A new study shows that most adults in 16 countries say it is not necessary to believe in God to lead moral lives or have good values.
The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Survey found that most respondents said it is “not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.”
Respondents included people from Australia (85 percent), Canada (73 percent), the United States (65 percent), Sweden (90 percent), France (77 percent), the United Kingdom (76 percent), Malaysia (22 percent), the Netherlands (76 percent), Singapore (54 percent), Spain (74 percent), Belgium (69 percent), Israel (50 percent), Italy (68 percent), Germany (62 percent), Greece (60 percent), Hungary (63 percent) and Poland (67 percent).
Malaysia was the only country where the majority of respondents (78 percent) said it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral.
Israelis were nearly evenly split over whether belief in God is necessary to be moral, with 47 percent saying it is necessary and 50 percent saying it is not, The Christian Post reports.
Among U.S. Protestants, the number was evenly split on the belief that believing in God was necessary for living a moral life, with 49 percent saying it is and 49 percent saying it is not.
About 69 percent of white nonevangelical Protestants said it is not necessary to believe in God to live a moral life, while about 59 percent of black Protestants and 57 percent of white Evangelical Protestants took the opposite view.
Among Catholics, 63 percent said that it is not necessary to believe in God to live a moral life.
The survey also looked at the belief through the lens of politics. The results show that Democrats and those who lean left are more likely than Republicans and those who lean right to think that a belief in God is not necessary to live a moral life, with 71 percent and 59 percent saying it is not necessary, respectively.
For other countries surveyed outside of the U.S., “people who place themselves on the political left are more likely than those on the political right to say that belief in God is not necessary to have good values,” the survey said.
Americans under 50 also seemed less likely than older Americans to say that believing in God is necessary to live a moral life.
Photo courtesy: ©Unsplash/Eunice Lituanas
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
