Can Religion Solve Our Problems?

Many posts have discussed the role of religion in American life. Gallup reports:

Fifty-seven percent of Americans say that religion can answer all or most of today's problems, while 30% say that religion is largely old fashioned and out of date. Americans have in recent decades become gradually less likely to say that religion can answer today's problems and more likely to believe religion is out of date.

The latest update on this long-term Gallup trend comes from Gallup's May 8-11 Values and Beliefs survey. Gallup asked this question once in the 1950s, once in the 1970s, and multiple times in the 1980s and each subsequent decade.

The 82% choosing the "can answer today's problems" options in 1957 is in line with a number of other measures from that decade showing a high level of religiosity, including religious service attendance, importance of religion, and the percentage of Americans with a formal religious identity.

But Americans' belief that religion can answer most problems dropped -- to 62% -- when Gallup next asked the question in the 1970s, and it remained at about this level in the 1980s and 1990s. Americans' belief that religion offers answers fell to 60% in the 2000s, while those stating the secular belief rose to 25%.