Here’s an interesting Harris Poll on The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2003.
Among some noteworthy items:
- 90% of adults believe in God.
- 51% believed in ghosts, but only 27% aged 65 and older.
- 63% of people who believe the soul survives after death (84% of the total) believe in Hell, but only 1% think they are going there; 18% opined they did not know where they were going.
- Men tend to be a bit less believing than women, and belief in religion and the supernatural goes down to some degree the higher the education level. (Still, 85% of folks with post-grad degrees believe in God.)
A couple of oddities (which might indicate folks not understanding the questions, having different definitions for the terms, or giving goofy answers):
- 1% of Christians do not believe in God, 8% do not believe in the survival of the soul after death, 7% do not believe in miracles, 5% do not believe in heaven, 7% do not believe in the Virgin birth and 18% do not believe in hell.
- 26% of non-Christians believe in the resurrection of Christ; 27% believe in the Virgin birth.
(via Blinne)
63 view(s)
That’s interesting about the non-Christian numbers. Most pagans I know (myself, included) don’t deny Christ’s life and miracles; it’s just not in our cosmology. That we’re more willing to believe in it than some actual Christians is sort of . . . sad? I don’t know what word I’m looking for, but that’ll have to do.
I suppose it makes sense. I know Christians who incorporate various “pagan” beliefs in their own (even stuff that would cause most orthodox theologians to do a spit-take). Seeking consistency in theology, especially if you’re willing to chalk up swathes of the metaphysical landscape with a big “Mystery” banner, is not, in itself, logical.
What the poll appears to say is that roughly one quarter of self-identified Christians and non-Christians are syncretistic with the other group. One quarter of Christians believe in the pagan beliefs of astrology and reincarnation. The only outlyer was the ghost question. I suspect that once one has crossed the mystical Rubicon you may be less critical of other supernatural beliefs even if it is outside of your own particular tradition. Nevertheless, the majority of each groups hold to the exclusivity of the supernatural to their belief system. So, this makes a kind of sense.
Another thing indicated is the wishful thinking concerning the final state of one’s own soul. This was the occasion of posting this poll to my blog. The one percent of those who thought they were going to Hell was identical for both Christians and non-Christians. This explains the decline in the topic of Hell in sermons even though the vast majority of Americans believe in it and it was one of Jesus’ top two topics (the other was money). The people in the pews simply do not see it as personally relevant since they don’t see themselves going there.
Hmmm. I wonder, though, if you took a poll at any other time over the last 1500 years or so, if you’d get much of a different result. I really don’t think most folks think they are going to hell, even if they acknowledge it as something they need to be careful of (And don’t forget the 18% who weren’t sure.)
I’d be curious to see the questions.
I’ll take 18th century New England as a comparison point. The reaction to “Sinners in the Hands of and Angry God” indicated people thought they were in imminent danger. In my American Lit class, Edwards was presented as yelling and such. In reality, he read the sermon monotone. Nevertheless, he did seem to get a rise out of the Enfield Conn. congregation.
I get your point on the 18%. However, I believe that it is more likely a case where they think will go to heaven but they are not sure that it exists. It would have been good for a follow up on this one.