I was interested to read on Teletext this morning the results of a Newsweek poll on American religious views. You can read about it at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17879317/site/newsweek/
The core results for American Adults are:
91% say they believe in God.
87% say they identify with a specific religion.
82% identify themselves as Christians
5% follow a non-Christian faith; say Judaism or Islam.
48% rejects the scientific theory of evolution
34% of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact.
73% of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. 39% percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41% of Catholics agree with that view.
10% identify themselves as having "no religion"
6% say that they don’t believe in a God at all.
3% of the public self-identifies as atheist
47% of the respondents felt the country is more accepting of atheists today than it used to be
What do we make of this?
Firstly, America is very much a nation that believes in God and bases its faith on Christianity. The number of atheists is very low indeed! Similarly the numbers of adherents to other faiths is low. We can be critical of the nation for its foreign policy and some religious and Christian naievity; but at heart, America in the main believes. Secondly, evolution has not taken hold to the extent that some would think. About half of Americans accept a creationist position and reject evolution. A significant percentage accept a young earth creationist position.
I find all this very interesting.
The core results for American Adults are:
91% say they believe in God.
87% say they identify with a specific religion.
82% identify themselves as Christians
5% follow a non-Christian faith; say Judaism or Islam.
48% rejects the scientific theory of evolution
34% of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact.
73% of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. 39% percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41% of Catholics agree with that view.
10% identify themselves as having "no religion"
6% say that they don’t believe in a God at all.
3% of the public self-identifies as atheist
47% of the respondents felt the country is more accepting of atheists today than it used to be
What do we make of this?
Firstly, America is very much a nation that believes in God and bases its faith on Christianity. The number of atheists is very low indeed! Similarly the numbers of adherents to other faiths is low. We can be critical of the nation for its foreign policy and some religious and Christian naievity; but at heart, America in the main believes. Secondly, evolution has not taken hold to the extent that some would think. About half of Americans accept a creationist position and reject evolution. A significant percentage accept a young earth creationist position.
I find all this very interesting.
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