WHY ARE AMERICANS SO RELIGIOUS?

From the New York Times:   The USA has 63% Christians, a decline of 15% in 18 years:

However, people have stopped leaving churches en masse, according to a new study released by Pew Research.

Further from the Pew Research Center:

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• 22% of Americans are categorized as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) because they say they think of themselves as spiritual or they consider spirituality very important in their lives, but they neither think of themselves as religious nor say religion is very important in their lives.
• 58% of Americans fall into an overall or “NET” Religious category because they say they think of themselves as religious or they consider religion very important in their lives. This group can be subdivided into U.S. adults who are both religious and spiritual (48%) and those who are religious but not spiritual (10%)
• 21% of Americans are categorized as neither spiritual nor religious because they don’t think of themselves as spiritual, don’t think of themselves as religious, don’t consider spirituality very important in their lives and don’t consider religion very important in their lives.

About the wold:

Note by country with the percentage of population who say religion is very important in their lives:

• 3%    China (but understand that this is driven by national policy)
• 10%  Japan, UK, Germany, Sweden  (wealthier)
• 18%  Australia
• 27%  Canada
• 36%  Israel
• 45%  Mexico
• 53%  USA  (surprising that we are so religious)
• 56%  Greece
• 78%  Iran
• 80%  India
• 88%  Nigeria
• 94%  Pakistan
• 98%  Ethiopia

Muslims are catching up in numbers to Christianity, and they will be equal by 2050.

The no religion group is declining.  This is because religion growth is dominated by Muslim countries where the percentage of people who are not religious is very low.

From Quora:

Based on this, 84% of the world is spiritual/religious, which means 6.3 billion people.

• Half of the non-religious group seem to be spiritual as well, meaning an actual total of 92% or 6.9 billion people.
• This of course does not actually tell you how many people are spiritual, only how many self-identify as a member of a religion.

Religion is playing a less important role today in developed countries:

Big plus for religious people, as they tend to be happier.  After all, this might well be what is most important in life.  The USA is in the middle.  Russia-affiliated countries, Spain and South Korea are at the bottom.

Countries with higher GDP/capita are less religious.

Also:

The USA is the only country with an above-average GDP/capita with an above-average frequency of daily prayer.  Note how much we are an outlier.

We saw something similar above, but here is another graphic showing how oddball the U.S. is relative to other countries of the world.

I've long wondered why Americans were so relatively religious, for my travels through Europe and the Orient showed a lot more skepticism in those regions.  Religion is more a cultural legacy to be slightly honored, celebrated in holidays and festivals, but mostly ignored as a factor in real life.  I still have no answer as to why this attitude has not also evolved in the USA, although here is an attempt at an explanation from Sacred Matters Magazine.  

A better answer here:

First, the United States has not had an established religion and competing religious sects for hundreds of years. This means that religious denominations in the U.S. have had to compete to survive with little room for anything that makes them less relevant to their members. In contrast, the vast majority of countries either have an established or dominant religion that received state protection for most of its history in the country, or still does have an established or predominant religion. So, in other countries there hasn't been the same need to compete which has allowed these faiths to get away with doing things that prevent them from maximally engaging their members.

Second, in direct reaction to Communist atheism, the United States during the Cold War also adopted various measures (putting "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, putting "In God We Trust" on currency, posting Ten Commandments monuments) in what courts call "ceremonial deism" in an effort to boost the link between an American identity with a sense of being religious in a way that seemed inclusive at the time when almost everyone in the U.S. was Jewish or Christian and most atheists (there were few) were in the closet for their own safety given the prevailing environment.

Third, and closely related to the first point, is the empirically well established reality that religious institutions thrive when they protect a threatened culture, while they wilt when they are tightly aligned in beliefs with a secure, establishment culture that does not need religious institution protection.

All presidents end their major speeches with something like:  God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

The cold opening of Saturday Night Live spoofed the disastrous meeting President Zelenskyy had with President Trump and his cronies.  Mike Myers played Elon Musk.

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