William Atkins
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 20:03
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 2
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."