Fun_People Archive
30 Apr
How Many People Are Atheists?

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 100 15:18:24 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: How Many People Are Atheists?

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From: Dan Weinreb

Results of recent polls of Americans:                          "yes"
                                                                ---
Do you believe in God? ........................................ 95%
Have you always believed in God? .............................. 78%

Do you know that God exists and have no doubt about it? ....... 64%
Do you believe in God but have some doubts? ................... 17%
Do you believe in God sometimes but not always? ...............  4%
Do you believe in the Devil? .................................. 63%

Do you believe in life after death?
	Among Catholics, in 1970's: ........................... 74%
	Among Catholics, in 1990's: ........................... 82%
	Among Jews, in 1970's: ................................ 19%
	Among Jews, in 1990's: ................................ 56%
	Among all Americans, 1973: ............................ 77%
	Among all Americans, 1998: ............................ 82%

Is God male? .................................................. 44%
Is God female? ................................................  1%
Is God genderless? ............................................ 43%

Is Heaven a real place? ....................................... 88%
Is Hell a real place? ......................................... 71%

Do you believe that even today, miracles are performed by
the power of God? ............................................. 80%

Have you experienced or witnessed what you would consider
a miracle? .................................................... 36%

Source: various polls, reported by Richard Morin, director of polling for
the Washington Post.  I've been reading Morin's journalism for years and
am convinced that he's intelligent and trustworthy.  Many of his stories
are about what polls really tell us and why many conclusions drawn from
polls should be taken skeptically.  So I think these numbers are pretty
reliable indicators of what people told poll-takers.  By the way, he finds
the rising belief among Jews in the afterlife surprising and has no
explanation for it.
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