(RNS) Four in 10 Americans believe Jesus Christ will return to earth by 2050, while a slightly larger portion (46 percent) don’t believe they’ll see a Second Coming by mid-century, according to a new survey.
As part of Smithsonian Magazine’s 40th anniversary issue, 1,546 adults were asked to guess the forecast of war, energy, science and religion in the next 40 years for a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press.
Evangelicals were most likely (58 percent) to predict a Second Coming, followed by 32 percent of Catholics, and 27 percent of mainline Protestants.

Fifty-two percent of people living in the South, and 59 percent of people without a college degree, expected a Christ comeback more readily than their counterparts, according to the survey.
The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

— Ankita Rao
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