A new “American values survey” by the Pew Research Center gives some good news about faith: it’s weakening in America’s youth. (You can get the full report here; the religion and social values analysis begins on p. 67.) 3008 adults were sampled by telephone according to what seems a pretty good protocol. A quick summary of the data, though, is best seen here, and you can click on the tabs on the right side to divide up the data by sex, race, age, income, and so on. On the left you can look at the different questions. Three are religious, involving agreement or disagreement with 1) “Prayer is an important part of my daily life”; 2) “All will be called before God on Judgment Day to answer for our sins”; 3) “I never doubt the existence of God.” In all three cases the youngest people show less faith than their elders. though over the last 25 years belief has been pretty static in the older cohorts.
Individuals were divided into five age classes: