We Believe in God, miracles, ghosts - and UFOs

The Washington TImes ^ | 12/12,08 | Jennifer Harper

[lakeprincess]

We believe in God - plus miracles, heaven, the devil and UFOs - but not Darwin so much. It must be true. A poll says so!

[Realism]

“Americans embrace key parts of tradition and faith, but they add other sorts of stuff, the supplementary beliefs that might not be on the approved list,”

Stuff which makes sense, but may lead to being looked upon as a heretic by their peers.

[allmendream]

47% believe in Darwins theory of evolution through natural selection.

40% believe in Creationism.

[generally]

It would have been much more interesting to see what atheists and agnostics “believe” in. Most I know will believe in *anything* except God.

It has been my (admittedly unscientific) observation that atheists believe in astrology, reincarnation, karma, fate, numerology, feng shui, tarot cards, palm readers, fortune tellers, ESP, psychics, and just about any crackpot theory for which there is no scientific support. SInce they don’t believe in God, they *need* to believe in something. Yet, they mock those who believe in God and are unable to see the irony in that.

[allmendream]

Atheists and Agnostics are a rather small minority.

So most the UFO, astrology, karma, numerology, etc, believers also believe in God (to some extent).

[BroJoeK]

"80 percent say they believe in God;
among those who attend church weekly, the number is 98 percent.

Three-quarters believe in miracles,
73 percent believe in heaven,
71 percent say Jesus is the Son of God and
71 percent believe in angels, the survey found.
Seven out of 10 say Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that the Bible is, all or in part, the "Word of God."

More than two-thirds - 68 percent - believe in the "survival of the soul after death" and would describe themselves as religious.
About 62 percent think that hell exists,
61 percent believe in the Virgin Birth and
59 percent say the devil exists.

47 percent - said they believe in Darwin's theory of evolution;
a third said they did not believe in it while
22 percent were not sure what they thought.
A full 40 percent said they believe in creationism, though the question did not elaborate on exactly what that term meant.

Supernatural phenomena of other kinds attract Americans' attention.

Overall, 44 percent of the respondents said they believe in ghosts,
36 percent say UFOs are real while
31 percent believe in both witches and astrology.
About a quarter believe in reincarnation, or "that you were once another person," the survey found.

Although Protestants have a slight edge on Catholics in terms of church attendance, the survey revealed marked similarities between the denominations.

"There are no significant differences between the large percentages of Catholics and Protestants who believe in God, miracles, heaven and hell, that Jesus is the Son of God, angels, the Resurrection of Jesus, the survival of the soul after death, the Virgin Birth and the devil," the survey said.

"However, Catholics are more likely than Protestants to believe in Darwin´s theory of evolution (by 52 percent to 32 percent),
ghosts (by 57 percent to 41 percent),
UFOs (43 percent to 31 percent), and
astrology (by 40 percent to 28 percent).

Protestants are slightly more likely than Catholics to believe in creationism (by 54 percent to 46 percent)."