More Americans Believe in Angels than Global Warming

James Joyner · · 38 comments

I’m not sure whether to be amused or frightened by this juxtaposition of polls by Blake Hounshell:

Percentage of Americans who believe in angels: 55 Percentage of Americans who believe in evolution: 39 Percentage of Americans who believe in anthropogenic global warming: 36 Percentage of Americans who believe in ghosts: 34 Percentage of Americans who believe in UFOs: 34

In fairness, four different polls — taken at different times and using different sampling methodologies — are linked here, making the comparisons imperfect. But it’s fascinating that superstitious beliefs are outperforming hard science — either despite or because of twelve years of required indoctrination of the latter. I’m not sure what to make of it.