Newsweek poll: Religious in America

William Atkins
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 20:03

Science - Biology

Interestingly, some questions just seemed to be more interesting that others.

The percentages of people answering in the affirmative, and the questions they were asked, are shown below:

25% say “School boards ought to have the right to fire teachers who are known homosexuals” (51% said that in 1987)

74% say “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” (87% said that in 1987)

68% said, “religion is losing influence on American life” (58% said that in 1984 and 32% in 1962)

48% responded that “religion can answer all or most of today’s problems” (the lowest percentage since the poll was taken in 1957, when the percentage was 82%)

For additional information on this 2009 Newsweek poll, please read “One Nation Under God?”

Newsweek concludes, basically, that the attitudes of American with respect to religion are “shifting,” but that generally Americans are still “deeply religious.”

Author's note: I would be really interested in talking with the 4% of those people polled who couldn't answer whether they are or are not religious and/or spiritual. That response of "I don't know" really peeked my curiosity!

An interesting article on "Ten Global Trends in Religion" by Jay Gary (dated July 17, 1997) talks about some global trends of religion around the world.

The PEW Forum, a well-respected research organization, also holds some interesting articles on religion in the United States. See its website "Welcome to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey."