(Clearwisdom.net) According to a Washington Post report on June 24, 2008, a survey and study on Americans' religious beliefs shows that more than 90 percent of Americans - 92 percent, including one fifth of those who call themselves atheists, believe in God or a universal spirit, and more than half of Americans - 58 percent, pray at least once a day.
The survey was released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The survey reveals that nearly three fourths of Americans believe in the existence of heaven, where good people will be eternally rewarded. Almost 60 percent of Americans believe that bad people who have not repented their sins will go to hell after death to receive eternal punishment.
The majority of people also believe that angels and demons are active in this world, and also believe that miracles constantly occur today as they did in the past.
The research once again confirms a fact that America is a country with "deep and broad religiosity." There were even a few surprises.
For instance, among those who describe themselves as atheists, Twenty-one percent "expressed a belief in God or a universal spirit," and among another group of people who describe themselves as agnostic, more than half "expressed a similar conviction."
Most Americans "have a remarkably nonexclusive attitude toward other faiths." Seventy percent of religious believers believe that in addition to the religion they believe in, many other religions "can lead to eternal salvation." "And only about one-quarter of those surveyed believe there is only one way to interpret their religion's teachings."
The survey was conducted in 2007, based on the interviews with 36,000 people who speak English and Spanish. The findings have been discussed in hundreds of media articles around the country in the last several days since the survey results were published.
Category: April 25 Events
