do 91% of Americans REALLY believe in a god?

that's the number they used this evening on ABCWorldnews- although i didn't notice that they said where that number came from.

it seems like an awfully high percentage to me.

There could have been other options that they counted as a "yes" vote that were more... ambiguous.

"Religion and Reason"

they stated repeatedly that the US is the most religious country in the world

don't know about 90% but a 70+% figure was mentioned several times

but as often is the case, they're full of shit, and credible data from the GSS (General Social Survey) doesn't bear this out.

As we've seen time and again, these folks distort facts and report bogus data to appease the far right and please their corporate masters.

It never changes. That's the first hint that it's BS.

the Christian version of God. 91% believing in some kind of higher being, I could see that.

If you asked if "Jesus Christ was the Son of God" It would drop the numbers to about 45% or so,

N/T

:-)

Saying they believe in Gawd is more of a lip service deal anyway.

Not one person out there has a circle of friends and family whee 91% goes to a church, temple, synagogue, etc. The non-believer population is much higher than anyone cares to admit to. Last week CNN did a report on Atheism and it was pathetic. Their "panel" was three conservative believers who kept ranting "They (atheists) need to shut up!" One even went as far as saying christians are strong whereas atheists are generally weak. Nice fair & balanced report. :eyes:

I can easily see 91% of Americans believing that at least one god exists. But that doesn't mean they worship that god or care about that god. This probably includes people who believe in a vaguely-defined higher power.

has nothing to do with going to church, temple or synagogue. Although not believing in god is a popular belief here at DU, we need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that probably the vast majority of Americans disagree with us about god. Personally, it bothers me that everybody in America does not agree with all of my beliefs. Well, what do they know?

NT!

believers - the world God as applied to the spiritual belief that some have is not appropriate - so I guess it made be as low as 91%.

I have also seen numbers that 5 % of the population that rejects atheism may do so only so as to claim to be agnostic.

Many surveys come up with 80% Christian and 10% other religious beliefs in the US.

Not a very important number except in that it puts to rest the nutty idea that atheists have that folks will "grow" into atheism when they get more education or more knowledge. While over educated scientists doe seem to succumb to peer pressure a bit (only a little less than 50% are strongly religious), over educated in other areas does not seem to affect the ration relative to the general population.

There are many atheist surveys than try to dispute this - almost always via surveys of other countries where religion is not a big part of life. a Canadian atheist has pulled together the links to a lot of surveys that he wishes proved him to be in the smarter part of mankind. By pulling EU data - where religious feeling is much lower than the US, and then restating the EU data as the position of wealthy and educated - rather than geographic peer pressure in the EU, some atheists claim more income will lead to less religion! :-) . And the peer pressure argument might work the other way - peer pressure in the US may push the percentage that are religious up a bit.

Again all this is not very important except as to your need to be reassured that your belief system is the right one - a belief in no god, or a belief in god.

That's a telling phrase you use. Do you really think they'd be better of with less education? Should we all be a bit more ignorant, for your liking?

of Americans have been asked? Maybe they got the number from the NSA?

Sounds like it's just another poll; not the census or something.

There must be a lot of liars south of the Canadian border.

they do a big poll on religion every 10 years. They added a question in 2001: "Do you live with anyone who does not believe in god" (or something like that.) 19% answered yes yet when they asked "do you believe in god, 86% said they did. So, at least 5% are lying.

I know many people who do not believe in god, infact I figured once 25% of my office yet if you asked anyone in my office if there were any atheists they would say "yes, one". (me). These other atheists, if asked by a believer, would say "I'm a Unitarian" or "I used to go to the Episcopal church but don't really go to church much anymore." Or, they outright lie, depending on much approval that particular individual needs.

Richard Dawkins latest book, The God Delusion, has been on the best seller list for 19 weeks, it even tops the Audible best seller list and Audible members are not very radical.

I'm glad you asked this question as we talk about it all the time. All of my friends and family are atheists and we think the polls are wrong, not necessarily because they are cooked but because of the pressure society puts on people to believe. Remember the inquisition or more recently the great red scare ("our" hatred of communism is/was mainly about religion) if you don't think society pressures people to be "god fearing".

results from a Deity.

Yeah, that's what I thought. 91% of America only believes in God when it's convenient (i.e. when they're laying on a stretcher about to die.)

some people believe that every person, even every thing is 'God" and others believe in some force they can't or don't want to explain. I for one believe that "god" is a crazy woman who binge drinks. Hail Eris.



http://discordian.com/discordian.html

Valentine Michael Smith-Stranger in a Strange Land

And include people who don't go to church or don't say anything about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States

According to the US Census, in 2001 15.0% of Americans were "non religious"

Since that number is up from 8.4% in 1990 I suspect it is even higher today.

And they also have a stat on *other*.

deity!=god

And hadn't seen the poll. It does seem to include such a number of religions to include most if not all believers in a deity. I used the term deity only to be inclusive of different ideas of God and different gods from the Christian/Jewish/Islamic God.

I do think for citing a belief in God or a deity that a poll with "no religion" and "atheist/agnostic" in separate categories is a better source. Or a poll with the question asked solely. The concept of a God, deity, or deities does not require religion for manifestation.

believes in God so they can believe in a Hell for people like Cheney, Bush, DeLay, etc.

did you know that 86% of all statistics are made up on the spot, just like that one?

that cigarettes are the leading cause of statistics?

Oh, wait...