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An article published in April (17, 2025) detailed how analysis by one professor found that belief in the afterlife is soaring amongst all people, not just those with a specific religious denomination.
Eastern Illinois University professor Ryan Burge analyzed almost fifty years worth of data collected through the General Social Survey, which asked a very straight forward question:
Do You Believe In Life After Death?
Respondents were able to answer a simple “yes” or “no” question. Despite a moderate uptick in recent years, the initial graph was arguably one of the most boring we’ve ever seen. Ever. Even Burge noted that “this graph is most certainly not going to go viral on social media” due to the lack of dramatic data provided.
“In that first data collection in 1973, about 76% of folks believed in something beyond this life. But by 1990, that figure had crept up to just about 80% and it continued to rise very slowly from there. Really, from 2000 all the way through 2022, the estimates are all basically the same,” Burge wrote in his analysis.
Nones: Then vs. Now
Those who considered themselves religious “nones,” with zero conscious relationship with God, were initially evenly split when it came to belief in an afterlife. But something changed by the year 2000, when the number of non-religious people who believe in an afterlife shot up past 60%.
This number has remained consistently high since this time, with only a few other factors influencing the trend. Politics did seem to have some influence, with self-described liberals being less likely to be understanding the notion of an afterlife than their conservative counterparts. Educational attainment had a mild influence when controlled for higher educational attainment, which was more likely to lead to a belief in our afterlife.
“Said simply, controlling for these other factors, an educated person was more likely to believe that there was life after death than someone with less education,” Burge explained.
Why Is This Happening?
“I think there’s a good reason for this, by the way. Those non-religious folks in 1973 were much more ‘hard core’ nones. It was difficult to be a secular person in the 1970s – they were less than 5% of the population. You couldn’t be a lukewarm atheist during this time period,” Burge wrote in his analysis. “But as the nones have grown, you get a lot more people in there who aren’t so committed to the cause of secularism. Recall that the 1990s were when the nones really began to rise quickly. A primary cause being an increase in political polarization. That generated a lot of refugees who felt spiritual, but rejected religion. That’s fascinating to me.”
The data comes amid a significant rise in syncretism, particularly amongst Millennials and pastors. The results support the previous research by CRC’s Dr. George Barna, who noted that the rise in syncretism “is another strong piece of evidence that the culture is influencing the American church more than Christian churches are influencing the culture.” All of these recurring studies suggest millions of Millennials are on the brink of a religious breakthrough, one we can share in together.
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