How many people around you do you believe are essentially atheists, agnostics, or deists but fake their way through religion for social purposes?

There’s no way to know.

I started falling away from my religion for a good couple of years before I even left the church, and it was a year after that when I finally admitted atheism. Two years of repentance and fasting, trying to bring the “feel-good feeling” back, believing it was my fault I wasn’t as close to god as I once had been, some hidden sin I didn’t know I was committing…

Considering that the only way we have records of who is a believer in what is either a) nonscientific polls or b) baptism records which both count people christened as infants who don’t actually believe or attend church and exclude many churchgoers who don’t appear in registries (I know my church never kept records), it’s guesswork at best.

Also, I think there’s a large percentage of people who believe out of convenience or comfort – that is, they grew up nominally Christian but just sort of assume it’s right and don’t even think about it or never had an inkling that it could be different.

Hardly any.

I think a lot of people attend places of worship and do not believe in God, or at minimum are agnostic. It’s a minority, but still a significant number. I would guess at least 10%. Many people are involved with the church for social reasons, or because they think their child should grow up with something, or because there is peer pressure in the community to attend.

But, church attendance is not the end all be all, because of course there are people who don’t attend church who are theists.

I think most people who don’t believe don’t actually engage in church activities and don’t really talk about it. So you could look at the statistics about how many people attend church regularly and how many people attend two or three times a year and how many never go.

Of those who never go, I’d say 90% are atheists. Of those who go two to three times a year, I’d say one-third are atheists. Of those who go every week, I’d say 1 to 2% are atheists. That’s my guess.

How many people in my circle of friends? Hardly any, as @marinelife says – in my case because most of my friends are atheist. But… how many people physically around me? Who can guess? I would like to think that not everyone who claims to believe in the supernatural actually does, but then I would also like to think that they could be honest about it.

Then there is the point that a certain atheist jelly used to bring up often: if people don’t live their lives on a daily basis as if the deity they claim to believe in existed, then they can’t truly believe in that deity. By that argument, I would say that most people who claim to believe really don’t, because most religious people necessarily pick and choose which parts of their religion to adhere to. If they didn’t, they’d be stoning people in the streets or giving up more of their money to their church, among other things.

@glacial But we can not know what definition of God anyone holds inside their head. It may not be the definition as you understand it. It may not even be an omnipotent God or a literal God. It could be a metaphorical or symbolic God. Would belief in such an impotent God be any less theistic that a belief in an Old Testament God?

I just realized reading this other answers that I didn’t answer regarding my immediate circle of friends. I would say 25% would appear to be theists, but are really atheists or agnostic. I don’t mean they lie, but they either are in the process of leaning away from the church or set of beliefs they previously attended (I can only think of two friends like this) or they attend church for family reasons, mostly their children, but have not been very religious for a long time, or were raised atheists. Probably 30% of the people in reformed synagogues are atheists, I would guess 50% of reformed Jews are atheists. That’s a guess of course, but the common number thrown around is 40% of all Jews are secular.

Oh! I didn’t either.

Most of the people around me are either non-theist, apathist (they just don’t care and don’t think about it), or vaguely Christian in the “we don’t go to church or follow the Bible, but I feel good knowing there’s a puppet-master”.

In my area of the Midwest, I’d say 85% claim a religious affilliation, 15% are Other. Of those 85%, I’d say only about 20% or less show any religion in daily life.

Of course I have no idea about what’s in their hearts, so it would be a complete guestimate on ‘faking it’, so I’ll guess out of 85%, maybe 20% are faking.

I think Judaism is a little different in some ways from some of the other religions because there is a strong cultural or ethnic identity among many Jews even if they are atheists. So they may attend services on occasion or even regularly as a connection to their ethnic tradition even though they have no belief per se. I have no idea what the percentage of synagogue attendees who are atheists is; there are also many Jewish atheists who won’t step foot in a synagogue at all.

What percentage of the population that you are familiar with in your country seem to truly believe devoutly in a personal God who answers prayer, intervenes in the affairs of men, and sometimes suspends the laws of nature so that miraculous events occur?

I think one-third of the US population believes in the God you describe above. I’d say another third believes in some of that. There’s also a third that pretty much doesn’t believe in God, or for whom God doesn’t mean much.

I would never say anyone was faking it. I just think people go along to get along and there is more to religion than God. The social aspects of religion are probably far more important than the dogma or theology.

@wundayatta Absolutely correct. You can go to any church in my area Catholic, Christian or whatever, and there is something going on- always.

It’s actually one of my pet peeves because they try to guilt you into doing every single thing (or it’s possible you’re a bad person), like visiting the elderly, witnessing door-to-door- bible study, etc…to me it’s invasive.

@burntbonez “Would belief in such an impotent God be any less theistic that a belief in an Old Testament God?”

Absolutely not, but the question is about faking one’s way through religion for social purposes. If one is officially a Catholic, and uses that language around Catholic friends, and go to church on Sundays, but actually believes that god is some undefinable force in the universe, or that reincarnation is a thing, or that saints were just people with no power to perform miracles (or whatever, I’m just making up examples), then that is still faking it for social reasons. @ETpro even specified in his question that the person might be a deist.

I read an interesting psychological description of the way people adjust the threshold of belief:

When presented with a proposition (e.g the existence of God), we first respond to it emotionally. We either want to believe it or we don’t. The reasons for wanting or not wanting can vary, but certainly could include social reasons.

If we don’t want to believe it, we then ask ”Must I believe this?”, i.e. is the evidence so incontrovertible that I have no choice but to believe?

If we do want to believe it, though, the question becomes ”Can I believe this?”, i.e. is it possible to imagine a rationale for this belief?

In that second case (and frankly, it applies to all religious belief, since it’s never logically necessary), the rationale that’s devised to support the belief usually has nothing to do with the emotional motivation for wanting to believe it. The person himself will tend to see the rationale as the reason, and be blind to the underlying emotional motive.

I don’t think that many churchgoers would even acknowledge to themselves that the primary reason for wanting to believe is that it cements their social relationships. It’s only once one has abandoned the belief that the motive may become clear. That was the case for me.

I don’t fake my way through being Jewish. I am Jewish.

@thorninmud I think that a lot of people, myself included, ‘choose’ to believe, even if logic or science present other ideas. Not for social reasons, those don’t affect me in any way, but because it goes against everything I’ve been raised to believe was ‘fact’, does that make sense?

I tried to abandon religion after studying a variety of theories and religions in my late teens and early twenties, and maybe it’s a ‘flock’ mentality and I’ve been brain-washed, but I have knowledge that simply doesn’t connect to the teachings I was raised with. Honestly, that’s why I read all these religious questions and Q’s about Athiests, etc… I am curious and enjoy studying myself and my reactions to people who don’t believe as I do.

I do have family members that have moved away from our area, and it seems to be much easier for them to abandon their religious beliefs, so perhaps it’s a regional thing for me personally.

I think the very religious people would have a harder time knowing if the people around them are just going along and not really as religious or theistic (if that is a word) as they seem. I have friends, Christians, who have told me they have had abortions or are agnostic and I know some of them keep infornation from their peers amd family who might judge them. Unless they are in a rebellious mode and there is some spite mixed in. Another example is my BIL around the age of 40 came out to me first that he was gay. Not his brother (my husband) or other family members, but me. I guess I was perceived as the safest since I was outwardly fine with gay people and I had hinted to him I knew. In retrospect I wish I had actually asked him point blank and spared him the anxiety of worrying about when and how to tell me. His parents were religious and the country they were from the gay community was rather isolated. Or, that is how it was perceived.

So, I think many of the non believers in religious communities don’t readily tell their church friends or very religious family members.

@Rarebear Being Jewish is different, because it is both a culture and a religion. You can be Jewish and atheist (or “alternate-deist”) without being said to be “faking it”. I am struggling to think of any other religion for which that would be true.

@glacial Buddhism.

The vast majority of religious “fakers” will probably be teenagers and older children. They would be at an age where they can make their own religious decisions, but they are still dependent on parents. If their parents are religious, the family would typically attend church (or wherever) as a whole.

I believe in God. I however do not believe in much of society around us and their religious ways for the very reason of this very question.

Society is corrupt. Religion can be corrupt. Goverment is corrupt. I can trust God. I cannot always trust society or it’s religion.

To me the “fakers” are not just the people who attend church. They are also the people who use the word of God against innocents for profit. Like the people on the opposite side who make it their life’s work to persuade that God does not exist and that religion and the bible are all just filled with contradictions and absurdities and sometimes they can be more psychotic and evil and form cults because of it.

I have often wondered, if there is no God, then what is the purpose of this life? I believe we were put here for a higher purpose. I don’t need religion to tell me which way I need to go.

@Rarebear But there is no deity in Buddhism.

I was actually agreeing with you, not trying to argue.

My friends and acquaintances run the gamut of belief systems. But none that I know of have any reason to have to fake it. I don’t live in a part of the country where people watch if you go to church.

I have no numbers but I will say this: My daughter attends a catholic school and her teacher is promoter of science and Darwinism. She’s taking them to the Museum of Science this week. She also happens to be friends with my wife’s aunt and, by all accounts is at least an agnostic.

I am an agnostic and my wife agrees with 99% of my perspective on religion, but claims to be a catholic. She’s lapsed at best – likely a closet agnostic.

I have no idea. Aren’t they supposed to wear an arm band, or a patch, or a little pin identifying themselves as such? And they must have to have a sticker on their car or a special license plate. How are we supposed to recognize them? They blend in so well.

I know atheists who are openly atheists, but still go to church from time to time because they like the community, rituals and the sermons. Faking it? I can only guess. There might be a few.

@cookieman Catholic teaching encourages seeking truth through science and is consistent with evolution. Prominent Catholic theologians consider creationism as valid as believing in a flat earth, it’s a denial of God’s gift of a brain.

@zenvelo, that’s it exactly! Why would a God, if there is one, deny us the brain He gave us. I was raised Catholic but I ran away because, it seemed to me, many of our Church’s teachings denied science. I came back to the Christian faith after college, but the church that I attend doesn’t require me to leave my brain at the door. I don’t know exactly what percentage of people would fit the description given by the OP, but I have a feeling that the number is quite high.

@zenvelo: Well then, her fourth grade teacher clearly embraces that. Cool.

Hardly any. I believe almost all the people aroune me are God fearing, Jesus loving Christians who actually practice what they’ve learned in church. This is not to say that none ever ask themselves, “why is this happening to me?”

@Aster You’re living on Earth? Where, pray tell?

@Aster yes, please, so I can avoid it.

Some people don’t seem to be very sincere in their beliefs. There are people who pretend to be religious for social acceptance, etc. Some non-believers are even pastors.