Science-Minded Believers Are Twice as Likely to Believe in Magic, Researchers Report October 15

Americans who say science and reason matter more than their church's teachings, yet still believe in God or sit in a pew on Sunday, are the group most likely to believe in ghosts, curses and talking to the dead. That is the central finding of a study of 1,812 US adults by sociologists at Baylor University, Carson-Newman University and American University, published in the journal Social Forces and explained to the public for the first time by co-author Ruiqian Li in The Conversation on Thursday, October 15. Among people who believe in God, 40 percent of the science-minded leaned toward magic, against 19 percent of those who put religious teaching first.

What the study found

The paper, titled "The magic of secularization," draws on the latest wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, a nationally representative poll fielded by Gallup in early 2025. Its authors are Paul Froese of Baylor University, Isaiah King of Carson-Newman University and Ruiqian Li, a research assistant professor at American University's School of Public Affairs. Social Forces, published by Oxford University Press, released the paper online on July 20, 2026; Li's plain-language account appeared in The Conversation on October 15.

The researchers built a measure they call "secular rationalism" from four statements: that science is the only way to understand the world, that morality should rest on reason rather than religious teaching, and that people should interpret spiritual matters for themselves. They then asked about six beliefs that, in Li's words, "require no god or church," ranging from ghosts and curses to communicating with the dead, and separately about belief in miracles for comparison.

The expected result would have been a simple ladder: the more a person trusts science, the less they believe in anything supernatural. That is not what the data show. Among respondents who believe in God, those who also scored high on secular rationalism were about twice as likely to lean toward magic, 40 percent versus 19 percent. Among people who attend religious services, the gap was smaller but pointed the same way, 28 percent versus 19 percent. Among Americans who never attend services or who do not believe in God at all, secular rationalism made no difference to magical belief.

Two further numbers frame the finding. Roughly 18 percent of Americans both believe in God and agree with the secular-rationalist statements, so this is not a fringe group. Fewer than 1 percent reject both God and secular rationalism. Li connects the pattern to the wider religious landscape: according to the Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study, published in February 2025, about 29 percent of US adults have no religious affiliation, but only 5 percent call themselves atheists, and most of the unaffiliated say their religion is "nothing in particular" while still believing in something beyond the natural world.

The authors' explanation is that magic, unlike organized religion, needs no congregation, clergy or theology. A person who distrusts institutions but still senses something beyond the material world can hold on to ghosts or curses without asking anyone's permission. Li writes that the pattern may help explain why younger Americans, who distrust institutions most, appear in the data as likely to hold both magical and secular-rationalist views at once, while adding that researchers "still know little about how magical beliefs spread among young Americans."

What it means spiritually

Facts first: this is a survey of what Americans say they believe, not evidence that curses work or that the dead can be reached. Everything below is interpretation.

The finding will not surprise anyone who has worked in the Western esoteric tradition. Hermeticism, the Golden Dawn and the Renaissance magicians all treated magic as a kind of applied natural philosophy, something to be studied, tested and refined by the individual rather than received from a priest. "As above, so below" is a hypothesis about the structure of the world, and the people who held it were often the same people building telescopes and cataloguing plants. Seen that way, the survey describes a very old American type: the person who reads the science pages, keeps a loose faith, and still salts the doorway. Our guide to chaos magic covers the modern school that made "belief as a tool" its central method, and if the word curse in this story made you check your own luck, read our honest checklist on whether you have been cursed before you spend a dollar.

What you can do now

• Read the source, not the headline. Li's article in The Conversation is free. The 40 percent applies to believers who score high on secular rationalism, not to all Americans.
• Ask yourself the four questions. Is science the only way to understand the world? Should morality rest on reason? Should you interpret spiritual matters yourself? Where you land tells you which group in this survey you resemble.
• Separate practice from proof. You can light a candle, pull a card or honor your dead because the ritual steadies you, without claiming the study proves anything about results. It does not.
• Keep your skepticism switched on. The same independence that lets people hold magic without a church also makes them targets for paid "curse removal." Our twelve red flags before you pay anyone still apply.
• Watch for the follow-up. The authors say a study following the same people over time is the next step; we will report it here.

Pairs well with: Hermetic Tarot Deck, a 78-card Golden Dawn deck with a 72-page booklet, for readers who like their magic with footnotes.

Sources

• Ruiqian Li, "Americans who go to church and trust science are also more likely to believe in ghosts and curses, new research shows," The Conversation, October 15, 2026. theconversation.com
• Paul Froese, Isaiah King and Ruiqian Li, "The magic of secularization," Social Forces, advance article published July 20, 2026, doi:10.1093/sf/soag097. doi.org/10.1093/sf/soag097
• Pew Research Center, "Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off," Religious Landscape Study, February 26, 2025. pewresearch.org
• Baylor Religion Survey, Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion. baylorreligionsurvey.research.baylor.edu
• Questions about an order or a product: 28@templeofdesire.com

Cover image: the study's key figures, drawn by Temple of Desire from numbers reported in The Conversation on October 15, 2026. The spiritual readings in this article are tradition and lived practice, not scientifically proven.