Those who pray and attend worship services in America are less likely to believe in aliens, according to a survey,
A new survey from the Pew Research Center implies that while 65 per cent of US adults believe in intelligent life, only 51 per cent of Protestants believe such a notion.
White Evangelicals are the most unlikely to believe in aliens, with 58 per cent of respondents stating that they do not believe in intelligent life.
In contrast, 65 per cent of White and non-evangelical Protestants said that they believed in aliens. Only 55 per cent of Black Protestants also said that they believed in them and Catholics were significantly more likely, with 67 per cent of respondents affirming the existence of intelligent life elsewhere.
Out of all religious groups, atheists and agnostics were the most likely to affirm that intelligent life existed at 85 per cent each.
A significant contributor to one’s convictions appears to be whether the respondents attended religious ceremonies consistently. Only 44 per cent of US adults who participate in weekly religious ceremonies said they believed. Sixty-six per cent of monthly attendees affirmed their belief in intelligent life.
Those who place a high amount of value on religion were also less likely to believe in aliens. Forty-nine per cent of respondents said that religion is “very important” and believed in intelligent life. In contrast, 83 per cent of those who said religion was “Not at all important” were believers in intelligent life.
Finally, prayer was a major contributing factor. Those who prayed daily were less likely (54 per cent) to believe in intelligent life off Earth than those who never prayed (80 per cent.)
Beliefs about UFOs seemed to remain consistent among similar trends. White Evangelicals were among the least likely to believe that UFOs were evidence of intelligent life (35 per cent). The only group who was more skeptical were those who identified as atheists (31 percent).