World News Korner

Polling shows that belief in God and faith in religion on the decline in America.

Courtesy of Harris Interactive:

A new Harris Poll finds that while a strong majority (74%) of U.S. adults do believe in God, this belief is in decline when compared to previous years as just over four in five (82%) expressed a belief in God in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Also, while majorities also believe in miracles (72%, down from 79% in 2005), heaven (68%, down from 75%), that Jesus is God or the Son of God (68%, down from 72%), the resurrection of Jesus Christ (65%, down from 70%), the survival of the soul after death (64%, down from 69%), the devil, hell (both at 58%, down from 62%) and the Virgin birth (57%, down from 60%), these are all down from previous Harris Polls.

Belief in Darwin's theory of evolution, however, while well below levels recorded for belief in God, miracles and heaven, is up in comparison to 2005 findings (47%, up from 42%).

The survey also finds that 42% of Americans believe in ghosts, 36% each believe in creationism and UFOs, 29% believe in astrology, 26% believe in witches and 24% believe in reincarnation - that they were once another person. (I find it somewhat hysterical that there are more people who believe in ghosts than believe in creationism.)

Turning to the political spectrum, Democrats and Independents show similar levels of belief in most of the tested concepts, with Republicans consistently more likely than either group to express belief in those concepts aligned with the Judeo-Christian belief system; Republicans are less likely than either group to express belief in Darwin's theory of evolution (36% Republicans, 52% Democrats, 51% Independents).

In a separate line of questioning, focused on Americans' degree of certainty that there is or is not a God, two-thirds of Americans (68%) indicate being either absolutely or somewhat certain that there is a God, while 54% specify being absolutely certain; these figures represent drops of 11 and 12 percentage points, respectively, from 2003 testing, where combined certainty was at 79% and absolute certainty was at 66%.

Meanwhile, combined belief that there is no God (16%) and uncertainty as to whether or not there is a God (also 16%) are both up from 2003 findings (when these levels were 9% and 12%, respectively).

Just under half of Americans believe that all or most of the Old Testament (49%) and the New Testament (48%) are the "Word of God," representing declines of six percentage points each from 2008 findings. (I continue to be stunned that so many people have so much faith in this book when just about every careful examination of its contents reveals problems with translation, with historical accuracy, and with made of locations and characters. And that is WITHOUT throwing in the whole idea that the people who wrote it were divinely inspired.)

Just under two in ten Americans (19%) describe themselves are "very" religious, with an additional four in ten (40%) describing themselves as "somewhat" religious (40%, down from 49% in 2007). Nearly one-fourth of Americans (23%) identify themselves as "not at all" religious - a figure that has nearly doubled since 2007, when it was at 12%.

Progress is on the side of the rational, however I cannot help but be a little impatient in waiting for the rest of the country to catch up to where I have been for almost five decades.

In my opinion this country will never truly have the opportunity to be great until we remove the fundamentalist element that permeates our politics and places constraints on women's control over their bodies, gay rights, the teaching of science, and public education.

By the way this article contained many more fascinating statistics, and I suggest that all of you click the link at the top to read more.



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