An amazing 55% of Americans believe not only in angels, but that they have been protected personally by angels sometime in their lives.
By Robin M. Strom-Mackey
Being a researcher of the
paranormal has often caused me to wonder about the belief systems of other
Americans. We are ego-centric beings by nature, and usually assume that
everyone else thinks as we do. But attempting research recently on the
existence of angels was both exasperating and eye-opening. I found no critical information or research
into the existence of celestial beings.
I did, however, find numerous sites discussing how to call a personal
angel to your aid. It seemed that we as a people had skipped right over the
debate of, “do they exist?’ and leaped to, “how does one ask an angel to dinner?”
Was the American populace really that faithfully mystical that believing in
angels was simply assumed?
Believers
in God
Apparently the simple answer is
yes. Over the course of the last decade the Baylor Institute for Studies of
Religion has conducted two landmark studies (2005, 2008) which indicate that
Americans are, as a whole, a very diversely spiritual nation; a people
described as casually mystical in our beliefs. Even now in our current, boldly
secular era, with atheists demanding a separation of everything secular from
anything even remotely religious, and with Christianity out of “fashion,” in
the media, we as a people are still firm believers in the spiritual. An
overwhelming 85-90% of the population routinely reports believing in a God, and
eighty-two percent of the population regards themselves as Christians. In other words, the vast majority of the
population in the United States remains Christian, and perhaps even staunchly
Christian, considering that nearly seventy-two percent of the population report
that they pray once a week or more, and nearly half of the population (49.2%)
attend church at least once a month (2).
Of the Christian denominations
the evangelical Protestants and the African American Protestants appear the
most devoted believers. When asked whether one had any doubts about the
existence of God, an unbelievable 100% of Black protestant responders reported
no doubts. Eighty-six percent of evangelical Protestants also reported no
doubts in the existence of a God. Compare
these two groups with the Jewish respondents, of which only forty-two percent (Jewish
responders) said they believed in God without doubts (2).
Evangelicals (47.8%) and African-American
protestants (40.6%) were also the most likely to believe the bible to be
literally true, and the most likely to read scripture at least once a week (2).
The
Irreligious
Only ten percent (10.8%) of the
U.S. population listed as being unaffiliated with any organized religion. Even
among the irreligious, sixty-two percent responded that they believed in a God
(62.9%), and nearly a third (31.6%) admitted that they prayed at least occasionally. And despite increased attention, Atheism is
not on the rise. According to the Baylor Institute, only four percent of the
population claims to be atheist, a statistic that has remained static since
1944 (3). Compare this to France, for example the country with the highest
percentage of atheists at fourteen percent.
Religion
and the Belief in the Paranormal
The Baylor surveys also
uncovered the fact that Americans are a race that embraces beliefs in the
paranormal, despite the Christian upbringing.
One might speculate that those most devoted to Christian beliefs would
be the least likely to adhere to belief in the paranormal (1). For the
theologically-conservative Evangelical Protestants this holds true. Only twenty-five percent of Evangelicals had
any beliefs about the paranormal. However, nearly thirty percent of
African-American Protestants (29.3%) said they also held beliefs in the
paranormal. Only those responders listed as Unaffiliated listed higher on the
Paranormal Belief Scale (30.8%). The Baylor researchers concluded that belief
in the paranormal or the occult wasn’t so much determined by how religious a
person was, but by their personal belief system. Evangelicals with a conservative theological
background were less likely to believe in the paranormal than those whose
background was theologically more liberal such as the African American Protestants
and the Unaffiliated. Belief in the
paranormal does appear to decline as church attendance increases. Nearly thirty percent of the population
(28.8%) who said they infrequently attend church held beliefs in the
paranormal, whereas twenty-four percent who reported attending church at least
once a week, reported belief in the paranormal.
The 2008 survey revealed that
seventy-three percent of Americans believed in hell, listing their belief in
the hot demesne as absolute or probable. The same goes for heaven with nearly
eighty percent of the population listing their belief in heaven as probable to
absolute (3).
Paranormal
Belief Scale
The 2006 survey broke down
paranormal belief into a number of categories and had respondents rate their
beliefs and report their experiences on different topics. The categories included: belief in Atlantis
and the existence of other advanced civilizations, alternative medicine,
telekinesis, psychics, astrology, ability to speak with the dead, the existence
of haunted houses, prophetic dreams, UFO’s, and Monsters such as Bigfoot or the
Loch Ness monster. The Paranormal Belief
Scale was a final compilation of all the aforementioned categories (2).
Paranormal
Beliefs in the U.S.
Percent
that Strongly Agree
|
East
|
Midwest
|
South
|
West
|
Total
Population
|
Efficacy
of Alt. Medicine
|
80.7%
|
83.3%
|
69.6%
|
81.6%
|
74.5%
|
Telekinesis
|
34.0%
|
27.4%
|
26.1%
|
32.5%
|
28.2%
|
Psychics
foretell future
|
15.8%
|
11.5%
|
13.3%
|
12.8%
|
12.8%
|
Astrology
|
19.7%
|
14.3%
|
13.7%
|
13.8%
|
12.3%
|
Communication
with the dead possible
|
29.2%
|
17.9%
|
17.8%
|
19.7%
|
19.9%
|
Haunted
houses
|
45.3%
|
39.0%
|
34.6%
|
39.6%
|
37.2%
|
Prophetic
Dream
|
60.9%
|
52.5%
|
53.8%
|
51.7%
|
52.0%
|
UFO’s
spaceships from other planets
|
28.2%
|
25.1%
|
25.1%
|
26.0%
|
24.6%
|
Monsters
such as Big Foot, Lochness Monster Exist
|
20.4%
|
20.3
%
|
18.5%
|
15.7%
|
17.9%
|
Geography and the Paranormal
It appears that Easterners are
the most prolific believers in the paranormal, with the highest percentages of
agreement on 8 of the 10 questions. Southerners on the other hand appear to be
the biggest skeptics. Southerners were 10 percentage points under the national
average on the question of alternative medicines, and had the least positive
responses on seven of the ten questions overall.
Gender
Gender, is the great
demographic divide, with women being more likely to believe or report having
experienced anything paranormal than men. Women are twice as likely to consult
a horoscope, or seek a psychic to foretell their future. Nearly half of the female population believes
in haunted houses versus a third of men, and nearly sixty percent of women
believe in prophetic dreams versus fifty percent of men. The genders are equal when it comes to
questions about the authenticity of alternative medicine. Nearly 80% of the
population responded in the affirmative to the advocacy of alternative
treatments. The only topic on the
paranormal scale in which the men outnumbered the women is belief was UFO’s. Nearly
30% of the male population believes in the possibility of the tiny green guys
from Mars.
Percentage
Reporting Paranormal Experiences in the U.S.
Gender
|
Horoscope
|
Psychic
|
Haunted
House
|
Prophetic
Dream
|
UFO
|
Male
|
19.3%
|
5.4%
|
17.3%
|
38.7%
|
17.9%
|
Female
|
35.7%
|
18.7%
|
25.1%
|
46.8%
|
16.5%
|
The level of respondent
education had very little to do with the number of reported paranormal
experiences, except, for UFO sightings. Respondents with a high school degree
or less were less likely to report a UFO sighting than those listing with at
least some college. Those with more education were also more likely to seek out
alternative medical treatments. No other topics were significantly different (2)..
Income
Income levels did appear to
have a factor among those reporting paranormal experiences. Those living in households making >$100,000
were more likely to have tried alternative treatments or medicine than those
living in households making <$35,000.
This is likely attributable to monetary advantages. Those in the >$100,000 category were less
likely to report paranormal experiences in all other categories. Only fifteen percent reported having
experienced a haunted location versus the nearly thirty percent in <$35,000
households, and only 41.3% reported having a prophetic dream versus 52.7% of
poorer households (2)..
Age
It appears that both belief in
the paranormal and the reporting of paranormal experiences declines radically
with the aging population. Younger adults are startlingly more likely to report
paranormal experiences, with fifty percent of 18-30 year-olds consulting a
horoscope, slightly over fifty percent reporting a prophetic dream and forty
percent having experienced a haunted house. In the 65+ age demographic only
seven percent report ever visiting a psychic and only two percent report trying
an Ouija board. Only eleven-percent of
older adults reported having experienced a haunted house, and ten percent
reported witnessing a UFO. It is unclear whether the stark difference in
paranormal belief is the result of a generational divide or if belief simply
declines as one ages (2).
Percentage
Reporting Paranormal Experiences in the U.S.
Age
|
Horoscope
|
Psychic
|
Haunted
House
|
Prophetic
Dream
|
18-30
|
49.1%
|
19.2%
|
39.2%
|
52.6%
|
31-44
|
30.3%
|
12.5%
|
25.6%
|
45.1%
|
45-64
|
26.3%
|
13.3%
|
18.4%
|
43.4%
|
65+
|
16.7%
|
7.5%
|
11.4%
|
34.4%
|
And back to the topic of
angels, and my surprise at the unquestioned acceptance of their existence; it
turns out the Baylor researchers were as astounded on the question of angels as
was I. The Baylor study reports that an amazing 55% of respondents reported
affirmatively to the question, “I was protected from harm by a guardian angel."
Christopher Bader, director of
the Baylor survey said this was the biggest shock of the 2008 survey.
"’That was something that was a complete surprise, because this is not a
question of ‘do you believe in guardian angels or do you believe in angels'.
This is a very specific question: Do you believe you have been protected from harm by a guardian angel?
Do you believe you avoided an accident through the agency of a guardian angel?
To find out that more than half of the American public believes this was
shocking to me. I did not expect that (1).’" Barnard College Religion
Department Chairman, Randall Balmer sums up the American population as living
in an “enchanted world,” a population likely to believe in a great many things
beyond established religious tenets (4).
Resources
1. Anonymous (2008) Baylor Survey Finds New Perspectives On U.S.
Religious Landscape Baylor College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved
September 4, 2013 from www.baylore.edu/artsandsciences/index.php?id=59330
2. Bader, C. et al. (2006) American Piety in the 21st
Century; Selected Findings from the Baylor Religion Survey. Baylor
Institute for Studies of Religion.
Retrieved July 21, 2013 from www.baylor.edu/isreligion
3. Duin, J. (2008) Half of Americans Believe in Angels. The
Washington Times. Retrieved September 4, 2013 from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/19/half-of-americans-believe-in-angels/?page=all
4. Van Biema, D. (2013)
Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans. Time. Retrieved July 21, 2013 from
www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1842179,00.html
