Poll Vaulting

As part of my research for a sermon illustration recently, I looked at the J.K. Harris Polling Company polls over the last few years. I know that poll results can be skewed by the way questions are asked and by who is asking the questions and by any number of other factors, BUT there is an interesting poll from November 29, 2007. It is identified by the Harris company as Poll #119.

The title of the Poll says a lot, "The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans." In a reasonably straight forward way, those taking the poll were asked to indicate whether they "believe in" or "don't believe in" or are "not sure" about a list of subjects. Then, they were asked, again from a list, which collections of writings they considered to be "The Word of God", and how religious they considered themselves and how often they attended religious services. Each of these results was further parsed by religious affiliation.

Many of the results could have been predicted. The overwhelming majority of Americans affirmed their belief in God (82%) with strong support for the other typical beliefs of the Christian faith, as in miracles, angels, heaven, Jesus as God or the Son of God, and the resurrection of Jesus. And, those self-identified as "born-again Christians" had the highest % of belief in each of these; though there was never a 100% result in this group.

Yet, there were some surprising results for me as well. Let me list just a few of these:
** 42% of all believed in evolution; 39% of all believed in creationism. Based on the rhetoric I hear, I would have thought many more would affirm creationism than evolution. Of course, the numbers for the "born-again" group were on target with my expectations with 60% affirming creationism and only 16% evolution.
** 35% of all believe in UFO's, with 29% of the "born-again" group agreeing. This means that more evangelicals believe in UFO's than in evolution.
** Here is a kicker: 21% of all people believe in reincarnation, with 8% of "born-again" Christians agreeing. I always thought that reincarnation is so antithetical to conservative Christian beliefs that I am shocked at this number, even as low as it is.
** "Born-again" Christians accept the "Old Testament" texts (88%) and the "New Testament" texts (86%) as the "Word of God", but only 33% accept "The Torah" as the "Word of God" even though the Torah is a Jewish term referencing the first five books that comprise the Christian "Old Testament." It would seem that, whatever you call it, if it is God's Word, it is God's Word.
** 50% of the "Born-Again" Christians said they attended worship services every week or more, which I would expect - though I find it curious that more of them do not attend more often or claim to attend more often. Yet, 12% of this group say they attend less than 1 time a year; that means they do not even make the minimum Christmas and Easter visit.

After much reading and study into the nature of the American religious experience, I am still amazed by what religious Americans say they do or do not believe.