Americans and their beliefs

[misnoma]

Is it true that the majority of Americans believe in the literal translation of the bible?

There is an inverse proportioality between intellect and religion - comment?

Most Americans in positions of authority lack the courage of conviction to state the obvious regarding religion - comment?

The majority consider Intelligent design to be correct whilst evolution is disregarded - comment?

America is an advanced nation - really?

 

[EmilK]

The United States of America has one the largest armies in the world. The United States of America has one of the largest stockpiles of WMD in the world. The United States of America is on the frontier in many areas such as technology, science, human health infrastructure and democracy.

I will not comment on your proposal that an increase in religion and religious values leads to less intelligent people.

Most Americans in positions of authority lack the courage of conviction to state the obvious regarding religion - comment?

Hardly. The President of the United States have on several occasions expressed his thoughts about religion and science, acting quite convicted in his opinions.

The United States of America is one of the worlds most advanced nations in the world, which is fairly obvious to a majority of the world's populations.

 

[misnoma]

The United States of America has one the largest armies in the world. The United States of America has one of the largest stockpiles of WMD in the world. The United States of America is on the frontier in many areas such as technology, science, human health infrastructure and democracy.

I will not comment on your proposal that an increase in religion and religious values leads to less intelligent people.



Hardly. The President of the United States have on several occasions expressed his thoughts about religion and science, acting quite convicted in his opinions.

The United States of America is one of the worlds most advanced nations in the world, which is fairly obvious to a majority of the world's populations.

I do not mean advanced in the technological sense but in the human sense. One could be with no technology and yet be very advanced in human terms. Tolerance, understanding, ability to reason, to question and to listen.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Is it true that the majority of Americans believe in the literal translation of the bible?

No. Those who do are called Christian fundamentalists. We have a spectrum of beliefs that spans all religions as well as every twist of agnosticism, atheism, and cults.

There is an inverse proportioality between intellect and religion - comment?

I don't think there is any definitive study showing this to be true. IIRC, scientists tend less towards religious beliefs than the average.

Most Americans in positions of authority lack the courage of conviction to state the obvious regarding religion - comment?

I think this is a statement of what you believe. Do you believe that each person should be free to choose their own beliefs, or should they just ask you?

The majority consider Intelligent design to be correct whilst evolution is disregarded - comment?

False. You are talking about fundamentalists.

America is an advanced nation - really?

It sounds to me that it is your base of knowledge that needs advancing.

 

[misnoma]

The United States of America has one the largest armies in the world. The United States of America has one of the largest stockpiles of WMD in the world. The United States of America is on the frontier in many areas such as technology, science, human health infrastructure and democracy.

I will not comment on your proposal that an increase in religion and religious values leads to less intelligent people.



Hardly. The President of the United States have on several occasions expressed his thoughts about religion and science, acting quite convicted in his opinions.

The United States of America is one of the worlds most advanced nations in the world, which is fairly obvious to a majority of the world's populations.

Being convicted in one's opinions in not a sign of intellect and advancement. It may reflect other factors such as being stubborn, low tolerance, misunderstanding, lack of knowledge and understanding, being misguided and so on >>>>>>>>>>>

 

[EmilK]

I do not mean advanced in the technological sense but in the human sense. One could be with no technology and yet be very advanced in human terms. Tolerance, understanding, ability to reason, to question and to listen.

I'm not sure how much you do or do not know about the politics of the United States. There is freedom or speech, religious freedom and all of those key phrases are actually a large part of science and technology, both in its definition and areas such as social 'sciences'.

Not everyone is like the stereotypical American - Middle-aged, highly religious, anti-science, anti-research or fanatic fundamentalists, just as everyone in the middle east is not stereotypical as well. Most Americans are secularized to some extent.

The things you see on TV and read in bias newspapers is not usually not 100% true anywhere.

 

[misnoma]

No. Those who do are called Christian fundamentalists. We have a spectrum of beliefs that spans all religions as well as every twist of agnosticism, atheism, and cults.



I don't think there is any definitive study showing this to be true. IIRC, scientists tend less towards religious beliefs than the average.



I think this is a statement of what you believe. Do you believe that each person should be free to choose their own beliefs, or should they just ask you?



False. You are talking about fundamentalists.



It sounds to me that it is your base of knowledge that needs advancing.

It would be of some interest to know how many are fundamentalists. There are many intellectual Americans who could show the way here.

 

[misnoma]

I'm not sure how much you do or do not know about the politics of the United States. There is freedom or speech, religious freedom and all of those key phrases are actually a large part of science and technology, both in its definition and areas such as social 'sciences'.

Not everyone is like the stereotypical American - Middle-aged, highly religious, anti-science, anti-research or fanatic fundamentalists, just as everyone in the middle east is not stereotypical as well. Most Americans are secularized to some extent.

The things you see on TV and read in bias newspapers is not usually not 100% true anywhere.

Thank you. Of this I am aware but I am simply raising awareness of what may be perceived misconceptions. Yet there are powerful lobbies in the US which support the stereotypical view.

 

[EmilK]

It would be of some interest to know how many are fundamentalists. There are many intellectual Americans who could show the way here.

Here is a link to an interesting article that you could benefit from reading.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-252663/fundamentalism

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The fundamentalists have gained much attention lately because the Bush administration successfully catered to this portion of the population in order to gain the political advantage. Also, fundamentalism has been a growing movement in the US for some time. My guess would be that perhaps 20% of the US could be considered fundamentalists - which is not a precisely defined concept. Even among fundamentalists, there are a range of beliefs.

 

[misnoma]

The fundamentalists have gained much attention lately because the Bush administration successfully catered to this portion of the population in order to gain the political advantage. Also, fundamentalism has been a growing movement in the US for some time. My guess would be that perhaps 20% of the US could be considered fundamentalists - which is not a precisely defined concept. Even among fundamentalists, there are a range of beliefs.

Interesting reply - as always the political agenda and desire for votes has a powerfull impact on direction.

 

[paul_peciak]

Is it true that the majority of Americans believe in the literal translation of the bible?

There is an inverse proportioality between intellect and religion - comment?

Most Americans in positions of authority lack the courage of conviction to state the obvious regarding religion - comment?

The majority consider Intelligent design to be correct whilst evolution is disregarded - comment?

America is an advanced nation - really?

The answer is denial < fear and laziness to all your questions... the most common attributes of all humans?

 

[Rach3]

There's too much "guesswork" and "opinion" in this thread's responses - rubbish I say! These are quantitative questions, and should be looked at with due respect.

Is it true that the majority of Americans believe in the literal translation of the bible?

Not quite; 28% take it literally. An additional 49% believe it is the "literal word of god", so a nice 77% supermajority interpret the origin of the bible literally, even if viewing the text as somewhat allegorical.
source: 2006 Pew Forum poll, n=1002
http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=10618 [Broken]

There is an inverse proportioality between intellect and religion - comment?

"Intellect" is a very ambigious word. You can google for studies correlating education level and religious belief - there are lots of them with very different methodologies, so it takes some thinking to figure out what they actually mean (I'm not sure).

Most Americans in positions of authority lack the courage of conviction to state the obvious regarding religion - comment?

I can't answer this directly, because the PF guidelines prohibit us from discussing the truth values of religions (cause fights break out when we do).

To the point; no, there are no atheists in American politics, and there won't be anytime soon.

The majority consider Intelligent design to be correct whilst evolution is disregarded - comment?

Correct, never mind what Ivan Seeking says. According to an n=1000 Harris poll from 2005, a 64% supermajority believe "Humans were created directly by god", and an additional 10% believe in non-theistic intelligent design. Less than 1/4th, 22%, think that H. sapiens is a product of evolution.
Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Believe Human Beings Were Created by God

(There is some wavering, however, since a number of self-identified creationists have weird chimera-theories such as "humans were created but everything else evolved naturally"; see the poll.)

America is an advanced nation - really?

I'm writing another post to address this.

 

[Rach3]

The majority consider Intelligent design to be correct whilst evolution is disregarded - comment?

False. You are talking about fundamentalists.

Looks like someone's underestimating the fundies...

 

[paul_peciak]

There's too much "guesswork" and "opinion" in this thread's responses - rubbish I say! These are quantitative questions, and should be looked at with due respect.

Is there more to life then just quantitative answers? (just a good thread idea :P)

 

[Rach3]

As a technical clarification, very few people actually believe "Intelligent Design" theory (necessarily less than 10%, according to the above poll). A 64% supermajority of Americans are creationists, which means they believe their God created everything in it's final form, period. ID theory is essentially a hoax, an attempt to re-state Creationism without explicit reference to God and thus force it into public schools (the Dover ruling acknowledges as much). Probably most Americans don't pay attention to the particulars of ID, which is psuedoscience and not religion.

 

[Rach3]

Is there more to life then just quantitative answers? (just a good thread idea :P)

The poster asked quantitative questions about the American demographic, and I alone answered them.

 

[Rach3]

The United States of America is on the frontier in many areas such as technology, science, human health infrastructure and democracy.

...The United States of America is one of the worlds most advanced nations in the world, which is fairly obvious to a majority of the world's populations.

There's a crucial distinction to be made here. Actual scientists, engineers, biologists, etc. make up a tiny fraction of a population; they thrive in America for many reasons independent of social ideas at large - for instance, the top schools, or the vast wealth. Education at universities and beyond thrives; it is not crippled by the ignorance of the masses, since academics is hardly a democracy. Neither for instance, is biotech and pharma research affected greatly by idiots who don't believe in microscopic cells.

What is being damaged by bad education is issues of public policy, where the viewpoint of the majority is the deciding factor. Intelligent Design doesn't really hurt anything at all. However, ignorance of the energy crisis and global warming, are extremely destructive - fission energy goes nowhere because of irrational phobia, while millions drive Hummers. Faith-based ignorance fuels deadly public health choices, such as abstinence-only education, absistence-based AIDS policy, opposition to stem cell research funding, etc. In the particular areas where public ignorance meets public policy, America is falling far behind.

 

[Gokul43201]

False. You are talking about fundamentalists.

No Ivan, he isn't.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=112
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/22/opinion/polls/main965223.shtml

Edit: I see Rach's got this covered.

 

[Severian]

Being convicted in one's opinions in not a sign of intellect and advancement. It may reflect other factors such as being stubborn, low tolerance, misunderstanding, lack of knowledge and understanding, being misguided and so on >>>>>>>>>>>

It could also be a sign of being right.

 

[Rach3]

Being convicted is a rather unpleasant experience.

 

[Astronuc]

The term is 'convinced' - being convinced in one's opinion (or belief).

It may reflect other factors such as being stubborn, low tolerance, misunderstanding, lack of knowledge and understanding, being misguided . . .

Certainly that would be the case if there was contradictory evidence with respect to one's opinion.

Rach3 makes a key point. A minority of people in the US participate in the development of science and engineering. There are some evangelical religious people in science, but they seem to be in minority. I have encountered a few. There are perhaps more traditional religious people in engineering than in science, at least that has been my experience.

 

[TuviaDaCat]

I'm not sure how much you do or do not know about the politics of the United States. There is freedom or speech, religious freedom and all of those key phrases are actually a large part of science and technology, both in its definition and areas such as social 'sciences'.

Not everyone is like the stereotypical American - Middle-aged, highly religious, anti-science, anti-research or fanatic fundamentalists, just as everyone in the middle east is not stereotypical as well. Most Americans are secularized to some extent.

The things you see on TV and read in bias newspapers is not usually not 100% true anywhere.

actually, on the TV, we usually see cities like newyork. i can't recall a serie where many characters has south american accent.

though in the media i sometimes get the feeling that america is changing toward religion. for example i heard of states replacing evolution to intelegent design. I am not saying that it should be forbidden, but the fact that such things happen shows immaturity of mind.
religion is never good when it leaks to political decisions.

there still no doubt that america is the greatest nation in most areas, maybe in all areas, but its always few people who make the difference. so I am still a bit worried about people getting religious.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Looks like someone's underestimating the fundies...

I don't think so. For example, how many of them shave? Check your Old Testament.

Many people confuse new-age and born again, and in this case, basic tenets of Christianity, with fundamentalism. There are many religions that consider the Bible to be the word of God, but not infallible; that is, they don't take every word literally. Also, at the heart of Christian diversity are the many interpretations of the bible.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Also, from Gokuls second link

But most would not substitute the teaching of creationism for the teaching of evolution in public schools.

By definition, all fundamentalists would object to teaching evolution to their children. And theistic evolution is certainly not acceptable to a fundamentalist; nor does it contradict scientific findings.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The short version is that you really can't tag people so easily. You won't find more religious diversity than in the US.

I once met a guy who prays to Thor!

 

[Rach3]

I think a low 22% support of the fundamentals of biology is not a symptom of an issue with a minority. It's not that you're underestamating the numbers of the fundamentalists (they *only* compromise 28% of some 3*10^8 Americans); it's their influence that you underestimate. They are numerous, rich, committed, and loud; as a result of their campaign, a supermajority of Americans, "fundie" or not, disagree with established science because of their religious belief. This is significantly worse than with European Christians, for instance, and is a consequence of a large and influential fundamentalist movement in the mainstream here.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ah, yes, even at 28% I thought I was pretty close. And I would challenge that on a person by person basis. As for the influence, recently they have been scary enough to make me look to Canada. But I think - I pray - that alliance is faultering. The fundies have been betrayed by the Republicans and they are starting to realize it. What's more, there is a mainstream movement within the Christian community to expand their focus to include things like feeding the hungry, uniting instead of dividing the nation, working for peace instead of war, little changes like that. It is argued that all else has been excluded for the extreme fundamentalists political agenda.

Interestingly, last night I picked up a SciFi called Time Changer. It turned out to be an evangelical style propoganda movie for the anti-evolutionists! [correction, I should have said born again/evanglicals, not anti-evolutionists. I don't think evolution was ever mentioned specifically] That one really surprised me. It was bad, but I ended up watching just to see where they went with it.

I was squirming pretty badly when it was clearly stated that science is only correct when it agrees with the Bible. But, that is a faith statement.

 

[Chi Meson]

Is it true that the majority of Americans believe in the literal translation of the bible?

If this were so, then few could believe in dinosaurs, and all museum displays of dinosaurs would be shunned, and books for children depicting dinosaurs would not sell. This is clearly not so since dinosaurs are a hot commodity here.

America is an advanced nation - really?

The arrogance of this statement shows that you would make a fine American!

PS, just in case you are not familiar with my sense of humor: I love irony!

 

[TuviaDaCat]

I once met a guy who prays to Thor!

god.. you cracked me up

 

[Kurdt]

The short version is that you really can't tag people so easily. You won't find more religious diversity than in the US.

I once met a guy who prays to Thor!

The guy in the video in the link (Alan Moore I think his name is and probably a relative of Astronuc) prays to a hairy snake . He seems like a very nice man anyway.

 

[SticksandStones]

The short version is that you really can't tag people so easily. You won't find more religious diversity than in the US.

I once met a guy who prays to Thor!

I'm trying to find the poll, but something like 92% of Americans consider themselves christians. I wouldn't call that diversity at all.
EDIT: I misread the poll:
95% believe in a God, not necessarily the Christian God.

I did find this, however, which states that 77% (as of 2001, it may be higher or lower now) were considered christian. Still pretty high, although not as high as I thought.

 

[twisting_edge]

A 64% supermajority of Americans are creationists, which means they believe their God created everything in it's final form, period.

There's a very big problem with that statistic: if you ask them in a serparate poll if they believe in evolution, I think you'll find another supermajority beleives in that, as well.

You're supposedly in the U.S right now. Try stopping some people on the street and asking them if they believe in evolution, without first asking them about creationism.

Go ahead: most of them won't bite.

 

[Moonbear]

I did find this, however, which states that 77% (as of 2001, it may be higher or lower now) were considered christian. Still pretty high, although not as high as I thought.

Keep in mind that a lot of people consider themselves Christian only because that is the faith their parents raised them with, even if they don't follow the faith as adults (i.e., never go to church, never pray), or don't follow it in it's entirety (i.e., Catholics who regularly go to church but still use birth control). That's part of the limitation of polls that ask people to simply identify their faith; polls are designed to categorize people together, not reflect the full spectrum of individual beliefs.

As Ivan has attempted to point out, there's also a problem with trying to identify people as fundamentalist, and that's because the term is widely misused, and lumped in together with terms such as evangelical, which also gets misused. There is also many evangelical religions, and they do not all hold the same beliefs. Even within a religion, the beliefs of the individuals can vary widely - take note of the current splintering off of congregations in the Episcopal Church as an example of that.

 

[russ_watters]

Is it true that the majority of Americans believe in the literal translation of the bible?

No.

There is an inverse proportioality between intellect and religion - comment?

Not really.

Most Americans in positions of authority lack the courage of conviction to state the obvious regarding religion - comment?

No.

The majority consider Intelligent design to be correct whilst evolution is disregarded - comment?

No.

America is an advanced nation - really?

Where do you get these misconceptions? There are good reasons why America is advanced in a lot of ways.

These questions say a lot more about you than they do about the US! Your screen name is appropriate, though.