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Books may sell, but Americans still voice religious conviction

Despite a slew of new books on atheism, the real trend in America might be that Americans talk about faith instead of living it

Date published: 6/17/2007

HENRICO--Thomas Jefferson did it 200 years ago. Karl Marx did it 150 years ago. John Dewey did it 75 years ago.

They all heralded the triumph of reason and the downfall of faith.

Now the popularity of a recent spate of best-selling books by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins--criticizing religion and defending atheism--might seem to augur a similar outcome.

The predictions of Jefferson, Marx, and Dewey were wrong as applied to the United States in the past. Predicting the decline of religion based on the popularity of these new books is wrong as applied to the United States in the future.

More than 95 percent of Americans report believing in God or some form of Supreme Being, according to a recent Pew Forum poll. This percentage has remained virtually unchanged for the last 60 years, or ever since pollsters started measuring religious faith.

Indeed, Americans are embracing religions once spurned, but their skepticism toward atheism remains. Almost all Americans tell pollsters they'll vote for a Jew or Muslim for president, but in a recent Gallup poll only 45 percent say they'd consider voting for an atheist.

Harris, Hitchens, and Dawkins are tapping into temporary disgust over how the Bush administration has applied religion to politics--but it would be foolish to bet this slight turn to secularism will become a widespread or long-term phenomenon.

Proclaiming belief in God has become woven into the fabric of our society. For better or worse, it's as American as apple pie and watching football.

But even if predicting the end of faith in America is far from right, it's not completely wrong, either. Professing religion is one thing, but taking it seriously is another. Religion in America, as religious scholar Robert Booth Fowler observes, runs "a mile wide but an inch deep."

"Moralistic, therapeutic deism" is what sociologists Christian Smith and Melissa Denton found when they recently conducted a nationwide survey of the religious views of American teenagers. That is, most teenagers ask not what they can do for their religion, but what their religion can do for them.

Emile Lester, of Henrico County, is an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Mary Washington. His report, "Learning about World Religions in Public Schools," co-authored by Dr. Patrick Roberts, is available at firstamend mentcenter.org.

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Date published: 6/17/2007