On December 16, Harris Interactive released the results of a recent survey of American beliefs.
While somewhat frightening, the results are improving. For example, while 36% of US citizens believe in creationism, evolution is up to 47%.
There is still a massively Christian preference in the US. A majority of US residents have a belief in god (74%), that figure is down from 82% just 4 years ago. Belief in miracles, heaven, Jesus, the resurrection, the devil, hell, and the virgin birth are all down. Note that while the percentages are all down, they are still above 50% in all cases.
It gets worse though. Almost half of the US still believes in ghosts (42%), over a third believe in UFOs (36%) and about 1 in 4 believe in astrology (29%), witches (26%)*, and reincarnation (24%).
So, reality appears to be making some headway in the US. I wonder how much is due to the extremism that is present in our society (and world) and how much is due to education.
In another survey, Gallup asked “How would you rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in X industry?”
Surprisingly (or not so for those that follow the news), clergy is down, a lot. Eleven percent of respondents rated clergy as low or very low, while only 47$ rated them as high or very high.
Looking at just the high/very high responses, car salespeople, lobbyists, and members of congress all rated in the single digits with car salesmen beating the other two groups. Local office holders, business executives (I assume this is CEOs, CFOs, etc), newspaper reporters, lawyers, TV reporters, advertisers, and state office holders all had less than a quarter of the respondents rank them high or very high. Nurses, pharmacists, and grade school teachers ranked the highest of the ones listed.
There seems to be the beginnings of some real backlash against the various groups that have (IMO) historically been against the average person.
__________________________
* I have to assume that this is the wicked witch of the west variety of witches. In many circles, female members of various pagan religions are called witches.
