Nearly half of Americans uncertain God exists: poll

[Dardedar]

Nearly half of Americans uncertain God exists: poll

Oct 31 6:52 PM US/Eastern

Nearly half of Americans are not sure God exists, according to a poll that also found divisions among the public on whether God is male or female or whether God has a human form and has control over events.

The survey conducted by Harris Poll found that 42 percent of US adults are not "absolutely certain" there is a God compared to 34 percent who felt that way when asked the same question three years ago.

Among the various religious groups, 76 percent of Protestants, 64 percent of Catholics and 30 percent of Jews said they are "absolutely certain" there is a God while 93 percent of Christians who describe themselves as "Born Again" feel certain God exists.

When questioned on whether God is male or female, 36 percent of respondents said they think God is male, 37 percent said neither male nor female and 10 percent said "both male and female."

Only one percent think of God as a female, according to the poll.

Asked whether God has a human form, 41 percent said they think of God as "a spirit or power than can take on human form but is not inherently human."

As to whether God controls events on Earth, 29 percent believe that to be the case while 44 percent said God "observes but does not control what happens on Earth".

The survey was conducted online between October 4 and 10 among 2,010 US adults.

LINK

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

You'd have to define god before I could answer that question - and possibly they got that 42% because they either didn't define god or defined god as an old white man with a long beard (or some PC variation on same).

[Dardedar]

You'd have to define god before I could answer that question -

DAR
I think they left it to the individual to define god, which is best.

and possibly they got that 42% because they either didn't define god

DAR
Defining god would lead to a lower number. But there is no need, leave it to each to use their own definition. And when you do that, 42% are not absolutely certain God exists. That's pretty high I think.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

It is very high, considering our "background" - I think it is partly our society's disconnect from nature, and lack of conscious dependence on it. When you are connected to nature, you know there is something greater than humanity - no matter how you invision it or regard it, it's core knowledge. Most Americans don't have contact with anything stronger than they are that isn't manmade.

[WindFem3]

It is very high, considering our "background" - I think it is partly our society's disconnect from nature, and lack of conscious dependence on it. When you are connected to nature . . .

I dunno, Barbara. I've got to disagree with you a bit.

Some religionists look at nature's displays (meteorologically speaking) such as a destructive hurricane and say, "That's God's way of punishing those people for . . . " whatever. Conversely, I've heard many a believer say stupid crap like, "A rainbow is God's promise that he'll never again destroy the Earth with a flood." No matter how twisted, they're definitely making a "connection" to nature.

Or how about AIDS? How many televangelists and fundies (and a few politicians, if I recall) said at the height of the epidemic that it was God's way of punishing those who sinned? And how many times have you heard someone make the - ludicrous - statement that the spontaneous remission of an illness is a "miracle?" Again, we're talking about natural processes which the Brazil-nut-like believers have perverted to their cause.

Additionally, in "The God Delusion" Dawkins talks about how some people (we non-believers) feel a certain euphoria when witnessing an awesome sight in nature, but they will not credit the feeling to anything other than a wonder at the power of nature. Meanwhile, someone who leans on religion will witness the exact same thing and describe their emotions as "spiritual"and attribute everything - of course - to his or her supernatural hero. I remember a statement from someone I knew who'd been to the Grand Canyon about how they got goose-flesh and practically felt orgasmic while standing on the rim because "It was so fantastic to realize that God had made this!"

Oh, the believers are connected to nature all right - just not in a rational way.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

They are no more connected with the reality of nature than folks who put plastic frogs in their front yards while using the "chemgreen" chemicals that kill real ones. These are people who still think and react on the same level as kids who believe it when Bugs Bunny turns on an unconnected faucet and water comes out. Or won't drink cow's milk at a farm because they only like store milk. Or won't eat drumsticks because they are chicken legs but love McNuggets. They see nature - usually on TV - but have no connection.

Any society that teaches inherent evil of its constituents has easy meat when it comes to natural disasters being a sign of god's wrath. Check out the few remaining hunter-gatherer groups and you don't get that attitude. While they have religion and belief in gods, they don't believe they themselves are evil, so their perspective of massive events (whether positively or negatively impacting humans) is different. Unfortunately, there are only about 1% of those groups left.