This article will analyze data and explain reasons why the majority of Generation Alpha is non-religious, and that the United States is no longer a Christian nation by majority. Who is Generation Alpha? They are being defined as those born since the year 2010 – children of the Millennials (primarily Generation Y), and soon to be of Generation Z (post-millennials; ≈ 2000-2020). More on definitions & classification: https://thetruthsource.org/generation-z-millennials-and-other-demographic-generations/ .
According to Fluxtrends.com, “2018 saw the first group of millennials’ children enter the primary school system. These children are expected to be the wealthiest, most highly-educated and technologically-connected group to date… According to McCrindle, an estimated 2.5 million Alphas are born globally every week…
While their parents, the millennials, are informally known as digital natives, many alphas will have a digital footprint before they even understand the term… Gen Zs, the group born between 1995 and 2010 grew up when social media was being established. For them it’s a tool. For alpha’s, it’s a way of life…
Alpha’s (will be) exposed to multiple digital platforms. Businesses will have to adapt to radically new ways of interacting and communicating with alphas… In primary and secondary school, alphas will move from a structured, auditory method of learning to a visual, hands-on method. They will acquire problem solving skills and experience peer-to-peer learning. Connected classrooms will be the norm… iPads rather than textbooks to create projects and share work… Generation Alpha will take on jobs that don’t yet exist…
Generation Alpha will grow up interacting with AI and robots, as well as humans… 40% of millennial parents are open to replace or supplement a human nanny with at stay-at-home robot nanny…”
Classifications
Now, before looking at the data and some of the reasons why they are leaving, let’s examine some definitions and usages of terms. If the non-religious include agnostics, atheists, freethinkers, humanists, naturalists, nones, rationalists, secularists, skeptics, and the unaffiliated, then it should also include the non-practicing.
Unaffiliated means to be “not officially attached to or connected with an organization or group,” it also could mean “not belonging to,” or “not closely associated with,” thus, by definition, many of these hundreds of millions of people in the world under this classification could still be religious individually, but not be associated with any religious group.
Perhaps a better term or classification would be “nonpracticing,” which means “not engaged in,” and relating to religion means, not following its rules, and practices; not believing in or following its doctrines.
After all religion connotes, “the belief in and worship of a power, especially a personal God or gods.” It involves “a system of religious beliefs and practices.” Thus, if you are not practicing ANY of its major doctrines, i.e. – worship, prayer, repentance, righteousness, faith, etc. – then, you are not identified with that classification.
Moreover, the definition should not be engraved by mankind, but from God, thus, if we are to “believe and practice,” the belief must be according to the Most High’s terms, “And now… what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord… for you good (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)?” Understand ‘him’ is relative, for “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24);” but as to Jesus Christ – He is both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
And by that statement, even a great many of His followers/disciples left, for they could not believe or hold that faith – as thus, perhaps appropriately their verse is 666 – John 6:66.
The CLASSIFICATIONS in truth should not be the religious versus the non-religious, or even the practicing versus the nonpracticing. It should start with the believers in the One God of Abraham (Christians, Muslims, Jews) versus the nonbelievers in God. Then ultimately get to the issue of Salvation – Yehoshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ) – “God our Salvation, the anointed one.” And then if will only remain, disciples of Jesus Christ versus all others.
As He said, “whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters and is actually working against Me (Matthew 12:30).” He warned, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill (judge) the soul. Rather fear Him, who can destroy (condemn – Daniel 12:2, John 5:28-29) both soul and body in Hell (Rev. 20:12-15)… everyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess those before My Father who is in Heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny before My Father… (Matthew 10:28, 32-33).”
These things are difficult to grasp, and not understood without Scriptural knowledge and spiritual understanding and counsel (Isaiah 11:2). The “corpses of those who rebelled against the Lord Jesus; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched (Mark 9:48).” How can this be, and is the judgment unfair? Is this for us mortal men to decide?
That is part of the division, those who say, “This is a hard teaching, who can accept it (John 6:60)?” But if you are truly to be a believer in God, a true Christian, Muslim, or Jew – you must take with that classification their Scriptures and teachings – the Holy Bible, Koran and Tanakh. Otherwise, you are nonpracticing and only a nominal believer. Otherwise, you wish to create your own version and false interpretations. Take it or leave it.
But before you choose, understand there are only truly three choices concerning belief in God and the need for Salvation. You believe in the Holy Scriptures, you believe in something else, or choose not the think or choose about such things. In any case, there is only ONE TRUTH, for by reason there is either a Heaven or not, existence beyond the grave or not, judgment or not, a Savior or not, One true God or not.
The Data
When I began researching the decline in religion in former Christian countries, and did Religion: Quantitative Analysis of the World, it was in part due to projections that were assuming that things would continue relatively according to status quos and traditional models. They had unrealistic growth projections for religious memberships. By truth and Scripture, I knew they were very wrong. The truth of the data shows it, the Scripture tells it, “let no one deceive you by any means: for That Day shall not come, except there come a falling away… (2 Thes. 2:3).” One needs little wisdom and discernment to see the continual direction.
To say that the world 2015 population only had 16% of the people unaffiliated was both unrealistic and misleading. To assume that in 2050 there will be 5.7 billion Christians and Muslims, being over 61%, shows that the researchers may be professional, but they are neither true believers in the either the Holy Scriptures or the Koran, both of which show a coming anti-Christ. The researchers used such simple calculating methods, like those that assume evolution, and both do not take in account cataclysmic and mega-culture events.
Like false scientific readings of dating canyons, lake sediment and petrification following changes in the landscape after the Mount St. Helens (Washington, USA) eruption in 1980, this data did not take into consideration things like the Catholic Church priest sex scandals, electronic game usage, CoViD-19, the public education system, demonic doctrines and spirits, politics, laws, the United Nations, parental/guardian changes, social media, drug usage and a thousand other things that drove or drives the actions of mankind.
Thus, they made faulty assumptions about five years ago (2015).
They could see that “the unaffiliated experienced the most growth” between 2007 and 2014, up 6.7% – more than six times the increase in “non-Christian faiths,” and they saw that Catholic and mainline Protestants, as well as Evangelicals were revealing their loses in membership.
And now they see the changes, and they are changing those former projections.
But what is most alarming and revealing is Generation Alpha, is that they are or are becoming nonbelievers in the Alpha and Omega, that is in the Lord God Almighty, nor worshipers of Jesus Christ. In 2014, the young Millennials (born 1990-1996) were at 36% non-religious in the United States, and no better globally.
They grandparents and great-grand parents practiced their faiths with religious attendance, reading and practice. But today more than 50% of America does not regular practice their professed religion. And in 2014, of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center 36% stated they were “unaffiliated (religious ‘nones’)” with any religion – their reasons were: Atheist 6%, Agnostic 7%, nothing in particular 23%. And this was almost equally the case whether male (52%) or female (48%).
Furthermore, that did not include the 1% that did not know what they felt concerning a religious conviction. In 2014, by survey, Christians in America were 56% – that did not exclude those that are nominal only (say they are Christian, but do not practice or confess their religion), nor did it exclude those “Christians” that do not believe or seek to follow the Holy Scriptures.
But time is revealing America’s true religious state. In a 2018 article, “Atheism Doubles Among Generation Z,” Barna Group reported that “more than one-third of Gen Z (37%) believes it is not possible to know for sure if God is real.” They go on to say only “54% of teens” believe in God… Their lack of confidence is on pace with the broader culture’s all-out embrace of relativism. More than half of all Americans, both teens (58%) and adults (62%), agree with the statement, “Many religions can lead to eternal life; there is no ‘one true religion.”
And see that in 2016, only 17% of Generation Z’s population “consider… to be on the side of the Bible,” versus “24% that considered (themselves) to be on the side of science,” or the “31%” that “refer to different aspects of reality” – whatever that ‘really’ means.
The American Enterprises Institute, in a Dec. 2019 article for FiveThirtyEight.com, “Millennials are leaving religion and not coming back,” stated that “Millennials have earned a reputation for reshaping industries and institutions… transform dating culture, and rethinking parenthood. They’ve also had a dramatic impact on American religious life. Four in ten millennials now say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the Pew Research Center… (they) are now almost as likely to say they have no religion as they are to identify as Christian… Millennials have spouses, children and mortgages – and there’s little evidence of a corresponding surge in religious interest.”
“A new national survey from the American Enterprise Institute of more than 2,500 Americans found a few reasons why millennials may not return to the religious fold… (see in section below on Reasons). “
A poll (Qualtrics Panels) of 2,200+ “Gen Z Americans in late 2019” found that 38% were “religiously unaffiliated,” and 2% said “DK or Refused” to answer. This mirrored a 2016 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey which also found 38% unaffiliated and 3% saying Don’t Know or Refusing to answer.
PRRI’s 2016 American Values Atlas was “the single largest survey of American religious and denominational identity ever conducted… more than 101,000 Americans from all 50 states.
PRRI stated that “in 1976, roughly 8 in 10 (81%) of Americans identified as white Christians, and a majority (55%) were white Protestants.” But in 2016, “only 43% of Americans identified as white and Christian and only 30% as white and Protestant.” They also found that “there are 20 states in which no religious group comprises a greater share of residents than the religiously unaffiliated.” Moreover, “American’s youngest religious groups are all non-Christian.” Most of the religiously unaffiliated are “secular (58%).” Also, not much surprise, that “nearly half of LGBT Americans are religiously unaffiliated (46%).”
In 2019, the Pew Research Group asked over 38 thousand people in 34 countries if “it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.” In the United States only 44% said yes, less than the 34-country average of 45%. The once Christian Western Europe had only 22% say yes, Eastern Europe was at 33% yes. Surprisingly India was at 79% yes, and of course the Muslim nations all had very high yes responses from 75% in Turkey to 96% in Indonesia and the Philippines. Israel was at 48% showing there continued secular direction. Most African Christian nations such as Kenya (95%) and Nigeria (93%) were still very high in believe that belief in God and His commands and Scriptures lead to morally.
Generation by generation, America like many formerly religious nations are falling away.
In October 2019, the Pew Research Center article “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,” reported that “the religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip… in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians… down 12% over the past decade (77% – 2009). Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated… now stands at 26% up from 17% in 2009.”
Other evidence of the trend towards non-practicing Americans is that membership and baptisms are down significantly. In 2019, the Southern Baptists saw baptisms down to the lowest level in 30 years. Membership fell to 14.8 million in 2018, the lowest its been since 1987.
And according to CARA, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (Roman Catholic Church), total priests numbers for the Catholic Church is down from 59,200 in 1970 to about 35,900 in 2019. The number of parishes are down for 18,200 in 1970 to 16,900 in 2019.
And although the Catholic population is at 72 million (2019), down from 81 million in 2005, the number of primary school-age children in parish religious education has plunged from 4.2 million in 1970 to 2.2 million in 2019. Due to the loss in enrollment, Catholic elementary schools are down from 9,366 in 1970 to 5,038 in 2019.
Secondary school-age teens in American parishes are down from 1.3 million in 1970 to below 530,000. Likewise, Catholic secondary schools have seen enrollment fall from 1 million in 1970 to 555,900 in 2019; and their schools from 1,986 in 1970 to just under 1,200 in 2019.
And like the Southern Baptists, the Catholic Church has reported that infant baptisms are down from 1.01 million in 1970 to 582,330 in 2019. Most alarming is that Catholics who attend Mass at least once a month is down from 71% in 1970 to 45% in 2019 (before CoVid-19).
https://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/
Lastly, July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Barna research reported that as of May 2020, only “1 in 3 practicing Christians (were) still and only attending their pre-COVID church.” And of those that “identify as Christian… over half (53%) say they have streamed their regular church online within the past four weeks. However, there is still a significant change. And 2021 does not look to bring different news.
Change in Culture:
In July 2018, StarTribune.com reported in their article “as Churches close, a way of life fades,” that “for 100 years, Lutherans… on the Minnesota prairie have come to …La Salle Lutheran church (for) baptisms, confirmations, and marriages. Their grandparents, parents and siblings lie in the church cemetery next door. (But) in August it will become the latest casualty among fragile Minnesota churches either closing, merging or praying for a miracle. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Minnesota has lost almost 200,000 members since 2000 and about 150 churches. A third of the remaining 1,050 churches have fewer than 50 members. The United Methodist Church, second largest Protestant denomination in Minnesota, has shuttered 65 churches since 2000. Catholic …churches fell from 720 in 2000 to 639 in 2017. The fading of this way of life, is due to a choose of another way of life – non-practicing religion.
https://www.startribune.com/as-minnesota-churches-close-a-way-of-life-fades/486037461/
Significant Reasons
Socially Acceptable:
In September 2016, the Pew Research Center FactTank reported that “the factors driving the growth of religious ‘nones’ in the U.S.” included that it “has become more socially acceptable to say they have no religious affiliation…” and that these Americans “don’t hold strong religious beliefs… Another factor is generational change… Nearly eight-in-ten Millennials with low levels of religious commitment describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or ‘nothing in particular’.”
God is not needed for Morals and Values:
The Pew FactTank reported a year later (October 2017) that most U.S. adults now say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good valves (56%).
God’s Existence:
According to a August 2018 Pew Survey, over 60% of the unaffiliated question religious teachings. And it is near 75% for atheists and agnostics. Though about 90% of atheists don’t believe in God (a god), only 37% of agnostics don’t.
Lack of reading the Scriptures:
The real issue is belief in Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures. A 2010 Ipsos survey done in France revealed that “three quarters of French people never read the Bible… and today (2010) half of those under 25 declare themselves to be without religion…”
August 2020, PRNewsWire.com, reported that a LifeWay Research survey revealed that “a majority (52%) of Americans think Jesus is a great teacher yet reject His claims to be God.” That percentage would be about 64% in it included those that were “not sure.”
“Train up your child in the way they should go… (Proverbs 22:6).”
A December 2019 article from the Survey Center on American Life reported that “there are significant differences in the religious upbringing of Americans across generations. Young adults (18-29) are far more likely to have been raised without religion… Roughly one in five (22%) young adults report that they were not raised in any particular religion, compared to only 3% of seniors.”
In 1948, the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of McCollum v. Board of Education held that a public school could not teach religious instruction. June 1962, the Supreme Court declared school-sponsored prayer unconstitutional in Engel v. Vitale. The following year, in Abington School District v. Schempp, the Court disallowed Bible readings in public schools. After over hundreds of years of Christian instructions in schools, from Jamestown, VA (1607) and Plymouth, MA (1620), to hundreds of other cities that had Christian instruction in public schools still the time of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and thousands of cities before the Civil War, in a matter of a couple of decades God was separated from the children in public schools (1960s), and then within a generation they began falling away from belief and religious practice.
Nonreligious 2020 Curriculum
Not only was God removed from public schools, but religious instruction has been replaced with “nonreligious curriculums,” such as the First-Grade Kit for the low price of just over $1,100.
Watered-down Christianity did not help attendance:
Fox News, in 2018 wrote the article “Why Generation Z is less Christian than ever – and why that’s good news.” After stating that Barna reported that “34% of Gen Z’s religious affiliation is either atheists, agnostic or none… and that just 3 in 5 teenagers say they are some kind of Christian (59%)…” they say, “Gen Z has been discipled by their smart phones, taught sex ed by Google, and conditioned to assume that just because they believe something makes it true…” The article says, (Churches) need to stop pretending that if we entertain teenagers then they will stick around after they graduate… (or) if we protect them from everything they won’t question, doubt or walk away… (stop) watering down the Bible… Christianity is not a fairytale for grown-ups invented to make ourselves feel better. Followers of Jesus have nothing to fear from tough questions… The attendance model is not working – training is necessary…”
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/why-generation-z-is-less-christian-than-ever-and-why-thats-good-news
In September 2020, Pew Research reported, not surprising, that religiously unaffiliated (atheists, agnostics and nones) people are more likely than those with a religion to accept homosexuality. However, in the same article Pew makes a unrealistic assumption that the religious “nones worldwide is expected to increase slightly from 1.17 billion in 2015 to 1.2 billion in 2060,” and that “religiously unaffiliated people is expected to fall from 16% to 13% of the global population over the same time period.” This again is ridiculous to fall into the same trap and thing that 45 years things will continue along to same status quo. Moreover, they don’t use future studies but go back a few years for their foundational data. I tell you, the unaffiliated will be over 25% by 2050 if not sooner; and the “none” will increase significantly by 2040.
The COVID-19 Effect:
July 2020 Barna Research reported that one in three practicing Christians has stopped attending church. 53% say they have streamed their regular church online within the past four weeks. However, many, even about 1/3 have stop with any kind of attendance.
Sunday off from work: Many say they needed a full day off from work and all things to rest or do what was needed at home.
Fallen membership:
In June 2015, BBC News published in an article, “The decline of religion in the West,” that at one time England received the Magna Carta (1215) which promised “regard to God and for the salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement of His holy Church.” These ancient words were also greatly used in the Mayflower Compact (“for the advancement of the Christian faith” – 1620) four hundred years later, and throughout many early state documents.
The article reported that Anglicans “fell from 40% of the population in 1983 to 29% in 2004 to 17% last year (2014).” And that “the decline among Roman Catholics… (was) from 10% of the population to 8% over the same period.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-33256561
America seems to be following western Europe’s decline, only a couple of decades behind ancient Europe fall.
But more notable is the admitted disbelief in fundamental doctrines of the Bible. In 2014, out of over 35 thousand surveyed, only 58% still believe in Hell. And for those 18 to 29, only 21% believe in Hell. Likewise, the survey showed that 37% did not believe in God.
In the United States, with likely 100 million non-practicing Christians, and non-believing in God or Christ, we should lament, we should pray… but most are dull. “Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by (Lam. 1:12)?”
The increase in secularism and the non-religious voting is being seen in politics and laws. The state of Washington passed Referendum 90, which requires sex education in all public schools. Additionally, many states are changing their drug laws.
According to CBSnews.com (November 4, 2020), “Drug measures were among 120 proposed state laws and constitutional amendments that were on the ballot in 32 states… Oregon (became) the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine… five more states legalized marijuana for adults…” That makes 12 states to legalize recreational marijuana.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oregon-first-state-decriminalize-cocaine-heroin-measure-109/
Appendix: some explanation for the article
About a dozen years ago (2009), I wrote a fictional novel in which two ministers were on trial for hate speech against homosexuality. In the novel I predicted that same-sex marriage, which at that time was legal in Massachusetts (2003) and three other states, would become legal by 2020, the Jerusalem Temple would be rebuilt by 2027, and the Anti-Christ would appear soon afterwards. I may be off on the Temple, but same-sex marriage occurred quicker.
In 1973, Maryland became the first state to ban same-sex marriage. In 2011, President Obama declared DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act – 1996) unconstitutional (although he had no power in the Executive branch to rule on the Legislative branch’s law). Nevertheless, in 2015 the U. S. Supreme Court made it legal in every state (so much for the 10th Amendment and “the people” having “states” rights). And the United Nations and many other countries pressed for the same.
About five years ago, when a began The Truth Source, one of the first articles I wrote was, “Religion: Quantitative Analysis of the World.” One of the reasons was that many Christian denominations and media services, as well as notable research companies like the Pew Research Center, were predicting an increase in religion adherents (numbers, membership). I would occasionally hear from those in the “business” of “preaching,” say that “revival is coming!” It was frustrating, for I saw the exact opposite and few cared to listen or see the signs.
Thus, about three years ago (2018), I wrote an article, “Why Generation Z Population will be Non-religious.” I did not know it would become my most read article with thousands of views. Well, now as we move into Generation Alpha, I felt compelled to both prophesy and prove that Generation Alpha is (by majority) non-religious and America is no longer a Christian nation.
For more from the original article about Gen Z and non-religious, see:
https://thetruthsource.org/why-the-generation-z-population-will-be-non-religious/
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