Do You Believe? Do You Really Believe?

A new Harris Poll has some interesting stats about Americans' belief in God. Here are some of the highlights:

• Only 64% of Roman Catholics, 76% of Protestants, and 30% of Jews are absolutely certain that God exists. 84% of Catholics, 90% of protestants, and 64% of Jews are either absolutely or somewhat certain.


• The percent of Americans who are absolutely certain of God's existence is down 8% from a Harris Poll taken in 2003. The number of Americans who are somewhat certain is up 3%, and the number of Americans who aren't sure whether God exists is up 4%.


• 2% of born-again Christians and 2% of both Catholics and Protestants are absolutely certain that there is no God. I don't know if this can be attributed to survey sabateurs, but it is certainly interesting.


• 18–24 year-olds are more likely than 25–29 year-olds to believe in God (66% and 60% respectively). Otherwise likelihood of believing in God exhibits a direct relationship with a person's age.


• College graduates are 12% less likely than high school graduates to believe in God, but persons with a post-graduate degree are 9% more likely than college graduates to believe in God.


• While 58% of Americans are absolutely certain that God exists, only 35% of Americans attend religious services at least once a month. The survey does not break down church attendance by certainty in God's existence.


• A plurality of Americans believe that God is neither male or female (37%, compared to 36% who believe that God is male, 10% who believe that God is both male and female, 1% who believe God is female, and 17% who are not sure). Women are more likely than men to assign a gender to God; 39% of women versus 34% of men believe that God is male; 2% of women versus a negligible percent of men believe that God is female. Jews are most likely to believe that God is a woman (7%) and least likely to believe that God is a man (30%).


• 51% of Americans believe that Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship the same God (down 2% from 2003); 32% believe that they do not (same as 2003).