The Harris Poll^® #11, February 26, 2003

The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2003

Many people believe in miracles (89%), the devil (68%), hell (69%), ghosts (51%), astrology (31%) and reincarnation (27%)

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by Humphrey Taylor

That very large majorities of the American public, and almost all (but not all) Christians believe in God, the survival of the soul after death, miracles, heaven, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise. What may be more surprising is that half of all adults believe in ghosts, almost a third believe in astrology, and more than a quarter believe in reincarnation – that they were themselves reincarnated from other people. Majorities of about two-thirds of all adults believe in hell and the devil, but hardly anybody expects that they will go to hell themselves.

These are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,201 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 21 and 27, 2003, using the same methods used by Harris Interactive^® to forecast the 2000 elections with great accuracy.

The survey also found that women are more likely than men to hold both Christian and non-Christian beliefs. African-Americans are more likely than whites and Hispanics to hold Christian beliefs, as are Republicans. The level of belief is generally highest among people without a college education and lowest among those with postgraduate degrees.

The 90% of adults who believe in God include 93% of women, 96% of African-Americans and 93% of Republicans but only 86% of men, 85% of those with postgraduate degrees, and 87% of political independents.
The 84% of those who believe in the survival of the soul after death include 89% of women but only 78% of men, 86% of those without a college degree but only 78% of those with postgraduate degrees.
The 84% of the public who believe in miracles falls to 72% among those with postgraduate degrees, and rises to 90% among women and 90% among African-Americans.
The 82% who believe in heaven includes 89% of women but only 75% of men and falls to 71% among people aged 25 to 29 and those with postgraduate degrees.

On almost all the beliefs that are central to Christianity, there is a general pattern with:

Higher levels of belief among women than among men.
Lower level of belief among people aged 25 to 29.
Higher levels of belief among people with no college education and lower levels of belief among those with postgraduate education.
Higher levels of belief among African-Americans than among whites and Hispanics.

Other interesting findings include:

68% of the public believes in the devil, and 69% believe in hell.
51% of the public, including 58% of women, and 65% of those aged 25 to 29 but only 27% of those aged 65 and over believe in ghosts.
31% of the public believes in astrology including 36% of women and 43% of those aged 25 to 29 but only 17% of people aged 65 and over, and 25% of men.
27% believe in reincarnation, that they were once another person. This includes 40% of people aged 25 to 29 but only 14% of people aged 65 and over.

What Christians and Non-Christians Believe

One of the more intriguing findings is that not all people who call themselves Christians believe all the conventional Christian beliefs. For example, one percent of Christians do not believe in God, 8% do not believe in the survival of the soul after death, 7% do not believe in miracles, 5% do not believe in heaven, 7% do not believe in the Virgin birth and 18% do not believe in hell.

Even more surprising is that some people who say they are not Christian believe in the resurrection of Christ (26%) and the Virgin birth, Jesus born of Mary (27%).

Life After Death

Most of the 84% of the public who believe in the survival of the soul after death are optimists. Almost two-thirds (63%), including 75% of Christians, expect to go to heaven. Only 1% expect to go to hell. Six percent expect to go to purgatory while 11% expect to go somewhere else and 18% don’t know.

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll^®, Harris Interactive.

TABLE 1

ELEVEN BELIEFS – BY SEX AND AGE

"Please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not."

	All Adults	Sex		Age
	All Adults	Male	Female	18 – 24	25 – 29	30 – 29	40 – 49	50 – 64	65+
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
God	90	86	93	84	82	91	90	91	95
Survival of the soul after death	84	78	89	85	88	81	86	82	84
Miracles	84	77	90	86	85	82	85	83	82
Heaven	82	75	89	83	71	83	84	80	85
The resurrection of Christ	80	73	86	76	68	81	82	81	84
The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)	77	70	83	76	60	79	80	78	80
Hell	69	65	73	74	63	69	72	66	68
The devil	68	64	73	68	62	72	72	68	62
Ghosts	51	45	58	58	65	55	57	48	27
Astrology	31	25	36	37	43	37	23	32	17
Reincarnation	27	23	30	30	40	30	25	26	14

TABLE 2

ELEVEN BELIEFS – BY EDUCATION, RACE AND PARTY

"Please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not."

		All Adults		Education								Race
				High School or Less		Some College		College Grad		Post Grad		White		Black		Hispanic
	%		%		%		%		%		%		%		%
God	90		92		88		90		85		90		96		85
Survival of the soul after death	84		86		86		79		78		85		79		86
Miracles	84		89		84		77		72		84		90		81
Heaven	82		86		83		76		71		83		86		79
The resurrection of Christ	80		86		81		71		64		81		88		74
The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)	77		84		78		65		60		78		78		72
Hell	69		74		73		60		53		69		77		69
The devil	68		73		74		58		52		69		76		63
Ghosts	51		56		53		43		36		51		43		59
Astrology	31		37		33		20		16		29		47		33
Reincarnation	27		28		31		24		17		25		29		33

		All Adults		Party I.D.
				Republican		Democrat		Independent
	%		%		%		%
God	90		93		90		87
Survival of the soul after death	84		87		83		83
Miracles	84		87		82		82
Heaven	82		89		80		78
The resurrection of Christ	80		87		78		75
The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)	77		86		73		72
Hell	69		82		63		65
The devil	68		79		62		65
Ghosts	51		42		54		56
Astrology	31		19		40		29
Reincarnation	27		18		31		30

TABLE 3

ELEVEN BELIEFS – BY CHRISTIANS AND OTHERS

"Please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not."

	Total	Christian	Non-Christian
	%	%	%
God	90	99	58
Survival of the soul after death	84	92	63
Miracles	84	93	54
Heaven	82	95	44
The resurrection of Christ	80	96	26
The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)	77	93	27
Hell	69	82	30
The devil	68	82	26
Ghosts	51	50	48
Astrology	31	27	35
Reincarnation – that you were once another person	27	21	40

TABLE 4

WHERE WILL YOU GO AFTER DEATH?

"When you die, where do you think you will go – heaven, hell, purgatory or somewhere else?"

Base: Those who believe in survival of soul after death

	Total	Christian	Non-Christian
	%	%	%
Heaven	63	75	29
Hell	1	1	2
Purgatory	6	6	5
Somewhere else	11	6	32
Don’t know	18	12	33

Methodology

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between January 21 and 27, 2003 among a nationwide cross section of 2,201 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus two percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online survey is not a probability sample.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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W18011
Q806, Q810