Most Americans Believe In Biblical God, Heaven And Hell, And Purpose For Suffering By Pamela Danziger for The Federalist
Many Americans hold religious convictions including belief in God, belief in heaven and hell, and the belief that God is not to blame for human suffering.
If you only watched corporate media’s coverage of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Organization abortion case before the Supreme Court last week, you’d think very few people still believed in Christianity and its values, prominent among which is the belief that life is divinely created and precious. But a recent poll suggests the majority of Americans do express a belief in God.
In a survey of some 6,500 American adults, Pew Research Center found that many Americans still hold religious convictions including a deep and abiding belief in God, belief in heaven and hell, and the belief that God is not to blame for human suffering.
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58 Percent Say They Believe in the God of the Bible
In the survey, a majority of Americans (58 percent) define their God as the one described in the Bible. Another one-third (32 percent) believe in a god or spiritual power, although not necessarily that of the Bible. All told, nine in 10 Americans believe in some higher power working in our world.
As for respondents’ religious affiliation, Pew found some 66 percent identified as Christian — 42 percent Protestant and 21 percent Catholic. Another 28 percent claimed no religious affiliation, including 10 percent who were atheist or agnostic and another 18 percent who said they believed “nothing in particular.”
To square these seemingly contradictory survey findings — 58 percent believe in God of the Bible and 66 percent claim Christian religious affiliation — we can assume some professing Christians may not hold to a strictly biblical interpretation of God. Also, many of those who claim they believe nothing in particular still believe in God or a higher power of one kind or another.
Most Americans Believe in Heaven and Hell
Trusting in God means he controls our eternal destiny. Nearly three-fourths of all adult Americans (73 percent) believe in heaven.
Slightly fewer (62 percent) believe in hell, but who can blame them? The prospects of being consigned there for eternity are grim. It’s a place of torment (51 percent believe in physical suffering and 53 percent in psychological anguish) and eternal separation from God (49 percent).
On the other hand, Americans believe heaven is a place where one is free from suffering (69 percent) and where we are given perfectly healthy bodies (60 percent). God is there (62 percent), as are one’s loved ones who’ve passed on (65 percent).
Americans Don’t Blame God for Suffering
The philosophical question of why a good God would allow earthly suffering initially drove Pew to the survey, in which pollsters found some 80 percent of Americans believe the suffering in the world comes from the actions of people, not God.
That’s because God gives us free will. A slightly smaller percentage (about seven in 10) agree with the statement: “Human beings are free to act in ways that go against the plans of God or a higher power.”
