Atheism On The Rise In U.S. As More Begin Believing Jesus Christ Is A Myth And Never Existed

The idea of organized religion is one that is certainly beginning to weaken in the United States, and it’s happening for a number of reasons. Some are just not into the organization and don’t have strong enough beliefs to keep up with the practice. Others are turning to atheism, as they’re really starting to think that Jesus Christ never existed and is simply a myth.

According to the Pew Research Center, a new survey of more than 35,000 adults in America finds that there have been moderately declining numbers in recent years of those who say they believe in God, pray on a daily basis, or go to church regularly.

Here are some of the biggest statistics from the survey.

• Those Americans who say they are “absolutely certain” that God exists has dropped from 71 percent in 2007 to 63 percent.
• Those who consider religion to be “very important” in their lives, pray daily, and attend organized religious services at least once a month has dropped between three to four percent in the last eight years.
• Since 2007, the percentage of adults who proclaim themselves to be “religiously affiliated” has dropped six points from 83 to 77 percent.

While those numbers may seem statistically small, they are likely going to continue to grow as beliefs from around the world make their way to America.

BBC News reports that a study in England now shows that 40 percent of people don’t believe Jesus Christ was even a real person. They look at him as a myth and someone that never existed.

Forty-three percent of those people surveyed did say that they believe in the resurrection, though. However, they don’t believe it actually happened the way that the Bible describes it.

The Church of England found that four in 10 people did not believe Jesus Christ was a real person. A quarter of 18- to 34-year-old people actually believe him to be a fictional character or a myth. Most scholars agree that Jesus was indeed a real man who lived more than 2,000 years ago, but details about his life are still up for debate.

After 57 percent of the people surveyed classified themselves as Christians, the next biggest group were atheists at 12 percent and then agnostics at 9 percent. Muslims made up 3 percent, and Jews and Hindus both made up 2 percent.

Political overtones seem to truly be playing into the weakening of religious beliefs and practices while turning many to atheism. Democrats are largely benefiting from the growth in the number of those who are no longer wanting to be affiliated with religious.

The largest religious group in the Republican party are Evangelicals, and that number has grown in the last eight years.

There will always be those who don’t believe in organized religion or God and want to practice atheism. Still, the more that some try to prove that Jesus Christ never existed, the more that could start believing he was a myth.

All of that could end up making the percentage of non-believers go down even more. While 6 to 7 percentage points may seem small over the last eight years, if that happens again, then it could be getting closer to just 50 percent of Americans believing Jesus Christ existed.

Atheism is not necessarily growing in popularity, but it is growing in those that now practice it. The belief in God and involvement in organized religion is just something that doesn’t appeal to as many Americans anymore, but does that really give any proof to Jesus Christ not existing at all?

[Photo by Richard Goerg / Getty Images]