LinkI'm trying to get my head around how '55% believe in heaven, while 53% believe in life after death'. Wouldn't a belief in life after death be a pre-requisite of a belief in heaven? Or is there 2% of the population who believe heaven is denied to mortals?
I wonder how the beliefs of different religions were taken into account for this survey. I should imagine only the three Judaic religions would see life and death in those terms.
I reckon the survey is more interesting for the questions it raises rather than the questions it answers. For instance, it claims more of us believe in ghosts than we did in the 1950s, yet the only data the survey provides relates to questions asked in 2008! Publication seems to have taken a while.
Has anyone else noticed how these surveys seem to get published on a Monday morning when the media is clamouring for something -
anything - to report after a quiet weekend? In our house 'Monday Morning Surveys' and 'Monday Morning Scientists' are a bit of a running joke.