“Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name…
Here’s a good example from PollingReport of why I’ll never completely understand the mainstream :
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"For each of the following items I am going to read you, please tell me whether it is something you believe in, something you‘re not sure about, or something you don‘t believe in. . . ." Form A (N=519, MoE ? 5) |
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Believe In |
Not Sure |
Don’t Believe In |
No Opinion |
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% |
% |
% |
% |
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| God | 90 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
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| Heaven | 81 |
10 |
8 |
1 |
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| Angels | 78 |
11 |
10 |
1 |
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| Hell | 70 |
12 |
17 |
1 |
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| The Devil |
70 |
10 |
19 |
1 |
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70% of Americans believe in the Devil?? How can anyone believe in something like this??
I don’t mean to be completely judgmental here, but the idea that people believe in some cartoony embodiment of pure evil is as nutty as someone trying to convince me that the Smurfs are based on a true story.
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on a related note, i just saw a CNN report on summer travels. they were interviewing random people at the airport on whether they are fearful of flying after Ashcroft’s announcement the other day.
CNN approached one lady:
CNN- “After Ashcroft’s announcement of immenent terrorist attacks, are you fearful of flying today?”
lady- “No.”
CNN- “Why not?”
lady- “Because I have God on my side. He will protect me.”
i almost did a spit-take and sprayed my coffee on the t.v. by her logic, that would mean that the 3,000+ people that died on 9-11 must’ve all been atheists. and if that were the case, i think this 90% of god-fearing people would’ve probably said “good-riddance. that’s what you get for not believing in the lord.”
Comment by tom — May 28, 2004 @ 12:31 pm
It’s nice that some people still believe in that invisible man in the clouds.
What I found most surprising was the percentage of people who believed that the story of creation (as well as Noah) was literal, word-for-word truth.
The world created in 6 days? Two of every species of animal on earth crowded into one boat? Absolutely 100% true, yup yup yup!
Geez. Even my most religious friends will concede that these are nice stories, but certainly not scientific realities.
Comment by Uncle Mike — May 28, 2004 @ 5:36 pm
Actually, the whole “I know God is protecting me thing” fits rather nicely into the conservative viewpoint. Victims are pretty much always to blame for their own problems. They weren’t faithful, hard-working, etc. enough, see? They didn’t earn God’s protection so why should the have ours?
Comment by Amanda — May 28, 2004 @ 6:51 pm
But if you don’t believe in an awesomely powerful, despicably evil, and wholly non-natural entity, does this mean that you don’t believe in your own Attorney-General?
Comment by MFB — May 31, 2004 @ 1:57 am
I’m going to come out on the side of the religious folks on this one. If we’re going to believe that there is good and evil in this world, why not believe there is some kind of embodiment of it, some root cause that we can personify? Just because someone believes in the devil doesn’t mean they believe in the horns-and-a-tail, pitchfork version that David Cross mocks in “Shut Up, You Fucking Baby.” I don’t think it’s any sillier believing in the Devil than using the concept of Gaea or the earth as our “mother,” something even athiests have a tendency of doing.
If the interviewer had asked “do you believe there is a lake of fire where people are tortured for eternity by a guy with horns and a tail and his evil demons, and bad people go there after they die if they don’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior,” I don’t think so many people would have said yes.
Comment by dAnimal — May 31, 2004 @ 5:37 pm