American belief Jesus was born of a virgin falls below 50% for first time: study

Fewer than half of Americans now believe the birth of Jesus was a miracle stemming from the supernatural conception of Mary by the Holy Spirit, according to new research from the American Bible Society.

In the seventh chapter of its 16th annual State of the Bible report released Thursday, the American Bible Society highlights the experiences of Americans with the supernatural, including beliefs in God, Heaven, Hell, Satan, angels and demons. The data included responses from 2,649 Americans collected from Jan. 8 to 27.

Overall, 171 million Americans, about 62% of U.S. adults, believe in the supernatural, ABS said. 

While more than half of Americans, 53%, still believe in the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection, only 49% believe the virgin birth is at least probably true. This is the first time a major national survey has recorded belief in the virgin birth dropping below 50%.

In 2017, data from the Pew Research Center showed that 66% of Americans believed Jesus was born to a virgin. That share declined from 73% in 2014. The 2017 survey was based on 1,503 phone interviews and used different question wording than the ABS survey.

ABS researchers also found that only 44% of Americans in general believe in the biblical parting of the Red Sea.

When broken down by levels of belief in God, the report shows that practicing Christians still overwhelmingly believe these miracles to be true. Some 97% of practicing Christians still believe in the virgin birth; 99% believe in the resurrection of Jesus; and 92% believe God miraculously parted the Red Sea for the Israelites.

Still, ABS found that a majority of Americans report believing in God, with only about one in eight saying they do not. Just over 50% of Americans also stated that they believe Satan, Hell and demons exist.

A majority of practicing Christians, 58%, also report experiencing a spiritual attack. Another 69% say they experienced divine healing, and 90% say they experienced an answered prayer. 

“Most of our neighbors sense that our lives are more than a material existence. They have a sense of the supernatural and are seeking answers to their questions in diverse ways, whether that means engaging in mainstream religious practices or diverging from them,” John Farquhar Plake, American Bible Society’s chief innovation officer and editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series, said in a press statement. “The Bible helps us understand how the natural world and the supernatural world are connected, and it’s our responsibility to help our fellow Americans open the Bible and experience a life-changing encounter with God.”

When it comes to dealing with spiritual attacks, researchers asked respondents who had personally experienced the challenge to explain which practices they found most helpful in countering the problem.

Some 74% selected prayer as the most helpful practice, while 36% said they declared the authority of Jesus Christ. Another 24% said they listened to praise and worship music. The least-selected option, to meditate on or quote Scripture, was chosen by only 15% of respondents, which the American Bible Society sought to bolster in its analysis.

“We at American Bible Society would love to bolster the last-place response: Meditating on or quoting Scripture (15%),” researchers noted. “We’ll just point out that, during his own temptation, Jesus replied to the devil’s three challenges by citing Scripture each time (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).”