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TechnoratiA little more than a third of Americans believe all the text in the Old Testament or all the text in the New Testament represent the Word of God, according to the results of a newly released poll.
(Photo: 20th Century Fox / WETA)In this image released by 20th Century Fox, a giant sphere from another world is shown descending on New York's Central Park in a scene from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still.'
That’s about the same as the percentage of people who believe in UFOs (36 percent) and less than the amount of people who believe in ghosts (44 percent), Harris Interactive found through its online survey.
Notably, however, 55 percent of those surveyed affirmed their belief that all or most of the Word of God is represented in the Old Testament and 54 percent for the New Testament. Furthermore, 80 percent were found to believe in God and 71 percent that Jesus is God or the Son of God.
“That very large majorities of the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise,” staff at Harris Interactive stated. “What may be more surprising is that substantial minorities believe in ghosts, UFOs, witches, astrology, and the belief that they themselves were once other people.”
According to the poll, 44 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, 36 in UFOs, 31 in witches, 31 in astrology, and 24 in reincarnation.
Among churchgoers, the numbers were not so different. Of those who attended religious services at least weekly, 34 percent said they believe in witches, 28 in astrology, 26 in UFOs, and 18 in reincarnation.
Overall, Catholics were more likely to believe in each of the above than Protestants.
Catholics were also much more likely than Protestants to believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (52 percent to 32 percent) and a little less likely to believe in creationism (46 percent to 54 percent).
Other notably figures recorded by Harris Interactive include the percentage of Americans who believe in angels (71 percent), survival of the soul after death (68 percent), Hell (62 percent), the Virgin birth (61 percent), the devil (59 percent), and Darwin's theory of evolution (47 percent).
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