However:
62% of all Americans agree that Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.
A majority of born again Christians (52%) deny Satan's existence
Nearly three-quarters of Catholics say the devil is nonexistent (72%)
Women are more likely than men to reject Satan's existence (64% vs. 59%)
So, then, this implies that we need to define people's concept of God.
Concepts of God
This survey is from the book Virtual America, by George Barna:
The majority, again, believe in a God like the Christian God of the Bible. So, one might think, how does that influence behavior, if Americans really believe this?
Another survey by the Barna Research Group found that:
- 87% claim their religious faith is very important in their life.
- 83% claim their religious beliefs change their behavior (4 out of 5).
But the same study showed that:
- 58% agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches.
- 53% contend that if a person is good enough, or does enough good things for other people, they will earn their way into Heaven. (One-third of all born again Christians (34%) accept this notion.)
- 40% believe that when Jesus was on earth He committed sins. (28% of born again Christians believe this.)
- 39% say that Jesus Christ was crucified, but He never had a physical resurrection.
- 46% believe churches should accept gay people as leaders.
- 43% say they are trying to figure out their purpose, meaning in life.
- 36% contend that it is impossible to get ahead because of their financial debt.
- 33% maintain pornography is a matter of taste.
- 32% hold the perspective that lying is sometimes necessary.
- 82% of adults think that "every person has the power to determine his or her own destiny in life," a belief the report says is one of the "guiding principles" of the New Age movement.
What can we suppose about the reasons that people have for their belief systems? Can the skeptics claims be true?
Atheists have determined that faith is simply belief without evidence. Skeptics claim that what Christians believe has very little to do with reason - since beliefs can be wrong, belief is potentially dangerous– they "are generated by the belief engine without any automatic concern for truth."
Link: http://www.csicop.org/si/9505/belief.html
3 comments:
Very interesting.
cas
I'm reading a book (I know it's the first one since kindergarten!), called "The Reason For God". The author says that we should consider our doubts as we consider our faith. That's kind of what we are doing in this blog. I like the book a great deal. You'll hear more of it as I post, but I would urge you to get it. I also like one called "Seven Reasons I Trust the Bible". I'll get you the authors if you are interested.
This is amazing when you think about it. Even among Christians and Catholics there's a problem with relating to the true identity of God. I cant assume that the person I pass by in the hall at church has the truth about God, His Word or the purpose for life.
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