{"id":22434,"date":"2026-03-15T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=22434"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:32:00","slug":"most-americans-dont-believe-faith-in-god-is-necessary-to-be-moral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=22434","title":{"rendered":"Most Americans don’t believe faith in God is necessary to be moral"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock)<\/span><\/p>\n

A record majority of Americans now say that it isn\u2019t necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values, but this view is primarily held by individuals who already don’t believe in God, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0research, published earlier this month, also highlights a growing share of people around the world who say belief in God isn\u2019t necessary to be moral and have good values.<\/p>\n

Data for the United States portion of the research was collected from 3,605 adults between March 24-30, 2025, as part of the American Trends Panel Wave 166 Survey. It shows that the question of whether or not people need God to be moral and have good values was asked 18 times since 2002, and in 2025, 68% of U.S. adults agreed that \u201cIt is not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s the largest share of U.S. adults to agree with that statement since 2002. In 2014, that share was 58%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 2002 through 2011, Americans were split fairly evenly or tilted toward the view that people need to believe in God to be moral and have good values. Starting in 2014, however, Americans have been more likely to say the opposite \u2014 that belief in God is\u00a0not\u00a0necessary to be moral,\u201d Jonathan Evans, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center, said in a\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n

The data show that since 2020, approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults have held the position that belief in God isn\u2019t necessary to be moral and have good values.<\/p>\n

Researchers also posed the question to adults in 24 other countries from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas in the spring of 2025. Significant majorities in half of those countries, mostly in Europe, agree that belief in God isn\u2019t necessary to be moral and have good values.<\/p>\n

Only India and Indonesia saw growth in the share of adults who say it\u2019s necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndians today are 6 points more likely than in 2019 (85% vs. 79%) and 15 points more likely than in 2013 (85% vs. 70%) to say belief in God is necessary to be moral,\u201d Evans stated. \u201cIn Indonesia, 96% of adults or more have connected belief in God with morality all five times we\u2019ve asked the question since 2007.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the data show \u201ca strong correlation between believing in God and saying that belief in God is necessary to be moral,\u201d according to Evans.<\/p>\n

Unlike many countries in Europe, the research found that in places like Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey, a clear majority of adults linked morality and good values to belief in God.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Hungary, for instance, two-thirds of adults who say religion is very important to them also say that belief in God is necessary to be moral,\u201d Evans noted. \u201cAmong Hungarians who place less personal importance on religion, by comparison, just 19% connect belief in God with morality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest findings on America\u2019s ideas on morality come as\u00a0recent Gallup data\u00a0show that Americans with no formal religious identity, popularly known as the \u201cnones,\u201d reached a record share of the population in 2025. It also showed that fewer than 50% of U.S. adults say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives.<\/p>\n

Less than half (47%) of American adults say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives, while another 25% said it is \u201cfairly important\u201d to them.<\/p>\n

The share of Americans who say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives has been in gradual decline from 70% to 75% in the 1950s and 1960s, to 58% in 2012, according to Gallup.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans\u2019 relationship with religion continues to evolve, marked by fewer adults describing religion as central to their lives,\u201d Megan Brenan, a senior editor at Gallup, concluded.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 The Christian Post<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock) A record majority of Americans now say that it isn\u2019t necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values, but this view is primarily held by individuals who already don’t believe in God, according to new data from the Pew Research Center. The\u00a0research, published earlier this month, also highlights a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[972,384,348,182,1878],"class_list":["post-22434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-americans","tag-dont","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-moral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}