The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2003

Harris Poll ^ | February 26, 2003 | Humphrey Taylor

[Steve Eisenberg]

That very large majorities of the American public, and almost all (but not all) Christians believe in God, the survival of the soul after death, miracles, heaven, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise. What may be more surprising is that half of all adults believe in ghosts, almost a third believe in astrology, and more than a quarter believe in reincarnation – that they were themselves reincarnated from other people.

Most of the 84% of the public who believe in the survival of the soul after death are optimists. Almost two-thirds (63%), including 75% of Christians, expect to go to heaven. Only 1% expect to go to hell. Six percent expect to go to purgatory while 11% expect to go somewhere else and 18% don’t know.

 

		All Adults		Party I.D.
				Republican		Democrat		Independent
	%		%		%		%
God	90		93		90		87
Survival of the soul after death	84		87		83		83
Miracles	84		87		82		82
Heaven	82		89		80		78
The resurrection of Christ	80		87		78		75
The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)	77		86		73		72
Hell	69		82		63		65
The devil	68		79		62		65
Ghosts	51		42		54		56
Astrology	31		19		40		29
Reincarnation	27		18		31		30

[Steve Eisenberg]

Even though I don't put that much stock in multiple choice polls, this one is filled with facinating details. It's eight months old, but does not seem to have been posted before.

Looks like 40% of Democrats believe in astrology. I guess that might give a hint of how a Dean administration would deal with the terrorists.

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[madprof98]

Fascinating that 82% of Republicans believe in Hell but only 63% of Democrats. No wonder they keep putting down the notion of personal responsibility.

[LittleJoe]

Looks like 40% of Democrats believe in astrology.

Uh...didn't Reagan have an astrologer?

[Steve Eisenberg]

Uh...didn't Reagan have an astrologer?

Being a tolerant fellow, I am going to endorse a view on this I just found, via Google, over at Democratic Underground (the infamous DU):

the mass media are guilty of blowing this story out of proportion and leaving misconceptions about the Reagan astrologer in the popular consciousness. People have been led to believe that Quigley had a personal say in Oval Office decision making, that she maintained direct contact with the president, and was responsible for developing and implementing policy according to the heavens. As best we can tell, this was never the case.

[SwinneySwitch]

Interesting! I thought more demonrats would believe in hell and the devil!

[LittleJoe]

Rats! Everytime I trust the National Enquirer I get burned!

[curmudgeonII]

As a matter of curiosity, would you consider life after death a form of reincarnation?

[azcap]

Although many rats work directly for the devil they do not believe in him. It's like those people trapped in dead end jobs who really can't admit their wasting their life.

[buccaneer81]

Although many rats work directly for the devil they do not believe in him. It's like those people trapped in dead end jobs who really can't admit their wasting their life.

Satan owns fast food franchises?? Damn. Who woulda thought??

[Steve Eisenberg]

As a matter of curiosity, would you consider life after death a form of reincarnation?

Reincarnation is a belief that you come back, to this world, often as an animal -- and that you yourself are such a reincarnated being.

In this poll of over 2,200 Americans, 87 percent of Republicans believe in survival of the soul after death, but only 18 percent believe in reincarnation. This tells me that the great majority of poll respondents do more or less know the difference.

I just asked my 11 year old, David, what reincarnation is and who believes it. He said what it was and that about a billion Asians, Hindus and Buddhists, believe in it. Good so far, but then he guessed that only 1 - 2 percent of Americans believe in reincarnation. Oh well.