Fifty-seven percent of Americans consider spirituality a very important part of their daily lives, according to a Newsweek/Beliefnet poll, conducted August 2-4, 2005.
But not all of those polled define spirituality in terms of a traditional religion. While the majority (55%) report that they are religious and spiritual, a significant number (24%) consider themselves spiritual, but not religious.
The Newsweek/Beliefnet Poll also points to a wide variation in how Americans incorporate their spirituality into their daily lives. Sixty-four percent say that they pray every single day, while 21 percent participate in a spiritual activity not connected with a traditional church or house of worship. Only two percent attend church or worship services on a daily basis.
Despite the growth of non-traditional religions, most Americans consider themselves Christian. Eighty-five percent of those polled are Christian, compared to five percent who say they are non-Christian and six percent who say they are agnostic or have no religion.
Thirty-three percent of Americans classify themselves as evangelical Protestants, while 25 percent say they are non-evangelical Protestants, and 22 percent are Roman Catholic. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism each account for one percent of religious Americans. Of those with a religion, Catholics -- at 91 percent-are the most likely to believe that a good person from a different faith could achieve salvation, the poll found. Evangelical Protestants were the least likely to believe this, with 68 percent agreeing that someone outside their religion could go to heaven, while 83 percent of non-evangelical Christians and 73 percent of non- Christians agreed.
Ninety-two percent of Americans with a traditional religion believe that God created the Universe compared to 74 percent of those with a non-traditional religion. Seventy-nine percent of those with a traditional religion believe that the soul goes to heaven or hell after death versus 59 percent of those in a non-traditional religious practice.
The Newsweek/Beliefnet Poll also found that most Americans continue practicing the religion in which they were raised. Sixty-eight percent say their religion is the same or mostly the same as their religion as a child, versus 20 percent who say their religion is different or mostly different.
Of those who changed religions, the number of Americans that now classify themselves as evangelical Christians represents about a ten-percent increase over the number who say they were raised as non-evangelicals.
2 comments:
Well they'd better buy a Koran, convert to Islam and impose Sharia law, or it's curtain time.
Either that or realize who the enemy is.
Absolutely Mike and that is the problem in this country, we used to proudly show our Christian heritage. Now we hide it like it is taboo or something to be ashamed of. That is what the left has done to this country, leaving it vulnarable to attack by the radical Islamists who vilify Islam with their hatred.
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