Pew: Religious People Less Likely to Believe in UFOs

Religious adults in the US are much more skeptical about the possibility of extraterrestrial life compared with the less religious, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey (Religious Americans less likely to believe intelligent life exists on other planets). Due to sample size limitations, this analysis does not show smaller religious groups, such as Jewish and Muslim Americans, but these are more likely to follow the skepticism of most Christians in the US than the embrace of the secular belief in intelligent life beyond Earth.

According to the Pew report, Christians living in the US are far less likely than unaffiliated Americans to say that their “best guess” is that intelligent life exists on other planets (57% vs. 80%). And American adults who attend religious services on at least a weekly basis are far less likely than those who seldom or never attend services to say that intelligent life exists elsewhere (44% vs. 75%).

By contrast, roughly half or more of agnostics (49%), Black Protestants (53%), White non-evangelical Protestants (53%), people who describe their religion as “nothing in particular” (59%) and Catholics (61%) say that UFOs reported by people in the military are definitely or probably evidence that intelligent life exists beyond Earth.