Religion Polls

A large collection of polls with questions based on religion. Of course, this is the American view of religion. Quite interesting.

Polls

"Do you personally believe in the existence of each of the following? . . . "

(Believe, Don't Believe, Not Sure: in %)

God 92 5 3 .
Heaven 85 10 5 .
Miracles 82 14 4 .
Angels 78 15 7 .
Hell 74 20 6 .
The Devil 71 24 5 .
UFOs 34 55 11 .
Ghosts 34 60 6 .
Astrology 29 64 7 .
Reincarnation 25 62 13 .
Witches 24 69 7

God 92 5 3 .
Heaven 85 10 5 .
Miracles 82 14 4

Where the hell did they take this survey? The Vatican???

interesting... The following can be extrapolated:

21% of the people that believe in God, do not Believe in the Devil.

11% of the people that believe in heaven do not believe in Hell.

Now that makes no sense to me. You would think that the numbers would be quite the same, given a study of standard american spiritual beliefs.

Originally posted by lonestar
21% of the people that believe in God, do not Believe in the Devil.

Technically, this is impossible...If a person believes in the existence of God, then, by default, must also believe that the Devil exists as well; And vice versa (It should be impossible to believe in the Devil without believing in God as well). After all one *cannot* exist without the other because they're both part-n-parcel of the same religion.

Originally posted by lonestar
11% of the people that believe in heaven do not believe in Hell.

Well, I believe in Heaven without beliving in Hell...At least, not the same kind of Hell that popular opinion would define it.

Originally posted by lonestar
Now that makes no sense to me. You would think that the numbers would be quite the same, given a study of standard american spiritual beliefs.

Which is just an indicator of how badly the Christian Religion has been mucked up by the Religious Heirarchy...Change this, alter that, retranslate the other & reinterpret something else over here, etc...

They can't even keep a straight "party line" as to which of their lies are suppossed to be the truth.


[Edited on 14-10-2003 by MidnightDStroyer]

Those kinds of surveys are wrong......people lie

People do not forget that the US population is composed of more than Christians, Jews, atheists, and wiccans. For example the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in God and Heaven, but do not believe in Hell as such. Christians are not supposed to practice astrology but many do. Hindus believe in God (Brahma) but do not believe in the Devil as such. So do not blame the apparent inconsistency of the poll on the Christians. There are many Hindus and Buddhists in this country.

God and heaven are more accepted than the paranormal is. Funny how many people see them as independent of each other?

Originally posted by jagdflieger
There are many Hindus and Buddhists in this country.

Granted that I forgot about the "non-Christian" faiths that still take God as as their religions define Him...But the 21% quoted above seems a tad high, doesn't it?

Originally posted by THENEO
Funny how many people see them (God & heaven) as independent of each other?

Heh! Now that you mention it, I hadn't quite thought of it that way...I've always taken the "supernatural" as part of the ineffable ways that God manifests in the world we see & never thought of them as something different. I never really contemplated that perhaps a lot of faithful *do* see them as different...After all, doesn't the Church many times dogmatically decry the supernatural to be automatically be "spawned from evil", even if a supernatural event seems to point the other way?


[Edited on 14-10-2003 by MidnightDStroyer]

Well MD, there is a considerable number of Buddhists and Hindus in the USA. To check the consistency of belief, the poll shoud first determine the person's faith (i.e., Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, etc.). Then the poll should ask questions about the existence of belief in God, Heaven, the Devil, Hell, etc. The response can then be correlated with the offical tenets of the belief to which the person supposed to belong. This then would indicate how consistent people's beliefs are with what they are supposed to believe.

I believe that most of the Chinese in this country are Buddhists. When you walk into a Chinese restaurant and see a statue of Buddha, well that statue is not there for decoration.

Originally posted by jagdflieger
To check the consistency of belief, the poll shoud first determine the person's faith (i.e., Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, etc.). Then the poll should ask questions about the existence of belief in God, Heaven, the Devil, Hell, etc.

That's why I don't take polls like that...Many times, polls are *intentionally* skewed for a certain spin or designed to support a vaguely-semirelated theory. Other times, such a poll doesn't take certain factors into consideration (like the point I just quoted from you) purely by neglect or lack of forethought.

and who told you this the pope or god himself and if he did can you tell him i said hello, dont worry hell know its me...

Good point MD, It is kind of like the poll which states that nine out of ten doctors would want a certain brand of aspirin if that was the only medicine they could have on an island (I sure you heard about this poll during TV commercials). Well the advertisers never told what were the doctors' choices. You can always skew the results of the poll by the wording of the questions and then just give the results. In order to detemine a poll's validity, you must be able to examine the questions asked, the number of people asked, the demographics of the people (age, income, etc.). Polls can be valid if done properly; however, it would appear that 95% of the polls made are not done correctly.

Originally posted by jagdflieger
Good point MD, It is kind of like the poll which states that nine out of ten doctors would want a certain brand of aspirin if that was the only medicine they could have on an island (I sure you heard about this poll during TV commercials).

Similar to that old commercial that says "Four out of five dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum"...Remember that one? Do they ever tell you what the *fifth* dentist says? No...Somehow they fail to mention that the fifth dentist would tell their patients not to chew gum at all. An answer like that, if advertised, would inspire a lot of public confidence in the gum manufacturer, wouldn't it?

Gah! I think marketing agents should all be put up against a wall & shot for the crime of insulting everybody's intelligence...Standing just to the right of lawyers and/or corporate lackeys who become politicians.


[Edited on 16-10-2003 by MidnightDStroyer]

No, this simply cannot be right...

God 92 5 3

There is no way that 92% of people believe in God... Either this was not the actual question, or the location of the poll was a church....