The Wheatley Institute’s new Survey of Lived Religion suggests spiritual belief remains widespread even as traditional measures of religious affiliation shift.
Spiritual experience remains common
About half of Americans say they experience or witness what they consider a miracle at least a few times a year, according to newly released findings from the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University.
The finding comes from the first installment of the institute’s four-part Survey of Lived Religion, a nationally representative study of 2,005 U.S. adults across major religious traditions and the religiously unaffiliated.
Looking beyond church attendance
Researchers said the project is designed to measure religious life beyond traditional indicators such as affiliation or weekly attendance. The broader survey found that three-quarters of Americans place at least some importance on religion and that four in ten report thanking God multiple times a day.
The institute says the results point to a more complex picture of American spirituality than affiliation trends alone may suggest. Additional installments of the survey are expected to explore religious practice and belief in greater detail.
Sources: Wheatley Institute release via PR Newswire; The Christian Post
