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Culture

Do Most Americans Believe That the Universe Began with the Big Bang?

Updated Dec 28, 2016
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Humans sometimes have unshakeable beliefs about irrational things, such as trusting a rabbit's foot to bring luck or planning one’s life around astrology. In 2014, the Chapman University Survey of American Fears attempted to quantify this in a comprehensive study of the fears, phobias, and irrational beliefs of 2,500 American adults. One interesting statistic they discovered was that roughly 20 percent of the respondents believed that the legendary Bigfoot exists. And about the same number of those polled said they were confident that the universe began with the Big Bang. The study also found that believing in certain paranormal phenomena -- such as being able to influence the world with one’s thoughts or being able to predict the future based on dreams -- were fairly widespread views.

What's fact, what's fiction?

  • Slightly more than 40 percent of those polled said they believed in UFOs, a considerably higher number than those who were confident that global warming is real.
  • Democrats who participated in the survey were significantly more likely than Republicans to believe in fortune-telling, and they were twice as likely to believe in astrology.
  • The Republicans polled were significantly more likely than Democrats to say that Satan causes most of the evil in the world.
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Discussion Comments

By anon997374 — On Dec 28, 2016

"Democrats .. more likely.. believe in fortune telling.. astrology"

This can probably be explained by the fact that almost all immigrants/non-western people are democrats. Not that they are stupid, but that most non-western cultures have astrology and fortune-telling closely tied with their religion, and these are kind of drilled into their heads since childhood by their grandparents or by their society, and it is a habitual belief for them. Since almost all of them would be democrats, it could explain why the democrats are "significantly more likely" than Republicans to have such beliefs.

Also, I'll bet that most of the global-warming deniers were Republicans, but there is no word about that. It implies that either my guess is wrong (though I'm sure it isn't) or Washington Post (the news source mentioned in this wisegeek snippet) is intentionally or unintentionally covering up for Republicans.

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