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Where Have All The Christians Gone? 1 in 4 People Are Muslim?

A story appeared on the FoxNews website on October 8, 2009 claiming that one in four people claim to be Muslim (source).  We have seen these claims from Islam before and they have been hard pressed to prove the numbers.  Also, it is not that alarming that Muslims report a high number globally, so does communism but the places most of those communists and Muslims live, are places that force the people to adopt those mindsets or be outcasts or worse.  I have no doubt, that if given the freedom and free access to other concepts, most of the communists and Muslims would renounce their communism and Islam.  However, the statistics on the decline of Christianity are shocking. Here is a excerpt from the article:

Christianity is plummeting in America, while the number of non-believers is skyrocketing.

A shocking new study of Americans’ religious beliefs shows the beginnings of a major realignment in Americans’ relationship with God. The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reveals that Protestants now represent half of all Americans, down almost 20 percent in the last twenty years. In the coming months, America will become a minority Protestant nation for the first time since the pilgrims.

The number of people who claim no religious affiliation, meanwhile, has doubled since 1990 to fifteen percent, its highest point in history. Non-believers now represent the third-highest group of Americans, after Catholics and Baptists.

Other headlines:

1) The number of Christians has declined 12% since 1990, and is now 76%, the lowest percentage in American history.

2) The growth of non-believers has come largely from men. Twenty percent of men express no religious affiliation; 12% of women.

3) Young people are fleeing faith. Nearly a quarter of Americans in their 20’s profess no organized religion.

4) But these non-believers are not particularly atheist. That number hasn’t budged and stands at less than 1 percent. (Agnostics are similarly less than 1 percent.) Instead, these individuals have a belief in God but no interest in organized religion, or they believe in a personal God but not in a formal faith tradition.

The implications for American society are profound. Americans’ relationship with God, which drove many of the country’s great transformations from the pilgrims to the founding fathers, the Civil War to the civil rights movement, is still intact. Eighty-two percent of Americans believe in God or a higher power. (source)