Americans’ views about life satisfaction are shaped by their faith and religious practice, finds a Barna Research Group Poll released April 23.
Pollsters questioned people with an active faith- those who attend church, read the Bible and pray during a typical week- and found that 73 percent strongly agreed that they were very happy with their lives, compared to 64 percent of those who are less active.
Eighty-three percent of those in the active-faith category said their faith is consistently growing deeper, compared to 38 percent of the less-active group. Seventy-two percent of those with an active faith said they felt connected to other people, compared to 63 percent of those who were not as active.
People with an active faith also were more likely to say they were in excellent physical condition- 42 percent, compared to 34 percent of those less active in their faith.
Growing faith
The poll found that 66 percent of all adults believe religion is losing its influence in our society but 70 percent say their “religious faith is constantly growing deeper.”
Pollsters compared evangelical Christians to atheists and agnostics and found that 84 percent of evangelicals strongly state they are very happy with their lives compared to 57 percent of agnostics and atheists. Whole 14 percent of evangelicals said they feel their lives get more stressful each year, 29 percent of those in the category with no faith feel their lives are increasingly stressful.
Researchers also found links between faith and money when they compared those who are “upscale”- having completed college and with a household income of $60,000 or more- with “downscale” people- who had no college degree and household earnings of less than $30,000. Fifty-six percent of downscale adults strongly agreed their faith is constantly growing deeper, compared to 44 percent of upscale adults.
George Barna, president of the Barna Research Group, said of the findings: “Americans continue to struggle with the teachings of their faith and the desire to lead a comfortable, low-stress life, and with the question of whether these ideals are mutually compatible.”
The results are based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,010 adults which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
(RNS)
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