Baylor University Scholars Say Reports About Imminent Death of Religion Have Been Greatly Exaggerated; Faith Is Growing, Not Dying, In America and Around the World
May 11, 2015 – Baptist News Global – Ken Camp
Conference speakers highlight statistics and trends showing that in the U.S. and around the world, faith is on the rise.
Reports about the imminent death of religion, the rise of secularization and the growth of atheism largely ignore facts or rely on faulty research, scholars from Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion said during a recent conference.
Reports emphasizing the rise of “nones” and the massive flight of Millennials from organized religion greatly exaggerate — and sometimes misinterpret — hard data, said Byron Johnson, distinguished professor of the social sciences at Baylor and founding director of the Institute for Studies of Religion.
“There’s a story some people want to report — that religion is on life support — but it’s just not true,” he asserted.
Surveys that report Millennials have left the faith of their parents often really mean they have stopped attending church for a few years or identify with a nondenominational church rather than a Mainline denomination — not that they have abandoned Christianity, he said, pointing to findings from the Baylor Religion Survey.
