Godless Hollywood?

Godless Hollywood? Bible Belt? New Research Exploring Faith in America’s Largest Markets Produces Surprises is George Barna's latest survey ... some interesting findings ...

* Nationally, four out of every ten adults is a born again Christian. (Defined in these surveys as people who said they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.)

* Seven percent of the adult population of the U.S. is evangelical. (In addition to meeting the born again criteria, evangelicals also meet seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; contending that they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; stating that Satan exists; maintaining that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; asserting that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; saying that the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.)

* One out of every six residents of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington are atheist or agnostic – nearly double the national average. Atheists and agnostics are hardest to locate in Louisiana and Missouri.

* People are most likely to believe that they can earn their salvation if they live in Salt Lake City.

* The highest percentage of adults who believe that Jesus Christ sinned during his life on earth is in Des Moines, Iowa.

* Believing that God is “the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe who still rules it today” is most common in Tulsa. It is least predominant in Boston and San Francisco.

Read the whole thing here.