A couple of polls were released last week that may give us a glimpse into where we are heading as a society — but no context as to why.

First, the Gallup folks polled Americans regarding where we feel we are with our morality as a nation. A record high number of 50% of Americans rated our moral values as “poor,” with another 37% saying they are at best “fair.” Only 1% saw our morals as a nation as “excellent.” A whopping 78% of us see our moral values getting worse.

And the most troubling moral issue we face? Simple consideration for others tops the list.

Then, Gallup released the numbers regarding how many Americans believe in God. A record-setting 19% of Americans do not believe in the existence of a higher power, a sharp 7% increase in just the last five years.

To appreciate just how large a shift that represents, they shared this information:

“Gallup first asked this question in 1944, repeating it again in 1947 and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter four surveys, a consistent 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.”

That means in the last 11 years, belief in a higher power has dropped a stunning percentage point per year. For context, for the previous 60 years combined it dropped a total of 6%.

Now, it does need to be said that 81% of Americans — an overwhelming majority — do still believe in God. And, on top of that, more than half of all Americans polled believe that God not only hears our prayers but also intervenes on our behalf through them.

But, there’s no way around the fact that the trend reflected by these polls is concerning.

So what is to be made of all of this?

Before I share my thoughts, I want to be clear that I do not feel that belief in a higher power is absolutely necessary for a human being to have solid morals. I have several atheist friends who are extremely moral and upright citizens, and it is perfectly clear that their lack of faith has not impacted their sense of morality in any way. 

However, with that said, it must be added that each of the friends that I am speaking of are extremely intelligent, and are anything but suckers for anybody or anything. In other words, their internal moral compass is very strong yet independently guided.

And that, at least for me, is where I see the crux of the issue regarding the rest of our nation.

America was founded on the premise that belief in a higher power was, on the whole, necessary for our republic to function as intended. The founders were skeptical of the role of religion, because they had seen how religion could be used to divide instead of unite.

However, the founders were very clear that God and an accountability to Him were central in their framing of the new nation and its laws. They knew that all humans were basally flawed creatures who could not be left up to their own “standards of measurement” and succeed with the freedoms found in that nation.

As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary.”

In other words, they believed that any legal measurements based on man-made law were flawed, and as a result, natural, moral law superseded human law.

For those founders, the very essence of liberty itself meant choosing to freely do what is morally correct. Think of liberty in that light when you read the words of United States Supreme Court Justice James Wilson: “Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.”

So how does all of this tie together?

On the whole, left up to his own devices, mankind is essentially rudderless and anchorless. Through a simple belief that something bigger than “us” is in play and the faith that “something” is monitoring us and holding us accountable individually for the choices we alone make, we find it much easier to stay ‘inside the guard rails’ of making choices solely based on what and/or isn’t morally acceptable.

And subsequently our actions based on that premise almost automatically become more moral in their nature.

In other words, a belief in God and the morality that follows that belief are inextricably connected.

If you don’t believe it, then simply step back and look at those statistics at the beginning of this again. And while you do, consider what we have seen happen with our own nation in the last 10 or so years. Mere coincidence? Far from it. Where we are now should be inarguable proof that these statistics don’t lie.

We want things to be easy and new. Every commercial and news show on television is now about instant fixes. The newest drugs, newest cars, newest clothes or newest whatever are peddled to make you feel better about yourself.

So why is none of it ever enough? And with all of it in the mix, we still devolve? Maybe it is because without simple belief and the faith that naturally accompanies it we are simply lost.

At least, that is, until we are once again found.