{"id":42609,"date":"2013-11-18T02:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T02:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/americans-are-obsessed-with-spirituality\/"},"modified":"2013-11-18T02:17:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T02:17:00","slug":"americans-are-obsessed-with-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/americans-are-obsessed-with-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Are Obsessed with Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Research literature shows that the great majority of Americans who say they have &quot;no religion&quot; are still quite religious, or at least &quot;spiritually inclined.&quot; Surveys support this. In 2011, an Associated Press poll <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/8301-201_162-57347634\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">found<\/a> that 8 in 10 Americans believed in angels&mdash;even 4 in 10 people who never went to church. In 2009 the Pew Research Center <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewforum.org\/2009\/12\/09\/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">reported<\/a> that 1 in 5 Americans experienced ghosts and 1 in 7 had consulted a psychic. In 2005, Gallup <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/poll\/16915\/Three-Four-Americans-Believe-Paranormal.aspx?version=print\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">found<\/a> that 3 out of 4 Americans believed in something paranormal, and that 4 in 10 said that houses could be haunted. More than 90 percent of those who do not belong to a church say that the pray, and 39 percent of them pray weekly or more often. Half of those who say they have &quot;no religion&quot; frequent New Age bookstores, and they are especially prone to believe in ghosts, Bigfoot, and Atlantis.<\/p>\n\n<p>Stats like these led religion scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal to declare, &quot;Americans are <em>obsessed<\/em> with the supernatural.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[410],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3726,4667,4798,4906,5065,5108,5109,5212,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42609","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-postmodernism","tax_ctp_tags-religion","tax_ctp_tags-seekers","tax_ctp_tags-spirituality","tax_ctp_tags-supernatural","tax_ctp_tags-superstition","tax_ctp_tags-uniqueness-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Americans Are Obsessed with Spirituality - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/americans-are-obsessed-with-spirituality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Americans Are Obsessed with Spirituality - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Research literature shows that the great majority of Americans who say they have &quot;no religion&quot; are still quite religious, or at least &quot;spiritually inclined.&quot; Surveys support this. 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