Two researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) interviewed over 3,000 teenagers about their religious beliefs and have written up their findings in a new book. The social scientists summed up the teens' beliefs:
(1) A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth.
(2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
(3) The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.
(4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
(5) Good people go to heaven when they die.
Commenting on the study, Gene Edward Veith writes, "Even these secular researchers recognized that this creed is a far cry from Christianity, with no place for sin, judgment, salvation, or Christ. Instead, most teenagers believe in a combination of works righteousness, religion as psychological well-being, and a distant, non-interfering god. Or, to use a technical term, "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."