The Decline in Religious Belief in America: The Role of NASA and Media Technologies
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Is it possible that NASA is the largest contributor to the decline of religious belief in America? Of course, this might seem preposterous, especially in Houston, where the megachurches rival Mission Control in size and spectacle. But, the long-term effect of NASA’s programs might be much more than mere space exploration, for the totality of discoveries seem to be changing worldviews down on Planet Earth. In fact, trend-lines in rising religious non-belief directly follow the two greatest successes of NASA—the Apollo moon program and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Add on the internet and social media and we see the steady erosion of theological worldviews which have dominated humanity since before the modern scientific revolutions. However, the worldviews emerging in the wake of these changes may not be all scientific, precisely because pseudoscience is proliferating in the forms of astrology and Ancient Aliens.
Traditional Explanations for Religious Decline
Much has been written about the unprecedented decline of religious belief in the 21st century America, especially among younger Americans. Religious writers and defenders of the old guard have long blamed the usual suspects, such as the decay in traditional values and lack of respect for authority, along with the seductions of media, Hollywood, and consumer society.
Recently in The Atlantic, Derek Thompson offered a slightly different take. Thompson cited Notre Dame professor Christian Smith in concluding that the rise of religious non-belief is “the result of three historical events: the association of the Republican Party with the Christian right, the end of the Cold War, and 9/11.” Thompson writes: “Religion has lost its halo effect in the past three decades, not because science drove God from the public square, but rather because politics did.” Thompson goes on to mention changing social mores, dedication to careers, and “delayed adulthood,” such as putting off getting married and raising a family. Thompson uses the following trend-line to ground the argument.
Following Thompson, we can see the increases in non-belief after the Cold War in 1991 and four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. However, a deeper reading of the trend-line suggests the possibility of a profound role for contemporary science and media technologies. After all, the Hubble Space Telescope and the internet date to 1990–1991, with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter appearing in 2004–2006, all just prior to significant increases in religious non-belief.
Note that religious non-affilation increased from 5% in 1972 to 8% in 1988, representing a 60% increase of non-believers. This points to another weakness with Thompson’s analysis: the trend-line does not go back far enough. It needs to account for events in the 1960s.
The Post-Apollo Rise in Religious Non-Belief
As shown in trend-line 2 below, the rise of religious non-belief in America first occurs in the wake of the massively popular Apollo moon program, which ran from 1968–1972.
Between 1950 and about 1967, the religious “nones” fluctuated around 2%. From the mid-1960s to 1969, the total doubled to 4% in 1969, then doubled again to 8% in the early 1980s. The first trend-line above (used by Thompson in The Atlantic article) does not account for the quadrupling of religious non-belief from mid-1960s to early-1980s—from the Apollo 11 moon landings to the less-dramatic era of NASA space shuttles. The moon landing was the biggest event of that era, maybe even the biggest of the century. How could it not have impacted cosmic belief systems?
America did not begin losing its religion “three decades ago,” as Thompson claims. Rather, America began losing its religion five decades ago when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and said: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”
NASA’s scientific triumph was televised around the world for all to see, including the secular and latent atheistic meanings. In the photos of Earth from space, the black void surrounding our planet said it all. Throughout the Apollo program, humans were treated to numerous images of Earth from space against the black void, all echoing the same message—the old creation myths are no longer plausible or believable. Earth is a rocky-watery planet orbiting a flaming ball of hydrogen in a vast cosmic arena. Apollo’s black voids posed a profound challenge for both religious and secular philosophy, a challenge yet to be met by either.
Post-Hubble and Post-Internet
Precisely as the Cold War was ending, two media technologies were unleashed on human consciousness—the Hubble Space Telescope and the internet. The Hubble was launched in 1990 and the internet began its global proliferation in 1990-1991. Both technologies have contributed to the rise of religious non-belief, likely to far more effect than the demise of the Cold War.
Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope might well be the most profound media technology of all-time (so far). When the Hubble telescope was launched, its main mirror was defective and returned slightly blurry images. NASA was widely ridiculed in the media and by politicians and the public. So in 1993, NASA launched an epic mission to repair the Hubble telescope and it worked! Since that moment, the Hubble telescope began pouring down images from space and hasn’t slowed down. And religious non-belief began another ascent, jumping from 9% in 1993 to 14% 1998.
Despite all the epic insights and imagery from the Milky Way and other galaxies, Hubble’s most important discovery is seen in the “Deep Field” images beginning in 1995—which contain thousands of distant galaxies seen in tiny specks of darkness in the night sky. In the image below, each speck of light is a galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars. The Hubble telescope has been central to the mapping of an ancient and majestic universe, containing 2 trillion galaxies and stretching across 90–100 billion light years. It’s utterly mind-blowing, mind-expanding. And no Creator has bothered to photobomb the Hubble images to counter the arguments of the skeptics, atheists, and existentialists like me.
According to computer scientist Allen Downey, the rise of the internet correlates with the rise of non-belief from 1990 to 2010. Whether the internet officially started in 1990 or 1991, it doesn’t matter. Between 1990 and 2010, the increase in non-believers jumped from 8% to 18% of Americans.
In a study of four decades of survey data trends regarding demographics, socioeconomics, religious affiliation, and internet usage, Downey concluded the following:
• Religious upbringing increases the chance of religious affiliation as an adult. Decreases in religious upbringing between the 1980s and 2000s account for about 25% of the observed decrease in affiliation.
• College education decreases the chance of religious affiliation. Increases in college graduation between the 1980s and 2000s account for about 5% of the observed decrease in affiliation.
• Internet use decreases the chance of religious affiliation. Increases in Internet use since 1990, from 0 to nearly 80% of the general population, account for about 20% of the observed decrease in affiliation.
Post-Social Media Technology
On trend-line 6 below, we can see that the post-9/11 rise of non-belief closely follows the introduction of social media giants Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005), and Twitter (2006), along with many other social media.
This should not be surprising because social media permit the bypassing of traditional distribution channels, especially for science information and science videos. Of course, most everyone wants to blame social media for the world’s problems, especially fake news and the hateful political tribalism spewing everywhere. But, just as social media can distribute hate and fake news, it can also spread truth and real science. [Keep in mind, this is a brief article and cannot cover everything about social media. Yours truly is a media studies professor and I have written numerous articles and edited textbooks on all these subjects.]
YouTube alone contains thousands upon thousands of science videos, some with millions of views. The Hubble videos often have millions of viewers, with the Deep Field videos reaching as many as five million viewers. Plus, documentary series like Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe are available online for repeated viewings. So are hundreds of other scientific documentaries, spanning topics such as evolution, exoplanets, black holes, solar superstorms, galaxy formation, the size of the universe, and dark matter and dark energy, to name a few. Links to science videos, memes, diagrams, charts, and articles are shared throughout social media, from Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest and beyond. I have seen these very things happen with my books, articles, and graphics/diagrams.
That young people are more likely to use social media for news, information, and scientific knowledge might help explain why the youth are more likely to be non-religious. A curious mind need not spend money on college courses to get a scientific worldview or develop skepticism toward theology. But, that does not mean they are becoming atheists or inherently enlightened thinkers. They might well be embracing astrology and other forms of pseudoscience, also widely available via social media.
For all the trend-lines above, please recall that “correlation” does not necessarily equal direct “causation.” Correlations show patterns that we must connect to other knowledge, evidence, and observations.
Conclusions
Here are conclusions the reader may consider. Keep in mind, this is merely a brief summary article.
1. NASA is contributing to the rise of religious non-belief
In my view, there is little doubt that NASA’s two most famed programs—the Apollo moon landings and the Hubble Space Telescope—have contributed to the rise of non-belief. How much is hard to say with precision, but given the trends, it’s likely significant.
After all, how can one look at the triumph of Apollo 11 and the black voids around Earth and conclude that God wanted America to defeat the godless Soviet Union? How can one take seriously the claim that a Creator has a special plan for our tribe—or for us individually—in a universe of sprawling black voids, dotted with trillions of galaxies stretching across 100 billion light years? Four centuries after Galileo, Apollo and Hubble finished off any claims to cosmic centrality for humanity.
The Hubble telescope is soon to be followed by the James Webb Space Telescope, which will float in space a million miles from Planet Earth. Armed infrared sight (and many other technologies) and 100 times more powerful than the Hubble, the Webb telescope will seek out life on other planets and penetrate ever deeper into the universe. Who knows what discoveries lie ahead for NASA and the European Space Agency (which contributed to both the Hubble and Webb telescopes)?
2. The internet and social media are contributing to the rise of religious non-belief, in many forms
By providing easy distribution and access to scientific and/or atheistic worldviews, the internet and social media are contributing to non-belief, in many forms. Again, it is difficult to determine how much increase is due to social media based on the trend-line, but it seems to be part of the media and cultural equation.
Just as social media can create echo chambers of bigotry, xenophobia, and idiotic Apollo conspiracy theories, the same media technologies can also create enclaves of secular/scientific worldviews—when the technologies are used for that purpose. But, this does not mean all the non-believers are becoming atheists or inherently more enlightened. After all, social media and the internet circulate fake news and all the world’s ideologies are making claims of truth, with or without any evidence. Perhaps it is the sheer volume and onslaught of ideas, images, and information on the internet that negates the triumph of any overall worldview, except for celebrity and consumption, which reign supreme in secular society.
3. Many religious non-believers likely embrace astrology, Ancient Aliens, and other pseudosciences
Of the 26% in the Pew survey that are non-believers, only 5% are atheists. The other 21% are agnostics or claim to believe in “nothing in particular.” Yet, something will fill that void, the need for belief in a big narrative. Will Star Wars and superhero movies be enough? I wonder how many buy into astrology and the Ancient Alien narrative.
Derek Thompson’s article overlooks that Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? was a huge best-seller in the 1970s—selling over 40 million copies. Competing directly with the Religious Right in the 1970s, the book and subsequent documentaries filled the secular void left in the wake of Apollo, precisely by claiming to connect humanity’s origins and destiny to powerful aliens from the stars. In 2009, a two-part episode of Ancient Aliens appeared on the History Channel, inspired by the long-running success of Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? and similar books by other authors. So popular was the show that the History Channel programmed the Ancient Alien series, which began in 2010 and is still running every season.
Recent surveys have shown that 35–41% of Americans agree with the Ancient Alien narrative. I wonder how many Ancient Aliens fans self-describe as “nones” or religious non-believers. Ancient Aliens is fast becoming a new religion that merges pseudo-archaeology with media spectacle—complete with Comic Con-style conventions that attract thousands of fans.
4. The future: A titanic struggle between religious and secular society?
With the rise of non-believers now approaching 25% of the American population, religious institutions face dwindling numbers and diminished power, which are generating the political and cultural tactics we’ve seen in recent decades and in the Trump administration. No doubt, the Religious Right is desperately and dangerously clinging to power, as evidenced by the disdain for universal human rights and worship of a Twitter tough guy, reality-TV star President. No wonder they are militarizing space and building border walls.
Given the trends above, it’s likely there will be future battles between theists (of all kinds) and non-theists (of all kinds) for the control of 21st century America, and maybe the rest of the world. The cosmic worldview provided by telescopes already plays a fundamental philosophical role. If the Religious Right wants to preserve its long-term power in America, perhaps it should seek to eliminate funding for NASA and the telescopes floating in space and perched on mountaintops—all working to tell a very different story about humanity’s origins and destiny in a vast universe. The real philosophical challenge is for art and philosophy to develop an accessible cultural narrative that gives a sense of meaning, purpose, and a hopeful tomorrow—in an awe-inspiring cosmos, a universe in which humanity is not significant, not central, and not part of a Grand Plan. As the Hubble and Webb telescopes show, we’re tiny, but brainy, and that is our starting point.
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For more on these topics in Medium:
Barry Vacker, “Ancient Aliens, Superheroes, and the Decline in Religious Belief,” Medium, November 12, 2017.
Barry Vacker, “Ancient Aliens: Evidence of Stephen Hawking’s Claim That “Philosophy is Dead,” Medium, February 26, 2017. (Cited in the New York Times.)
Barry Vacker, “‘Explosion of Awareness’ — Kubrick, Nietzsche, Hubble, and the Starting Point for a 21st Century Space Philosophy,” Medium, November 25, 2017.
Barry Vacker, “The ‘Co-Star’ App — Astrology, Media Tech, and the Hubble Universe,” Medium, April 22, 2019.
