Fox News, of "Fair and Balanced" fame, has released the results of a survey just completed, revealing that 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God, 85 percent in heaven and 82 percent in miracles. Though belief in God remained at the same level from earlier surveys, belief in the devil increased from 63 percent in 1997 to 71 percent today. In other beliefs, about a third of Americans believe in ghosts (34 percent) and an equal number in UFOs (34 percent), and about a quarter accept astrology (29 percent), reincarnation (25 percent) and witches (24 percent).
An interesting gender gap was found on many of these topics. Women are more likely than men to believe in miracles (12 percentage point higher), and eight points more likely to believe in heaven. Not surprising to skeptics, the significant gender difference exception was for belief in UFOs, at 39 percent of men compared to 30 percent of women.
Age also revealed differences, with 86 percent of adults between the ages of 18 to 34 believing in hell, which drops to 68 percent for those over age 70. Similarly, 79 percent of 18 to 34 year olds believe in the devil compared to 67 percent of the over-70 age group.
Not surprising given the traditional split between conservatives and liberals on so many social issues and attitudes, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they believe in God (by eight percentage points), in heaven (by 10 points), in hell (by 15 points), and considerably more likely to believe in the devil (by 17 points). Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they believe in reincarnation (by 14 percentage points), in astrology (by 14 points), in ghosts (by eight points) and UFOs (by five points).
Equally distressing for nonbelievers, most Americans think religion plays too small a role in people's lives today (69 percent), with only 15 percent saying it plays too large a role and seven percent saying "about right." In a related finding, over a third (37 percent) say they attend church, synagogue or other place of worship at least once a week, 13 percent almost every week, 12 percent about once a month and 19 percent seldom attend. Three percent attend on holidays and 15 percent never attend.
The Fox poll was conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corporation by telephone on September 23-24, 2003 in the evenings. The sample was 900 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of 13 percentage points.
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