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July 7, 2020
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DO LIVES MATTER? What % of Americans attribute value to every life?

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By: CRC-ACU – myemail.constantcontact.com – 2020
As millions take to the streets, demanding the value of every human life be recognized, new research from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University reveals that a majority of Americans do not believe that human life has intrinsic value, with six out of ten people rejecting the idea that “human life is sacred.”
Only 39% of Americans today, the research revealed, view human life as having unconditional, intrinsic worth. These numbers, the American Worldview Inventory found, represent primarily the most conservative and deeply religious segments of American society.
Additionally, one-third possess alternative views about humanity. For instance, one out of eight (12%) claims that people are simply “material substance – biological machines.” Another one-eighth (12%) argues that people are “part of the mind of the universe.” Smaller numbers describe humans as “an illusion,” claim we do not exist; or are “sleeping gods, part of the soul of the universe.”
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OTHER FINDINGS:
  • Groups among whom a majority view human life to be “sacred”: Adults with a biblical worldview (93%); those attending an evangelical church (60%); born-again Christians (60%); political conservatives (57%); people 50 or older (53%); and Republicans (53%). Some religious groups had only a minority who viewed life as sacred, including those attending Pentecostal (46%), mainline Protestant (45%), or Catholic (43%) churches.
  • A substantial share of the population combined to offer views such as “life is what you make it, but it has no absolute value” (37%); “life does not attain its full value until we reach our highest point of evolution and expression” (11%); or other, less popular points of view that concurred that life has no unconditional value.
  • 10% of adults admitted they did not know how to appraise the value of human life.
  • Several subgroups emerged as having no more than one of every four members willing to declare human life to be “sacred”. Those segments were people associated with a non-Christian faith group (25%); political liberals (24%); adults 18 to 29 years old (19%); and spiritual skeptics (15%).
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In light of the current social unrest sweeping the nation and the wealth of related political reforms proposed by the Congress, Dr. George Barna, CRC Director of Research, suggests that policy reform and political action are not the formula for lasting change.
“America’s underlying issues are ill-formed character and a broken moral compass. Economic, social and cultural depravity are outgrowths of our moral and character deficiencies, not causes,” he continued. “Poor people with godly character and biblical morals make good choices. Rich people with bad character and inappropriate morals make bad choices, despite their education, fame, wealth, and social class. You cannot change the hearts of people by outlawing racism. You will not create peace by passing laws and forcing compliance. Efforts to facilitate economic equality through resource redistribution have never successfully resulted in the expected or desired outcomes.”
Barna continued, “The problem is our sin nature, pure and simple. It is not political or economic. Of course, every society can benefit from specific systemic changes, present-day America included …
but, any systemic changes designed to transform the culture will be short-lived and of limited impact unless the hearts and minds of the people who populate that system are transformed first.”

To see this article and others from the Cultural Research Center, click read more.

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Source: NEW STUDY: DO LIVES MATTER? What % of Americans attribute value to every life?