A recent survey released by the Pew Research Center revealed a lot of information about American’s spiritual practices. The survey asked respondents every question that I would want to ask people and some questions that I would never think of asking. Here are some of the things that jumped out at me.
- 29% of Christians (20% evangelical protestants) report to have been in touch with the dead. This number is surprisingly high to me. Talking with the dead is completely forbidden in the Bible (Deut 18:11) so I expected this number to be a lot lower.
o Never try to communicate with the dead. Not only is talking with the dead forbidden by the Bible, but you are not really talking with the dead if you try it. Instead, you are talking with a disincarnated spirit that probably tracked the dead person when they were alive (since the spirit tracked the person it would know personal things about the person and thus would be able to mimic them).
- 48% of people claim to have a religious or mystical experience. The overall number isn’t what jumps out at me-it’s the overall historical trend. 47 years ago the number of people who claimed to have a religious or mystical experience was only at 22% and only 33% just 15 years ago. This big increase is likely due to the combination of more people integrating New Age practices into their religious practices and increased spiritual activity from the forces of evil.
- 24% of respondents believe in some basic tenets of Eastern/New Age practices. This number is quite high (1 in every 4 people) and illustrates how prevalent New Age practices are becoming in ordinary American’s lives. America is a predominately Christian country, so the number of people who believe in some basic tenets of Eastern/New Age practices is probably much higher overseas.
The book is 91% complete. I am currently adding a lot more detail to one chapter so once that is done I can say I’m much closer to completing it. I do not know if the book will be ready for January 1, 2010, but I am trying my hardest to make it happen. The next blog entry is likely going to be a review of the December 2009 edition of Share International Magazine, which came out earlier this week.
