A Miscellany 268
Beliefs on the afterlife
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The August 2010 edition of Vanity Fair has a poll conducted in conjunction with CBS. One of the questions was "What do you think most likely happens to people AFTER THEY DIE?"
I'm not sure a nationwide telephone poll of 960 people is necesarily going to provide and accurate view of what all Americans belive, but the results are interesting.
The percentage that believe in heaven, hell or purgatory is significantly lower that the 76% of Americans that self identify as Christians. It seems a lot of Christians don't buy into the whole package. And the 7% that think they are going to end up in another dimension seems astounding. What religion or cult preaches this?
As for the 13% who believe there is no afterlife - that's reasonably consistant with the 15% of Americans who consider themselves atheist, agnostic or "no religion."
| ALL | MEN | WOMEN | UNDER 45 | OVER 45 | |
| Go to heaven, purgatory, or hell | 65% | 63% | 73% | 65% | 65% |
| Go to another dimension | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Reborn on earth | 6 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| Become ghosts | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| There is no afterlife | 13 | 19 | 8 | 12 | 14 |