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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Belief in God Grows as Mortality Nears, Survey Says

(Reuters) - Belief in God is highest among older people and increases with age, perhaps due to the growing realization that death is coming closer, University of Chicago researchers said on Wednesday.

Summarizing data from surveys performed in 1991, 1998 and 2008 in 30 countries from Chile to Japan, the university's National Opinion Research Center found that, on average, 43 percent of those aged 68 and older were certain that God exists.

By comparison, an average of 23 percent of people aged 27 and younger were firm believers in God, according to the report, which gathered data from the International Social Survey Program, a consortium of the world's leading opinion survey organizations.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did they follow the same young people into old age? If not, this is dumb. All it shows is, 80 years ago, 8-year-olds lived in families that instilled God in children's lives as compared to today.

Anonymous said...

6:59
Maybe if today's children knew that they would be accountable for their actions we wouldn't have as many problems as we are with them.

Anonymous said...

We better all start believing then. If things don't change soon we all be meeting our maker.

Anonymous said...

As a kid I noticed the older the parishioners got, the closer to the front of the church they sat during mass. I said they wanted to make sure that God saw they were there. This survey only confirmed what I deduced as a kid.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it has something to do with the aging process. The more crap you live through the more you have to know that there is "someone higher" than you, your parents, government, etc. Going through life teaches us that God is all around us.