Helpful and professional poll on one of the defining issues of our times. Provides context and perspective. Excellent complement to some other opinion pieces posted on NewsTrust on faith and atheism, such as this one from The Guardian: http://beta.newstrust.net/webx?14@@.f086240

This poll appears to beg more questions than to provide meaningful answers. Why were only the “highly religious” (as defined by the poll) asked if they try to change society to spread their beliefs? Isn't it fair to speculate that those who are not so busy proselytizing for their religion might be MORE likely to be busy trying to change society? Perhaps people so religious would not even see their efforts to change society as a way of "spreading" their religious beliefs at all – as their beliefs are so much a part of who they are – making an objective answer to this question practically impossible. Why is this an either/or question anyway? Most highly religious people I know are very involved in BOTH converting others and ... More »

Typical well documented survey; it's hard to get more viewpoints than this. Analysis seems reasonable, but no evidence for "One of the keys to Republican successes in elections in the first part of this decade was the activation of highly religious voters." Graphs enhance the presentation.

Interesting poll results but there could well be subtleties buried in here. By not demanding a change in society, do respondents mean that they won't carry signs and demonstrate or that they will refrain from voting in accordance with their religious beliefs?

Begin a consideration with this fact: Al Gore received the most popular votes for president of the United States in 2000. There were no Christians, no Protestants, no citizens who could be said "highly religous" voting for the most popular candidate? Absurb. This report is based on an assumption of, "One of the keys to Republican success…" So - yes - Republican candidates were supported by people involved with churches/religion. But so were Democratic candidates supported by people involved with churches/religion. The report of course has to be with "highly religious Americans" and their views on whether it is necessary to "change society." What does "change society" mean? Did respondents understand this phrase? This report is ... More »

this is the result of surveys; valid as far as it goes.

This is the standard poll-story "thumb-sucker" which nevertheless serves the valuable purpose of giving the public a general idea of what a statistically valid cross-section believes on a topic. The topic is certainly valid, and of public interest. What it did not explore is the sub-topic of how a small group of cultists and zealots have shanghaied some of the organs of government and the media to grab earthly power, and impose their religious will on the un-organized majority. Kevin Phillips and others have documented it in great detail; but the lazy newspapers see fit to print homoginized, robotic, "objectivized" coverage instead. Critical thinkers need not apply.

This is an important topic - i wish they would do a poll asking people how their jobs and financial livelihoods are affected by their religious beliefs. People can hide their faith at work because some science discriminates against faith-based people by saying that evolution is true and the Bible is a story. This could affect their career so they learn to work within several paradigms.

I have trouble with the questions...they are vague...changing society is a great idea, like giving people civics 101. Legislating morality is dumb and it does not work, many people don't seem to know this. I'm not sure if I learned anything from this article. I wonder what people hope to change with laws ...which are like locks, they keep honest people honest. Which religion advises adherent to condemn their neighbors, fellow citizens, or anyone for that matter.

Yes. It give actual numbers. Instead of saying something general like "most" or "few" people it actually says. 784 people said this. The conclusion from the analysis of this data is that: "The majority of highly religious Americans believe that they do not need to change the society around them to conform to their religious beliefs, but instead can live the best possible personal religious life, or focus on one-on-one conversion." I wish Bush & co would read this & stop pandering to that small majority.

Free access to this report may expire on 2/23. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.