Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are less religious than their parents and grandparents, according to a new report from The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The study found that young Americans are less likely than than their elders to belong to a particular faith or to regularly attend religious services. They are also more likely to believe in evolution and less likely to feel Hollywood threatens our moral values (though they are about as likely to reject the idea that there are absolute standards of right and wrong). And young evangelicals specifically are significantly less likely than older evangelicals to believe that the Bible is the “literal” word of God.
But the study also found that young people are, in some ways, as spiritual as their elders were when they were in their 20s. Almost the same percentage say religion is important in their lives, they’re certain God exists, and they believe in life after death, heaven, hell, and miracles. Young adults are about as likely to pray daily as their elders did when they were the same age. As the researchers explain in their report:

This suggests that some of the religious differences between younger and older Americans today are not entirely generational but result in part from people’s tendency to place greater emphasis on religion as they age.

Still, young Americans are more likely to be unaffiliated with a particular religious faith (25 percent) than their parents were (13 percent) at their age, and we’ll have to wait to see how they feel about religious practices and beliefs as they get older.