A new survey found that less than 1/5 of Americans believe life’s purpose is knowing and loving God.
According to the American Worldview Inventory from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, the survey revealed that Americans largely do not believe in a life spent serving God.
The survey included 2,000 American respondents polled both via phone and online, The Christian Post reports.
The data showed that 86 percent of Americans believe in a “universal, shared purpose” of human life, and 66 percent said they believe they have a “unique, God-given calling or purpose.”
Only 18 percent said the universal purpose is “knowing, loving and serving God.”
“Even among the 71 percent of Americans who consider themselves to be Christians, fewer than 20 percent adopt the biblical view that our purpose is to know, love and serve God,” an analysis of the data reads.
The data instead found that most Americans, including Christians, believe in their unique purpose but not a purpose that includes God at the center.
“The disconnect is staggering,” said CRC Director of Research George Barna, a longtime evangelical pollster and founder of The Barna Group.
“As a nation, we yearn for purpose and calling, ideas deeply rooted within our nation’s historical Christian faith and biblical understanding of God,” he added in a statement.
“Americans hold on to these basic biblical ideas of what makes human existence meaningful, yet, at the same time, refuse to recognize reliance on God or even His existence when talking about their happiness or purpose.”
Other results of the survey include:
- About 18 percent said their purpose was to evolve to their “full potential physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.”
- 10 percent said their purpose was “furthering the development of humanity or “living a long, healthy life.”
- 47 percent of evangelicals in the survey said they believed life success involves “consistent obedience to God.”
- Political conservatives were three times more likely than political liberals to say God gives their life purpose.
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Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.