Harris Poll says that more Americans believe in the devil, hell and angels than in Darwin's theory of evolution

  • Thread starter Thread starter stbruno
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

stbruno

Guest
More Americans Believe in the Devil, Hell and Angels than in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Nearly 25% of Americans Believe They Were Once another Person
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – December 10, 2008 – That very large majorities of the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise. What may be more surprising is that substantial minorities believe in ghosts, UFOs, witches, astrology, and the belief that they themselves were once other people. Overall, more people believe in the devil, hell and angels than believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a new nationwide survey of 2,126 U.S. adults surveyed online between November 10 and 17, 2008 by Harris Interactive®. harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=982
Some of the interesting findings in this new Harris Poll include:
  • 80% of adult Americans believe in God – unchanged since the last time we asked the question in 2005. Large majorities of the public believe in miracles (75%), heaven (73%), angels (71%), that Jesus is God or the Son of God (71%), the resurrection of Jesus (70%), the survival of the soul after death (68%), hell (62%), the Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary (61%) and the devil (59%).
  • Slightly more people – but both are minorities – believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (47%) than in creationism (40%).
  • Sizeable minorities believe in ghosts (44%), UFOs (36%), witches (31%), astrology (31%), and reincarnation (24%).
 
Probably inline with Catholic teaching because not only does the church teach creationism but it also accepts the natural order of evolution in some things…just not in the creation of humankind.
 
Call me an omnivore. but of all those things mentioned, the only thing that I don’t believe in is reincarnation.

I don’t follow some of them but, just about all except reincarnation have some basis in reality. The ones I don’t follow, witchcraft and astrology, have their own adherents and are even mentioned in the bible (aka the witch that King Saul visited, and the star that guided the Magi).

The only one that I’ve had a first person encounter with is a UFO, having seen one many years ago.
 
How moronic…
  1. What does a UFO stand for? An Unidentified Flying Object. So do I believe that I or somebody else can see a flying object & not be able to idenitfy what it was? SURE
  2. Do I believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution? No, I believe in the current theory of evoltuion which is mix of Darwin’s, Mendel’s as well as some other works.
This just shows a very very sad situation & an inaccurate survey.
 
ooh! polls! theyre always right and never self serving and totally accurate!
polls!
 
This strikes me as a very unprofessional poll.

“UFOs” and “Witches” aren’t things to be believed in. They’re things which require empirical evidence (ie. I saw a UFO yesterday, my sister is a Wiccan, etc.).
 
I dont’ see how the beleif in a God, angels et cetera and a religious mindset can be incompatible with the theory of evolution and Darwin as so many seem to say. Some Mormons or Jehova Witnesses came to the door the other day and had pamplets abotu how evolution was lies and Darwin was a drunken fraud. I told them I was Catholic and a beleiver in evolution AND in the concept that perhaps aliens exist on other worlds… well, you should have seen how red they went!

Apparently I’m firmly on the path to hell!

hahah.
 
vera_dicere said:
I dont’ see how the beleif in a God, angels et cetera and a religious mindset can be incompatible with the theory of evolution and Darwin as so many seem to say. Some Mormons or Jehova Witnesses came to the door the other day and had pamplets abotu how evolution was lies and Darwin was a drunken fraud. I told them I was Catholic and a beleiver in evolution AND in the concept that perhaps aliens exist on other worlds… well, you should have seen how red they went!

Apparently I’m firmly on the path to hell!

hahah.
Click to expand...
Huh? :confused: But according to Mormonism wasn’t Jesus, um or God an alien in the first place???
What’s their problem?
 
vera_dicere said:
I dont’ see how the beleif in a God, angels et cetera and a religious mindset can be incompatible with the theory of evolution and Darwin as so many seem to say. Some Mormons or Jehova Witnesses came to the door the other day and had pamplets abotu how evolution was lies and Darwin was a drunken fraud. I told them I was Catholic and a beleiver in evolution AND in the concept that perhaps aliens exist on other worlds… well, you should have seen how red they went!

Apparently I’m firmly on the path to hell!

hahah.
Click to expand...
Not really…JW’s don’t believe in Hell, they believe that those who are not saved cease to exist. No eternal punishment, just an instantaneous and permanent “time out”. 😃

So if you were a firm believer in Pascal’s Wager, that would be a religion you could safely avoid, because if you were wrong (and they were right), well, you wouldn’t know it, right? 👍
 
This may be an incorrect generalization, but it is based on my not infrequent encounters with Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses (which have increased somewhat, as I live in the neighbourhood of the LDS Toronto HQ).

Jehovah’s Witnesses seem to be of any age group, men and women. Mormon missionaries tend to be almost invariably young men.

JWs dress in pretty much (for want of a better term) “ordinary”, conservative, non-descript clothes. Mormons seems to dress exclusively in black pants, white short-sleeved shirt (in warm weather), with or without a black jacket or suit coat, and a plain tie.

Male JWs sometimes sport facial hair; all Mormon missionaries I’ve seen were clean-shaven.

Mormon missionaries all wear name tags.

JW’s carry copies of pamphlets: “The Watchtower” and “Awake!” The Mormons I have met never had any pamphlets, but some had free copies of the Book of Mormon.

Overall, I have found that Mormon missionaries are generally immediately visually recognizable, their garb and appearance tending to resemble a “uniform”. JWs are more usually in mufti.

Also – and this is solely my experience, your mileage may vary – Mormons tend to be less pushy, more well-read, more well-trained/prepared as missionaries, and far less “superstitious” about Catholicism.
 
stbruno said:
More Americans Believe in the Devil, Hell and Angels than in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Nearly 25% of Americans Believe They Were Once another Person

Some of the interesting findings in this new Harris Poll include:
  • 80% of adult Americans believe in God – unchanged since the last time we asked the question in 2005. Large majorities of the public believe in miracles (75%), heaven (73%), angels (71%), that Jesus is God or the Son of God (71%), the resurrection of Jesus (70%), the survival of the soul after death (68%), hell (62%), the Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary (61%) and the devil (59%). < Count me in here. 👍
  • Slightly more people – but both are minorities – believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (47%) than in creationism (40%). < I believe in evolution (so far), but only insofar as “that’s how God did it”.
  • Sizeable minorities believe in
    1. ghosts (44%), < Nope.
    2. UFOs (36%), < Nope.
    3. witches (31%), < Nope.
    4. astrology (31%), < Mercury in retrograde says…Nope.
    5. and reincarnation (24%). < Nope. Didn’t believe it in any of my past lives, either.
Click to expand...
 
Probably inline with Catholic teaching because not only does the church teach creationism but it also accepts the natural order of evolution in some things…just not in the creation of humankind.
Click to expand...
That’s 50% right. The Church accepts the creation of man’s physical being as evolved, but it does not accept the idea that his soul evolved.

Which is perfectly right, I think.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top