The Barna Cultural Research Centre report found that only 6% of Americans adhere to a biblical worldview. 

Sixty percent of Americans do not believe that human life is inherently “sacred”. The word “sacred” is defined by the researchers as “having unconditional, intrinsic worth.” However, more than two-thirds believe human beings are “basically good.”

We would argue that seeing humans as “basically good” runs “counter to the foundational biblical teaching that human beings are created by God and made in His image but are fallen and in need of redemption.

George Barna, who founded the Barna Group, said in a statement that the view of mankind being “basically good” is negatively influencing current debates over law enforcement and systemic racism. “A movement to defund police departments might make sense if people are innately good. People with a humanistic worldview argue that crime and violence happen because of poverty, bad parenting, systemic discrimination, and other external forces,” stated Barna. “Yet crime statistics, political tensions, tendencies toward anger and hatred, and America’s moral deterioration and confusion suggest that we are neither innately good nor that emotional responses to empirical challenges will solve the problems.” Barna went on to argue that one “cannot change the hearts of people by outlawing racism.

“You will not create peace by passing laws and forcing compliance,” Barna contended. Every society can benefit from specific systemic changes, but any systemic changes designed to transform the culture will be short-lived unless the hearts and minds of the people who populate that system are transformed first with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.