Here, Barry offered some poll numbers re beliefs of Americans:
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
Some commenters wanted to know how to interpret this:
Before I get back to work, I will tell you how:
Angels are a teaching of all the major ethical monotheist traditions, and most of the minor ones. So we should not be surprised that a much higher number of people believe in them than believe in, say, UFOs – which are not taught by any seriously regarded institution.
Man-caused global warming and unguided evolution present a very different situation from UFOs. The most important pundits and the biggest governments are strenuously fronting these ideas, but people still just don’t believe.
Belief is down there with the crashed UFOs and the discredited Ida fossil, rather than up there with the angels.
Doubt about global warming may relate to the snowstorm raging outside, as I type this. The only people global warming would be bad news for around here just now are snow plow operators.
If churches, which have no secular power, can more easily get people to believe in angels than the US government – currently the most powerful entity on Earth – can get them to believe in man-caused global warming or unguided evolution, you can be pretty sure that the latter two are going to be a pretty hard sell.
I predict many civil liberties fights in the future.