During the reading in chapters 1 and 2 of American Religion, Chaves discussed a lot of statistics. One that I found very interesting was people’s belief in God. He states that over nearly six decades there has been a very small decline in the amount of people that believe in a higher power. Although people going to church every week or practicing their religion may have declined, their belief system has never wavered.  It was an interesting concept to think of because, rarely have I heard of a person switching from a religion to an atheist. More than not people will change religions in their lifetime or look into others that were different from how they were raised. He also talks about the tendency for people to trust those that believe in this higher power more than those that do not. In my lifetime I have come across people that do not believe in God and at first it does take me a back, only because it is something that you don’t hear often. However, I have never thought not to trust an atheist or not associate with them. It seems like a very odd concept to me that this would stop people from trusting one another. This goes to show, that even if many people don’t agree on a particular religion or see eye to eye with them, having the sole similarity of believing in God is extremely important for some people to continue social interaction. It goes to show again how much a persons religious beliefs affects their everyday interactions.