March 1, 2003

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM:

The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2003: Many People Believe in Miracles (89%), The Devil (68%), Hell (69%), Ghosts (51%), Astrology (31%) and Reincarnation (27%), According to The Harris Poll (Harris Interactive, February 26, 2003)
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. Majorities of about two- thirds of all adults believe in hell and the devil, but hardly anybody expects that they will go to hell themselves.

These are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,201 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 21 and 27, 2003, using the same methods used by Harris Interactive to forecast the 2000 elections with great accuracy.


Ah, the Age of Reason.... Posted by Orrin Judd at March 1, 2003 6:35 AM
Comments

These are the same Americans who can't find the continents on a map.

Posted by: Buss Slate at March 1, 2003 4:20 PM

Bet you can't find Atlantis on one.

Posted by: oj at March 1, 2003 5:53 PM

Because humans are imitative, only a few reasonable

ones are necessary in any generation.



The people who believe in that stuff can ride

in airplanes, even if they cannot understand

what holds them up.

Posted by: Harry at March 1, 2003 9:09 PM

The Wright brothers being, of course, bishop's sons.

Posted by: oj at March 1, 2003 9:17 PM

Finally, something I have in common with religious people: I don't think I'm going to hell either.

Posted by: Robert D at March 2, 2003 12:23 AM

But doesn't that counteract the whole point of using the fear of eternal punishment to inculcate moral behavior if noone actually believes that they will be punished?

Posted by: Robert D at March 2, 2003 2:13 AM

RobertD:



Of course. If people thought they would be punished they might not be so sinful.

Posted by: oj at March 2, 2003 5:56 AM

But once they believed that they were safe, wouldn't it be inevitable that they'd start sinning again? Sin is in our nature, correct? Think of it as a homeostatic control, like a thermostat. Temperature (morality) falls below critical temperature. Furnace (fear of hell) kicks in, people fear that they may actually face damnation. Temperature (morality) rises above critical temperature. Furnace (fear of hell) turns off. Heat (morality) dissipates. Cycle is repeated.



The problem with this analogy is that for real people, their image of themselves tends to remain constant. People who say that they don't think they are going to hell will probably hold that image of themselves as a constant throughout their lives. Self image is not a good homeostatic control, it does not vary much through time. The thermostat is broken, the furnace never goes on.



The only real way to make this work is to inculcate a deep, immutable, lifelong fear of hell into people at an early age. The furnace stays on all the time. This is how religions use to bring up their children. It doesn't work that way anymore, the self-esteem movement has infiltrated everywhere, including religion.



So what is maintaining Christian morality nowadays? Certainly it isn't the fear of Hell.

Posted by: Robert D at March 2, 2003 10:56 PM
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