Study Shows Most Atheists and Agnostics Believe in the Supernatural
- By Alison Lesley --
- 03 Jun 2019 --
The number of naturalists in any country does not exceed 50 percent
The Understanding Unbelief project revealed that even atheists are not entirely immune to supernatural beliefs.[/tweetit] The research sponsored by the University of Kent found that even those who claimed not to believe in any organized religion accepted quite a few supernatural sentiments. The study involved a significant number of agnostic respondents or atheist ones. The study aggregated atheists from the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, Denmark, and Japan.
Study Shows Most Atheists and Agnostics Believe in the Supernatural[/tweetthis]
The study found that not believing in a God does not equate disbelief when it comes to other supernatural phenomena. Atheists and agnostics (the latter in fewer numbers) exhibit reduced levels of belief in the supernatural when compared to the wider population. Only a small minority of agnostics or atheists seem to be completely naturalists. Atheists are defined as people who disbelieve the existence of God, and agnostics are those who do not know whether God exists and do not believe there is any method to find out.
About 20 percent of U.S. residents believe in the supernatural, and approximately 50 percent of those in China who described themselves as atheists have reported believing in underlying forces making up what is good and what is evil. In terms of the general population, these numbers move up to 60 percent in America and about 70 percent within China.
In six of the stated countries, most of the responding unbelievers identified themselves as possessing “no religion.” In Denmark, about 28 percent of the agnostics and atheists identify themselves as Christians. In Brazil, the figure is 18 percent. About eight percent of the unbelievers in Japan identify themselves as Buddhists. Conversely, in countries like Denmark (60 percent). Brazil (79 percent), and the United Kingdom (52 percent), most of the unbelievers were born and reared in a Christian family. Only a few unbelievers selected “agnostic” or “atheist” as their preferred secular identity. About 38 percent of American atheists choose the atheist term compared to only 19 percent of Danes.
As per the report, none of the national population put under the scanner were considered as majorly “naturalists.” In this category are members that reject all kind of supernatural ideas. The report points out in the countries studied the percentage of naturalist does not cross 50 percent.
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