.

Millennials are also more likely to “define success in life as happiness, personal freedom or productivity without oppression” than their generation X and baby boomer predecessors, the report says, and are more likely to hold liberal social views such as deeming abortion and sex before marriage “morally acceptable”.

But despite fewer millennials believing in God than previous generations, 57 per cent still consider themselves to be Christian according to the report, which was based on a survey of 2,000 American adults.

This is down more than a quarter compared to the oldest generation surveyed – variously termed the silent, builder or ‘Mickey Mouse’ generation – aged between 76 and 97, among whom 88 per cent identified as Christian.

George Barna, an evangelical Christian and founder of the Cultural Research Centre, said that the millennial generation are attempting to reshape American society to fit their preferences.

“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,” he said.

“It is hard to imagine a louder, clearer, and more direct challenge to the future of the Christian faith in the United States.”

Millennials and generation X – those aged between 37 and 55 – were also found to be more interested in horoscopes and the principle of Karma, more likely to accept the theory of evolution and more likely to believe that God is not involved in people’s lives than their parents and grandparents.