Demographics and Politics of Faith

[Eoraptor]

Hi girls. The Elton John thread led to me finding an interesting poll online- the Harris Poll #11. The poll sampled 2201 American adults on faith-based topics, and tracked other characteristics of the people sampled as well. Of course any poll has numerous possible sources of error, so these aren't exact percentages of the US population. But we can figure some amount of truth exists in the results, and I'm very interested to hear the opinions of others, especially those who value faith more than I do (which is just about everyone I think!

).

13% more people believed in Heaven than Hell. So there must be a lot of optimists.

Males have less faith than females across the board. I wonder why?

People with more education believe faith-based things less. If you compare people with post graduate degrees with those who only have a high school degree or less-
- 7% less believe in God.
- 8% less believe in the afterlife.
- 17% less believe in miracles.
- 15% less believe in Heaven.
- 22% less believe in the Resurrection.
- 24% less believe in the virgin birth.
- 21% less believe in Hell and the devil.
- 20% less believe in ghosts.
- 21% less believe in astrology.
- 11% less believe in reincarnation.
I'm very interested to know why people think this is. Obviously in my view, people who know more about the world and how to analyze it have less reason to believe in any of these things. Note the scientifically impossible beliefs (resurrection, virgin birth, astrology) have the highest rates of "unbelief", while those beliefs which are merely unproven (God, afterlife, reincarnation) have the lowest rates. But I imagine those of you with faith yourselves find such an explanation unsatisfying and maybe even insulting. So I'd really like to know what your explanations are for this correlation. Note most beliefs don't drop much with age*, so it's not merely people losing the faith they were raised with.

* Except New Age / Eastern beliefs (astrology, reincarnation), which I would say drop so much in the elderly because they weren't popular in America until recently.

Tying this into our recent political thread, Republicans are far more likely to believe in the virgin birth (13% more), Hell (19%) and the devil (17%). Democrats are more likely to believe in ghosts (12%), astrology (21%) and reincarnation (13%). So neither party is significantly less rational, though Republicans lead slightly when it comes to other Christian beliefs too (varies between 3-9%).

It's interesting how some Christians manage to do away with beliefs I really thought were important to the religion, such as Christ's resurrection (4%), Heaven (5%), or Hell (18%). And then there are the 21% of Christians who believe in reincarnation. I wonder how their afterlife theology works? Astoundingly, 26% of non-Christians believe in the resurrection of Christ. So they believe he rose from the dead despite not being the son of God? If anyone here has any of these belief combinations, I'd be very interested to hear about them.

Finally, 75% of Christians believe they are going to Heaven, while only 1% believe they are going to Hell. A world of optimists indeed.

 

[flowerhead]

That was interesting, thanks.
How can anybody believe in hell and 'the devil'? It was imagery made up by Catholics to scare people into going to church..

 

[giz2000]

That was interesting...I was raised Catholic, but haven't been a practicing one for over 20 years...I do believe in God and I pray...I just don't believe I need to go to a church to do this, or to follow the doctrines of a particular religion in order to have a spiritual connection.

So...what do you call someone who doesn't believe in organized religion...no one seems to know...

 

[Hawkeye]

giz- you call them merely spiritual.

Eora- I am glad you are researching things yourself

It makes me very happy!

I think the more education one has the more they have the ability to think for themselves and to look at things from different perspectives. I think that is why the drop in belief. Many of them never knew about why they believed so when it was challenged they couldn't defend their beliefs so therefore they stopped believing.

I often tell my friends to not dare get into a religious argument with me because I will rip them up and spit them out before they know what hit them because many of them have no idea what they believe.

So Education plays a lot into that. Also there are somethings that you can't explain. You just *know* I can't even explain it. Is it faith? Who knows? Who really cares? Does it really matter?

It's fascinating to me as well but there is no reason necessary because the truth is-

The faith was challenged and they couldn't stand up to it. Same with Republicans and democrats

And yet many christians who believe the optimistic may be quite surprised in the end

 

[Eoraptor]

*gasp* People were brave enough to respond to this after all. I was afraid the topic was too offensive.

giz2000- You're a theist (since you believe in a personal god), just not a particular type of one.

Quote:

And yet many christians who believe the optimistic may be quite surprised in the end

Haha! That's the worst thing about being an atheist - if I'm right, none of the religious will ever know they're wrong in the end. Whereas if I'm wrong, I'll certainly find out.

 

[d_flawless]

"Democrats are more likely to believe in ghosts (12%), astrology (21%) and reincarnation (13%)"

absolutely. astrology is a huge part of my DAY even...and i do believe in ghosts and in reincarnation.

"People with more education believe faith-based things less."

probably because people with an education have been taught to question things critically, and honestly, who believes everything that they're taught 100% anyway? maybe those people are more honest, because they figure they don't have to count on god, they've already achieved what they want. not to say they don't want heaven or some spitual awakening, or that all lesser-educated people are super religious or anything, but it does seem that are more people with less of an education at my church anyway. it's almost like the people with higher degrees, usually with an awesome job as well, have other things going on their lives and don't make time for religion; that's what it seems like anyway...
that's my experience anyway.

 

[Hawkeye]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d_flawless "and honestly, who believes everything that they're taught 100% anyway? .

you seriously would be surprised.
its not even funny.

Some people I've talked to we would be talking and I would say something simple like-George washington never cut down a cherry tree and you would've seriously thought that I had just burned the american flag.

Some people. Wow.

 

[amoona]

I personally think it depends on what the person is educated in. Like one of my cousins has a PHD in Biology ... or maybe Chemistry haha ... neway he's a Scientist. He has no religious beliefs at all, which is really odd in my family. If you ask him where did we come from he'll say "Evolution" not God. (BTW Islam does recognize Evoltuion)

On the other hand I found myself to become much more religious when I started college. But unlike my cousin I'm not studying Science ... I'm studying Poli Sci and Middle Eastern Studies. I think the fact that a lot of my focus is on Middle Eastern Studies/History/Politics I have become much closer to my faith. Since Islam plays such a vital role in the Middle East I think my education has made me a better Muslim.

But then again I think that a lot of people in this country don't follow religion very strongly. It's not a big part of the average persons life.

 

[Hawkeye]

you have two very valid points there amoona.

and I agree with both of them.

 

[Eoraptor]

Very good observation, amoona. There have actually been studies that show biologists are the least likely to be religious compared to chemists, physicists and other kinds of scientists. Probably because they understand evolution better*. Similarly, natural scientists (those who study the natural world) are less likely to be religious than political scientists, engineers or liberal arts majors. Probably because they understand the scientific method better, so are better critical thinkers.**

* Not to imply theists can't believe in evolution too, since many do. But if you don't understand evolution, you have more reason to believe a creator was necessary.

** Again, not to imply that theists can't be critical thinkers, but faith is the opposite of critical thinking, so it's harder to combine the two in one mind. Many people manage though.

Quote:

But then again I think that a lot of people in this country don't follow religion very strongly. It's not a big part of the average persons life.

Haha. I get that impression from my state too, but have you ever been to the south or other red states? I hear us blue-staters can get quite a biased impression of the country's religiosity.

 

[amoona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eoraptor Haha. I get that impression from my state too, but have you ever been to the south or other red states? I hear us blue-staters can get quite a biased impression of the country's religiosity.

Eh, I've never been to the South honestly I travel a lot (to Brazil and the Middle East mostly) but I don't travel much in the US. Outside of the Bay Area I've only been to Las Vegas and New York City.

The Bay Area is SUPER liberal ... so outside my group of Middle Eastern friends and of course my family, I honestly don't come across too many religious people. Maybe it is something with blue-states haha?!