2% of US Catholics Don’t Believe in God?

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A recent article from America Magazine (a Jesuit publication), has made the claim that according to recent polls as many as 2% of self-identifying U.S. Catholics don’t believe in God or any sort of “higher-power”.

Here’s a quote from the article:
Sixty-nine percent of U.S. Catholics say they believe in God “as described in the Bible” while 28 percent say they believe in another “higher power.” Two percent of U.S. Catholics say they do not believe in God or in a higher power.
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Okay, so different interpretations of God aside, how can someone who self-identifies as being Catholic then turn around and say they don’t believe in God? I’m not trying to criticize anyone, just simply trying to understand. I mean, it’s always been my very basic understanding that if you believe nothing else, in order to be Christian, you have to believe in God. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what they mean when they call themselves Catholic? The implication of the article seems to suggest that they consider themselves to be active and practicing Catholics though.

Here’s a link to the article for anyone interested in reading more:

 
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Being Catholic has almost become a “cultural thing” in the US. You’re born into it, and you can either be a faithful believer or not, but you’ll still probably show up for Christmas and Easter either way and call yourself Catholic. I read somewhere that US Catholics (the poorly catechized ones) are often surprised when someone converts to the faith, because they see it as something that you’re born into, not something you seek to join.

Anyways, it’s just a reflection of how poorly catechized many of us are, and a reminder to do everything we can to turn the tide on it.
 
It should say “self-identified Catholics.” If we are using the broad definition of “Catholic” as those baptized whether they have since committed heresy, schism, or apostasy since (ie in the sense of once Catholic, always Catholic), we’d have to include baptized persons who now identify as atheists, so the percentage would be higher. If we define a Catholic as a member of the Catholic Church, then the percentage would be zero, since faith (which requires acknowledging God’s existence first) is a necessary element of membership in the Church.
 
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They were likely “raised Catholic” or are “cultural Catholics” such as Irish Catholic, Polish Catholic or Italian Catholic, where the religion permeates your entire life and you may have family members who are not going to listen when you say you don’t believe in God.

They may be having doubt about God or anger at God. 2 percent also suggests to me that maybe some of them hit the wrong bubble on the multiple choice test.
 
hmikell7 said:
Okay, so different interpretations of God aside, how can someone who self-identifies as being Catholic then turn around and say they don’t believe in God?
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They are culturally Catholic. Like secular Jews, they may not hold the the religion, but they hold to the culture and some practices.

It would not surprise me if the numbers were not higher. I wonder where they took the polls? Church goers? What about the Catholics that don’t attend?

And if behavior is any measure, the vast majority of those self identifying as Catholic are not, by any stretch.
 
And I suppose that there is a certain percentage of US Catholics, probably more than 2%, who do not believe in America magazine.
 
While quite probably true, the statistics themselves come from the Pew Research Center. America Magazine just published the article citing those statistics.
 
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