Faith among Americans
America is not collapsing as Europe is not.
It is because most of Americans have a concept of or faith in God.
Most Americans still pray, believe in God
BY LESLIE GRIMARD
Fri Jul 19, 2013 11:12 EST
July 16, 2013 (Heritage) - A new Pew Forum poll shows that 48 percent of Americans say a decline of religion is bad for American society. But do fewer Americans consider themselves faithful these days?
Over the past two decades, the number of Americans who mark their religious preference as "none" has undoubtedly grown. Only 8 percent checked that box in 1990. As of May of this past year, 20 percent of all Americans identified themselves as having no religion.
Despite an increase in these "nones," the majority of Americans are still religious. Over 90 percent of Americans believe in God or a higher power, and almost 40 percent attend religious services weekly.
Even among those who claim no particular religious affiliation in an earlier Pew Forum survey, roughly 80 percent still believe in God or a universal spirit, and a majority describe themselves as "religious" or "spiritual." According to a recent survey by researchers at Baylor University, most of those who say they have “no religion” also pray.
A survey reports a simpler result on this theme: how much do Americans believe in God?
July 28, 2008
Majority of Americans Believe in God
A large majority of Americans (78%) say they believe in God and 15% say they don't believe in God, but do believe in a higher power.
http://www.gallup.com/video/109111/Majority-Americans-Believe-God.aspx
This rate might be comparable with a result on the same topic in any Islamic nation. However Muslims have only one type of image of Allah, since the Koran is so demanding. Americans are freer in this context:
Americans View God in Four Different Ways (Froese, Bader 2010)
How Americans View God
By Austin Cline
Belief in God is popular in America, but not everyone who believes in God believes the same things about God....
In the end, they collected all the data into four different types of gods:
Authoritative God: 28%
Benevolent God: 22%
Critical God: 21%
Distant God: 24%
According to Froese, believers in the Authoritative God "divide the world by good and evil and appeal to people who are worried, concerned and scared. They respond to a powerful God guiding this country, and if we don't explicitly talk about (that) God, then we have the wrong God or no God at all."
...
Many believers in the Distant God would probably prefer to be called spiritual rather than religious and it's an attitude that taps into old, long-standing Deistic attitudes that can be traced back to the founding of America. Believers in the Distant God seem to adopt the attitude that morality, politics, and social structures are ultimately their responsibility to develop and get right. For whatever reason, they don't believe God is actively looking out for them or is going to fix things they get wrong.
http://atheism.about.com/od/American-Beliefs-God/a/Americans-View-God-Four-Different-Ways.htm
And the 3/11 Great Tsunami Disaster of Japan in 2011 has served as the catalyst of studying concrete contents of Americans' belief in God.
56% Say that God Controls Everything that Happens (PRRI/RNS 2011)
Americans Believe God Controls Everything
By Austin Cline
The Public Religion Research Institute and the Religion News Service conducted a survey on Americans' views about God in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. When asked how much they agree or disagree with the statement "God is in control of everything that happens in the world," people responded:
Completely Agree: 35%
Mostly Agree: 21%
Mostly Disagree: 17%
Completely Disagree: 17%
Don't Know / Refused: 2%
http://atheism.about.com/od/American-Beliefs-God/a/God-Controls-Everything.htm
18% Have Doubts About God due to Innocent Suffering
Suffering Causes Few Doubts About God
By Austin Cline
The Public Religion Research Institute and the Religion News Service conducted a survey on Americans' views about God in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. When asked how much they agree or disagree with the statement "Seeing innocent people suffer sometimes causes me to have doubts about God," people responded:
Completely Agree: 5%
Mostly Agree: 13%
Mostly Disagree: 24%
Completely Disagree: 48%
Don't Know / Refused: 2%
http://atheism.about.com/od/American-Beliefs-God/a/Doubts-About-God-Innocent-Suffering.htm
The God is almighty and omnipotent. What looks complicated to human eyes can be simple to the God. What looks like an unbearable tragedy for mankind can be nothing to the God, since He can compensate for any pains, fear and burdens of victims and the sacrificed. So, the rate of 48% of Americans who trust in the God despite so many terrible incidents in the human world is somewhat sound.
So, America is not collapsing due to those believers. And if the US should tumble and fall, Americans will be probably able to survive and revive like Western Europe after the great collapse of the Roman Empire though it was centuries after.
*** *** *** ***
Mar 12:4 And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.
Mar 12:5 And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.
Mar 12:6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
Mar 12:7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our's.
Mar 12:8 And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.
Mar 12:9 What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.