Americans who trust science and reason more than their churches’ teachings, but still believe in God or attend services, are also more likely to believe in magic than those who prioritize religious teachings. This was the central finding of a study my co-authors and I published in the journal Social Forces in July 2026. We analyzed the latest wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, a nationally representative survey of 1,812 American adults that Gallup fielded in early 2025.
We used four of its questions to measure an outlook we call “secular rationalism.” The term refers to the belief that science is the only way to understand the world and that morality should rest on reason rather than religious teachings. Secular rationalism also includes the idea that people should interpret spiritual matters on their own rather than trust religious authorities. We looked at people who embrace secular rationalist ideas but also believe in the supernatural.
We asked respondents how strongly they believed in six things that people often call magic and require no god or church, from ghosts and curses to talking to the dead. For comparison, we also measured belief in miracles, such as whether miracles still happen today and whether God is the source of all miracles. What’s interesting was that people who scored high on “secular rationalism” beliefs were more likely to believe in magic, so long as they kept some tie to religion.
Among Americans who believe in God, those who also agree with secular rationalism were about twice as likely to lean toward magic as those who reject secular rationalism – 40% vs. 19%. Among people who attend religious services, the share was 28% vs. 19%. Among people who never attend services or do not believe in God, secular rationalism was no longer linked to belief in magic.
Some of the groups we compared were small. According to Baylor Religion Survey 2025 data, fewer than 1% of Americans neither believe in God nor generally agree with these secular rationalist ideas but actively reject them, while about 18% believe in God and agree with them. About 3 in 10 American adults now claim no religious affiliation.
Scholars are still debating whether the decline of organized religion will also mean the decline of belief in the supernatural in the U.S. A long tradition of social theory predicts that as religious institutions decline, a scientific outlook with no room for supernatural or magic will take its place. Our findings suggest that many Americans who no longer affiliate with an organized religion may still believe in tarot, astrology or psychic services.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
