I came across this NPR blog entry where they cited a study that said 8.2% of Americans do not believe in God, or any other higher power or cosmic force, which struck me because I had always heard it was closer to 3-4% or so.

I skimmed through the study but couldn’t find the reference for that number. Percent with no official religious affiliation (though not necessarily atheist) is 10.8%. Of that group, 37.1% don’t believe in a higher power, making that number around 4% of the total. Later, they give the atheist percent at 5.2%. How is that? Because some people with an affiliation with a religion are atheists! 8.3% of Jewish people and 1.3% of catholics are atheists. Also, only 38.7% of atheists never pray.

There are all sorts of interesting correlations.

• Those who attend church more are much more likely to support the Patriot Act, and believe that Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks.
• The belief that God favors the United States is the single strongest predictor of whether an individual trusts Bush, approves of the Patriot Act, thinks Hussein was involved in 9/11, and approves of the Iraq War.
• As church attendance increases, the likelihood of having read The Da Vinci Code significantly decreases
• Females are significantly more likely to report all paranormal experiences with the exception of UFO sightings.¹
• Education explains little of the variation in paranormal experiences. Respondents with a high school degree or less are less likely than respondents with at least some college to have witnessed a UFO or used alternative medicines or therapies, but differences for the other paranormal experiences are not statistically significant.
• Belief in the paranormal declines with increasing church attendance. People who attend infrequently (less than once a month) demonstrate greater belief in the paranormal (mean=28.88) than those who attend on a semi-weekly basis (mean=27.95). People who attend at least once a week are the least likely to believe in paranormal topics (mean=24.68)

People are interesting.

¹ So, apparently, Mars doesn’t need women. Or, possibly, they got them, leaving the men behind to report it.