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Comment by il | Hacker News Reader

Religion seems to be much more pervasisve in public policy in America than anywhere else. 40% of voters believe the Rapture/end of the world will occur in their lifetime. This is unprecendented in any secular country, and it affects all spheres of life. Why worry about global warming when Jesus is going to come back and fix everything in a few years anyway?

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> 40% of voters believe the Rapture/end of the world will occur in their lifetime. This is unprecendented in any secular country

This is unprecedented because it's simply not true. The best statistic I could find for this is 11%. Even 11% seems like a very high number based on my personal experience. As an American who has lived in different parts of America my whole life (and currently living in a high-tourist city with people from all over the US), I can say that most people in most parts of the US do not believe that the rapture will happen within their lifetime.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_US_0602.p...

Your personal experience living in a high-tourist city does not represent the rural, Evangelical majority that actually votes. Here's one poll with the 41% number: http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=1043

And here's another poll from the same organization, this one focused only on Christians, that says 20% of them believe in the rapture in their lifetimes.

http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedfiles/Topics/Issues/Politics...

41% in no way jibes with my experience, even as someone who grew up attending white rural evangelical churches. You might get 41% (or much higher) to say it might occur, but I am seriously skeptical of "definitely" percentages.

The survey I linked has some interesting facts about American Christian beliefs about science. Strong (79%+) majority believes global warming is a serious problem, for example. Even a slim majority believes in evolution.

Yes, but my poll is from 2010 and yours is from 2006. Whether the actual number is 40% or 20% or 11%, I'm sure it's much higher than other modern, secular countries. That's all I'm saying.

In any case, that's not the scary poll. It's polls like this one that are scary: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/interracial-marriag...

That's a pretty high percentage. Link?

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