Some mind boggling survey responses from self described Christians. It seems a great many Christians believe some silly notions. Surprise. Surprise.
It seems that about 60 percent of “Christians” at least somewhat agree that Satan is not a real entity but simply a metaphor for evil. But while holding that view, 65% also believe that people can be influenced by demons or evil spirits.
I’m not sure how these two things are possible. If they’re a symbol how can they affect you?
And get this, about 40% of Christians believe that Jesus might have sinned while on Earth. Uh…So let me get this straight. According to polled Christians, a very real Jesus might have been influenced by pretend demons and committed very real sins?
All I can say to many Christians, is get thee to Catechism.
But the more I think about it, doesn’t this all make some sense in the end? Satan would mean there’s a Hell. And we don’t like consequences so therefore we don’t believe in Satan and we then don’t have to believe in Hell. Easy.
So we’ve gotten rid of consequences. But we’re still left with some guilt of our own sins. So we have to rid ourselves of accountability so we say demons made us do it.
So if we are simply willing to hold a few mutually exclusive ideas in our heads and simply not introduce them to each other we can get along quite nicely with consequence-less sinning with no accountability. Ah, the modern mind!
In case, you don’t believe me, below is the news, according to theTimes News:
Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan.
Although a core teaching of the Christian faith is the divinity and perfection of Jesus Christ, tens of millions of Christians do not accept that teaching. More than one-fifth (22%) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17% agreeing somewhat. Holding the opposing view were 9% who disagreed somewhat and 46% who disagreed strongly. Six percent did not have an opinion on this matter.
Much like their perceptions of Satan, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either. Overall, 38% strongly agreed and 20% agreed somewhat that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.” Just one-third of Christians disagreed that the Holy Spirit is not a living force (9% disagreed somewhat, 25% disagreed strongly) while 9% were not sure.
A majority of Christians believe that a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces, such as demons or evil spirits. Two out of three Christians agreed that such influence is real (39% agreed strongly, 25% agreed somewhat), while just three out of ten rejected the influence of supernatural forces (18% disagreed strongly, 10% disagreed somewhat). The remaining 8% were undecided on this matter.
April 13, 2009 at 6:55 pm
One wonders how many of these “Christians” might be Episcopalian bishops.
April 13, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Would it not be possible to reject Satan in particular without rejecting the existence of demons in general?
April 13, 2009 at 7:56 pm
– 82% of all deceased persons in 2008 were consigned to hell for eternity.
– 1.2% qualified for the express lane into Heaven.
– The remaining 16.8% were purgated.
Matthew 7:13-14
Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is spacious that leads to destruction, and many people are entering by it. How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the road that leads to life, and there aren’t many people who find it!
April 13, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I love the fact that nearly 40% of Christians thought Jesus sinned. So does that mean He crucified Himself? Did Jesus die to save His own soul from damnation?
I can almost see why people would say they believe in demons but not Satan. If you thought Satan’s existence meant a red devil with horns, spiked tail and pitchfork, count me among the doubters. However, if you mean the specific father of lies who tempted Christ in the desert and as opportunity arose at other times, heck yes he exists. So I can understand somewhat this dichotomy.
However, to suggest that Christ could sin against… Whom? Himself? God the Father?… just starts absurd mental gymnastics, and not in the way that theological truths can confound someone.
Need there be more evidence that laity in any denomination/parish should not have the power to select their spiritual leader, except via their power to go somewhere else? When the uninformed get to select the incompetent, the result is the US Congress.
April 13, 2009 at 9:03 pm
As was first contended a century ago, Liberalism and Christianity are 2 different religions that simply share the same vocabulary but use the words in very different ways.
April 13, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I don’t particularly disagree with what has been said here, but there is a small caveat: polls, particulalry on theological matters have almost by nature ambiguous and misleading questions. Consider the first: Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” – you are given a false either/or, because many people might interpret ‘living being’ as ‘biological creature’ and reject the statement in favour of the alternative. Same goes for the Holy Spirit. C.S.Lewis often deplored this language barrier as a difficulty in apologetics for the masses. Also, what if you do not agree with any of the options? Pollsters are not exactly famous for their ability to exhaustively partition the space of possibilities. Conclusion: ask slightly different questions, and you might get very different results.
Check out the 2min video “Opinion Polls: Getting the results you want” on youtube – a hysterical take from the excellent “Yes (Prime) Minister” BBC series.
I do not think that in every case people who answer “wrongly” on this kind of poll are necessarily theologically confused – maybe just a little bit philosophically illiterate. I know several people who have no clue about philosophy or apologetics, but are quite orthodox in their behaviour and religious instincts. Mark Shea wrote on his blog on April 9th, “Just because somebody is left cold by apologetics arguments that excite a small subculture of people in the Church does not mean they have no living relationship with God or even that they necessarily “dissent” from the Church’s teaching.” I would add that even severe mental confusion is not the same as apostasy.
I think pollsters may be preying on this weakness. The devil is a teller of lies and it is his pleasure to make us despair by statistics.
April 14, 2009 at 12:53 am
Darn, Sebastian stole my line.
Do you consider something without a physical body a “living being”?
Since they don’t have an exact quote they use for “sinned when he lived on earth.”
That said, even if you don’t believe in Satan, the Personality, that doesn’t mean that demons don’t exist– just there isn’t one named that.
April 14, 2009 at 3:47 am
The pollsters should tell these people after they’ve answered the questions, “Opinions don’t count in these matters, only Truth does.”
April 15, 2009 at 3:06 am
This is against canon law, but one priest had the cocky seniors in his retreat go to a room and call the devil 3 times. They all had the fright of their life as they sensed that animal’s presence. Sometimes, an existential approach beats all these conjectures and speculations.