A new Pew Research survey finds that one-third of Americans — both those who say they believe in God and those who say they don’t — trust in a higher power or spiritual force.
This group has a looser interpretation of the transcendent. Some call it God; others don’t.
The survey of 4,729 respondents conducted online in December offers some insight into the diversity of U.S. beliefs. And like other surveys over the past decade, it suggests the number of Americans who believe in God is slowly declining.
“One of the key questions that motivated the study was to get more detail among those who say they don’t believe in God,” said Gregory Smith, associate director of research at Pew. “Among those people who say ‘no’ in a straightforward way when asked, ‘Do you believe in God?’ what are they rejecting? Are they rejecting belief in God or a higher power altogether?”
In the survey, those who answered that they do not believe in God were asked a follow-up question, whether they believed in “some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe.”
To be sure, a majority, if a slim one — 56 percent — say they believe in the conventional all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God of the Bible.
Then there are the hardcore disbelievers: about 10 percent who say they don’t believe in the God of the Bible or a higher power.
One-third of…
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