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Go Home The 25 Percent Solution

THE PLANK JULY 25, 2007

The 25 Percent Solution

BY TNR STAFF AND TNR STAFF

In addition to approving of George W. Bush's job performance, here are some other things roughly one in four Americans believe:

--The Second Coming will occur this year
--Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday should not be a national holiday
--The U.S. has no moral responsibility to help improve the lives of people in poor nations
--The Jews are responsible for Jesus's death
--"[S]ome of the unidentified flying objects that have been reported are really space vehicles from other civilizations"
--Barry Bonds is a good guy

--Michael Crowley

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28 comments

phargle and marty believe in all that stuff?

- MrCookie1

July 25, 2007 at 2:18pm

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I like Barry Bonds OK?

- bdballard

July 25, 2007 at 2:19pm

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With Congress having an even lower approval rate than Bush, I'd like to see Crowley come up with some comps for our legislators: perhaps the same as the percentage of people who approve of Michael Vick's dogfighting hobby?

- dlrocdoc

July 25, 2007 at 2:26pm

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I wouldn't be surprised if most Americans believe that the Republicans are still in control of Congress. Then again, as long as the Democrats have less than 60 votes in the Senate, that's probably the truth.

- mike_stevens

July 25, 2007 at 2:44pm

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Interestingly, the 25% who believe Christ will return this year are the very same 25% who believe Bush is doing a good job. And honestly, I think some them are saying the approve of Bush only because they're afraid Jesus doesn't want them judging others. "Let he who is with out sin. . ." and so forth.

- adamvaught

July 25, 2007 at 2:44pm

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Wow, only one-in-four?

- jm_rice

July 25, 2007 at 2:48pm

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Interestingly, there are never any stats that show doubt over Jewish religious beliefs, just the New Testament Christian ones.

- epackard

July 25, 2007 at 3:14pm

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Funny, that's a lot lower than the 33% of Germans who believe the Pentagon bombed the Pentagon on 9/11

- teplukhin2you

July 25, 2007 at 3:30pm

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How about: Michael Crowley is smart and impartial. You'd be hard put to find 1 in 4 who'd believe that.

- jwl2672

July 25, 2007 at 3:30pm

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The last Harry Potter book probably qualifies for a Rapture of some sort.

- guyminuslife

July 25, 2007 at 3:31pm

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I feel your pain jwl...last we spoke, you were a 37%er. Hell, 25% seems like you're starting to slide right into a bottomless crater...

- MrCookie1

July 25, 2007 at 3:45pm

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You mean, like, whether its okay to seethe a calf in its mother's milk? Or how to be ritually clean after accidentally touching a dead body? My favorite is the amalekite thing: "remember what Amalek did to you..." so that you can "blot out the memory of Amalek from under Heaven. Do not forget!" So I should not forget to wipe out the memory of the Amalekites? But if I wipe out their memory then I'll forget about them, but you told me not to forget... logic error, head exploding! Point is, not a lot of apocalyptic beliefs in Judaism, so not that interesting to see whether people doubt those beliefs, I guess.

- jblumenfeld

July 25, 2007 at 3:47pm

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I believe none of those things. The irony of this Plank post is it demonstrates the silliness of opinion polls. Lately, many in the blogs on this website have essentially argued in favor of government by polls - they say that 60% of Americans are polled as wanting something, and therefore our government should implement it. Well, 67% of Americans want to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the country to zero. Should we implement that policy? 25% of people approve of Bush. 13% believe evolution and not God created humans. If I'm to join the crowd that is nodding sagely (like a bunch of bobble-heads) at the original post, then I should start pointing and laughing at the pro-evolution crowd. Right? Right?

- phargle

July 25, 2007 at 3:50pm

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I would remind the no-MLK-day 25% of what Chris Rock said to Arizona when they voted down the holiday once: It's not like you have to do anything black, all you have to do is not work. And I would like to ask how many expecting the 2nd coming this year also expected it last year.

- drlemaster

July 25, 2007 at 4:59pm

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you protest way too much... I've shadow boxed my share in my day but you're like a whirling dervish today trying to out dance these polls... Go drink a diet soda and start up against those dastardly medical researchers who just announced that that poison is just as bad as the juiced poison...

- MrCookie1

July 25, 2007 at 7:54pm

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Per ananova: "A new poll finds two-thirds of Britons said they believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits.... "26 percent believe in UFOs, 19 percent in reincarnation and 4 percent in the Loch Ness Monster, Ananova reported"

- teplukhin2you

July 25, 2007 at 8:44pm

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IHT: The occult and the supernatural are in vogue in Germany, social scientists say. A survey by the respected Allensbach polling institute found that 15 percent of all Germans believe in paranormal phenomena. Eight percent say they have taken part in an occult event of some sort, reports the newsweekly Focus. Markus Wende, a religious scholar in Berlin, estimates that in that city alone, "at least 50,000 people deal with the paranormal in some form or another." As it has edged toward the mainstream, the occult has become big business. Books on the paranormal account for 14 percent of all German sales, according to Hartmut Zinser of the Free University of Berlin. 14% of all book sales? That's a nine-figure business! Gotta get me some of that. Forget faith-based Americans; go to superstitious Europe. That's where the action is.

- teplukhin2you

July 25, 2007 at 8:56pm

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Mike Crowley-- when was the last time you ventured outside the US for any significant spell, er, length of time? You think Americans are superstitious and gullible? Take a trip across the pond. http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=86 400 Forty-seven per cent of people in the UK say they believe in intelligent life on another planet, 57 per cent in ghosts, and 67 per cent in the power of psychics. Only 36 per cent say they believe in the idea of a God. Report author Jan Walsh said: "As far as the British public is concerned, the supernatural world isn't so paranormal after all. The minds of the British people are open to all kinds of other-worldly phenomenon. In fact, that's putting it mildly. "A series of questions centred around faith and belief were put to our interviewees and the outcome was staggering. Supernatural occurrences are no longer merely a toy for the imagination." The report revealed that three-quarters of people who have visited a psychic say the predictions have come true. One in six people have cancelled plans because of what they have been told by a medium or clairvoyant. Nearly two in three people believe in an afterlife of some sort, and nearly a third in reincarnation. Richard Woolfe, Controller of LivingTV qualified: "Belief in the supernatural appears to have taken over from religion as the central spiritual belief in the lives of many people. Instead of going to church on a Sunday, people in Britain are visiting psychics, mediums and clairvoyants. Belief in the supernatural - in spirits, in aliens, in the ability to foresee the future - has come out of the ghetto and is now part of mainstream culture. The fact that these beliefs are most popular among young people suggest it is a trend which is going to grow and grow." Surprisingly more than a third of men believe they have a sixth sense, and more than half of all respondents say the spirits of dead people live on and can communicate with their loved ones after they died.

- teplukhin2you

July 25, 2007 at 9:03pm

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"Forty-seven per cent of people in the UK say they believe in intelligent life on another planet." That's not so absurd given how many planets there are (a lot).

- jhildner

July 25, 2007 at 9:39pm

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A little weird to say "belief in supernatural 'bigger than Jesus,'" when belief in Jesus is just as supernatural as any of those other things.

- jhildner

July 25, 2007 at 9:40pm

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But point taken: Americans are not *uniquely* retarded. Perhaps not.

- jhildner

July 25, 2007 at 9:40pm

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I don't disbelieve in intelligent life on other planets. But the 26% belief in the Loch Ness Monster is a little absurd, unless they also were polling children. I stopped believing in Nessie when I was, like, 20.

- boneill

July 25, 2007 at 10:27pm

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Interestingly, a recent issue of Scientific American (or was it Scientific American Mind?) had an article about potential scientific evidence of out-of-body experiences that they think may also show the existence of a soul or spirit.

- epackard

July 25, 2007 at 11:59pm

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On the 25% of Americans (according to an AP poll) who anticipate the second coming of Christ *this year*. Last year, did those same people think it would happen this year, or did they think it would happen last year? This has got to be crazier than thinking the palm reader might be on to something, right?

- jhildner

July 26, 2007 at 1:22am

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iPod = The Christ. And yes, it was delivered by Jobs the Baptist this year.

- teplukhin

July 26, 2007 at 3:00am

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"Ask not what human gullibility can do for you, but what you can do for human gullibility."

- mrchips

July 26, 2007 at 1:48pm

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Yes, well, I'm an iPhone skeptic. As with so many things, wishing it were the ultimate handheld doesn't make it so.

- jhildner

July 27, 2007 at 1:35am

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I wonder how many believe that lower taxes raise revenues in an already low-tax environment?

- Andrew Davis

August 29, 2007 at 11:17am

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