What do Americans believe about angels, demons, and the supernatural? That was a question the American Bible Society (ABS) recently asked US citizens, and it yielded some fascinating results.
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Dr. John Plake, editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series and chief innovation officer at ABS, told CBN News that a majority of Americans believe in spiritual beings.
“We found that two-thirds of Americans, 64%, actually believe that there are spiritual beings that exist beyond the natural world,” Plake said. “I don’t know that that’s particularly surprising unless you listen to people who are really naturalistic or really scientistic in their worldview.”
For most Americans, though, Plake said they embrace a simple mantra: “I think there’s something more out there.” This is the issue at the heart of CBN’s “Investigating the Supernatural” film series. The first movie, “Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles,” deals with miraculous healing, and the second film — “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons,” which was released in March — explores the reality of angels and demons.
The ABS research explores these topics, among others.
One of the other interesting belief factors surrounds Americans’ opinions on God, heaven, angels and hell. As it turns out, citizens are more likely to believe in God, heaven and positive elements than they are hell and more difficult spiritual sentiments.
“People want to believe … if there is a supernatural world … that it’s a benevolent supernatural world, and so they tend to believe in God, heaven, and angels to a higher degree than they would affirm a belief in Satan, hell, and demons,” Plake said. “And so you kind of get these categories. The differences aren’t huge, but they are significant and noticeable.”
He continued, “So, for instance, 68% of Americans believe in God, whereas 55% believe in Satan; 62% believe in heaven. Only 53% believe in hell.”
Meanwhile, 64% believe in angels while just 51% believe in demons.
“The percentage of Americans who say, ‘Nope, don’t believe in it at all,’ is actually quite small,” Plake said. “Less than a fifth of Americans, in most cases, don’t believe in the supernatural.”
The researcher also dove into the “nones” — those Americans who are atheist, agnostic, or simply have no religious affiliation. There’s even a profound amount of openness and belief among these individuals.
“Thirty-six percent of them agree that there are spiritual beings that exist beyond the natural world,” Plake said. “And these are people who have no religious affiliation at all.”
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