Joel Tay, Creation Extra, June 2023
According to a 2019 Barna study, once again ‘Science’ is one of the main reasons why young adults (18–35 years old) doubt things of a spiritual dimension.1
This accounts for one-third (30%) of all the people surveyed. In Australia and New Zealand, science ranked as #1, while in the USA, science ranked as #2, just a percentage point behind another major reason, the ‘hypocrisy of religious people’.
Even among those who consider themselves to be Christians, two-thirds (64%) are ‘church dropouts’. That is, they either grew up with a Christian background but no longer affiliate with the Church, or they still identify as Christian but rarely attend church.
This study confirms what we concluded in our documentary FALLOUT.2 Evolution and the idea of millions of years is the single biggest excuse given for why most people reject Christianity.3
Another Barna report looked specifically at how teens (13–17 years old) viewed the Bible.4
Of the teens who professed to be Christians, only 58% said that the Bible is ‘The Word of God’, and only 12% said the Bible is the ‘inspired word of God and has no errors’!
A mere 12% of professing ‘Christian’ teens believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, true, and therefore authoritative Word of God.
The study goes on to show that even among the ‘Christian’ teens who were confident of their answer (i.e., those who chose “strongly agree”), many of them still have doubts about the Bible.
Only 61% believe that the Bible is fully inspired by God, holy (63%), good (59%), trustworthy (53%), true (54%), important (59%), and relevant (53%). Since these beliefs about the Bible are a foundational part of evangelical Christianity, shouldn’t we have expected this to be 100%?
Looking more narrowly at only ‘Christian’ teens who believe that the Bible is ‘very true’, we find that only a little over 80% affirm each of the following categories: The Bible is completely true, should be followed, is a source of truth, has teachings that are relevant to the world today, is essential to being a Christian, and provides a way to know Jesus.
This tells us that most ‘Christian’ teens today, including even 1 in every 5 who profess that the Bible is ‘very true’, still have festering doubts about the inerrancy, authority, and relevance of the Bible.
Yet another 2018 study by Barna found that the two biggest excuses for why millennials (those born between 1980 and 1999) reject the Christian faith, boil down to:
- science refutes the Bible and
- refusal to believe in ‘fairy tales’.5
These two points are essentially the same thing in the sense that they both tie back to what the Bible teaches in Genesis on God’s creation of the world.6
Why does this keep happening when we have the answers to the very questions our youth are asking?
Of course, by ‘science’, these studies are really talking about the idea of evolution and millions of years. But, Christians don’t have to be afraid of science. Good science (i.e. not evolution) is always consistent with the Bible. Contrary to the idea that creationists can’t be scientists, CMI employs in our worldwide offices, multiple Ph.D. scientists and other qualified academics. While our confidence is never to be grounded on ‘fallible’ science, but only in the inerrant Word of God alone, CMI’s mission is to equip believers to be able to defend their faith in the area of creation and evolution.
CMI is here to help. Call us!
Thank you for your partnership in the ministry as we seek to proclaim the truth and authority of God’s word, and to see the Lord Jesus Christ honored as the Creator and Saviour of the world.
R. Alvares wrote to us sharing how the ministry impacted her life (Edited for brevity):
“Thank you CMI. You all don’t know how your ministry kept me from believing in evolution and all its frauds. I had lost hope. I read some other Christian websites, but they never answered my questions. I can’t remember how and when I landed upon your website, but at the right time, God gave me help … It is all because of you … the real challenge and frustration of my journey in Christ has been ‘evolution’—which you have answered. I will always support you all and encourage you. And as a youth, I will certainly plan to have the privilege of working with you guys. Love you all in Christ.”