Flock of Fools
With Christmas coming up and other dodgier religious days in its vicinity, some interesting statistics on mystical beliefs have been released by Nielsen and published by SMH. Australians…
Believe in - a god: 68%, life after death: 53%, Heaven: 56%, Hell: 38%, The Devil: 37%, angels: 51%, witches: 22%, UFOs: 34%, astrology: 41%, psychic powers such as ESP: 49%, miracles: 63%, Evolution: 42%.
Believe that- The Holy Book is the word of God: 34%, The Holy Book is literally true: 27%, The teachings of my religion have only one interpretation: 21%, There is – or seems to be – no god: 30%.
It’s troubling to think that such a generally-well-educated country is home to so many people with baseless beliefs. Some interesting comparisons to make are Hell/The Devil versus God’s existence, psychic powers over evolution and the appearance that more people believe that God wrote the bible than those who believe it’s correct. Australia’s official sheep count has now gone from 101 to 112 million - God help us all?
Humour, Religion | Australisk Incognita | 19 December 2009
I’m honestly surprised the evolution number is so low. I’m no atheist, but evolution is a proven thing and religion or no, it’s stupid to think it’s completely made up.