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4. Among survey respondents who attend church weekly, almost 55 percent agree that the Iraq war is justified, and 48.5 percent believe that Saddam Hussein was somehow involved in 9/11.
   
   
5. Among those who never attend church, only 30.5 percent believe the war is justifiable, and 24 percent believe links exist between Saddam and 9/11.
   
   
6. Respondents were asked about paranormal beliefs and experiences. A majority of Americans (52.0%) expressed belief that dreams can sometimes foretell the future or reveal hidden truths, and 43.0 percent of Americans reported experiencing such a dream that later came true. While only 12.3 percent of Americans believe astrology impacts one's life and personality, more than twice as many—28.0 percent—have consulted horoscopes to get an idea about the course of their lives.
   
   

The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.

Fewer with 'No Religion'
Baylor's survey asks some questions similar to those of other national surveys on religion in addition to deeper questions.

For example, in addition to asking respondents whether they pray, Baylor asked to whom they pray, whether they pray before meals, and what they prayed about the last time they prayed.

Baylor sociologists believe a key finding is that fewer than 11 percent of respondents have 'no religion.' That is in contrast with the prominent University of Chicago General Social Survey, conducted annually in 90-minute in-person interviews that include religion questions. The 2004 General Social Survey determined that 14 percent of Americans adhere to no religion. The 1988 survey found 8 percent adhered to no religion. Scholars have cited this growing percentage as evidence of secularization in America.

But ISR's contrasting findings may prove to be bombshells in academia and in the press, Baylor sociologists maintain.

Byron Johnson, ISR co-director, said that the many sociologists who are convinced America is becoming more secular use religious "nones" as evidence. Baylor's survey, however, found that when a question probed the name and address of a person's local congregation rather than simply asking denominational affiliation, some people previously counted as having "no religion" were actually active in non-denominational evangelical churches.

Johnson maintains bias may be behind this discrepancy. "Sociology is more dominated by people who are hopeful that the secularization thesis can be validated, and previous findings give it support," Johnson told CT.

Concerning survey findings that run counter to the "secularization thesis" that Americans are becoming less religious, veteran sociologist Stark wrote in an e-mail to CT, "The secularization thesis has died an overdue death among scholars who attend to evidence, lingering only among European intellectuals dedicated to irreligion and professional atheists."

Evangelicals Avoid 'E-Word'
Evangelicals, whom the survey found make up 33.6 percent of Americans, don't prefer being called evangelical. The survey found only 15 percent of the population used the term to describe their religious identity, and just 2.2 percent answered that the label best describes their identity.

Johnson said he actually expected fewer evangelicals to embrace that label because "there's a distinct bias against evangelicals," he said. "My prediction is that in the next five years the term evangelical will become as marginalized as the term fundamentalist is today."

Baylor sociologist Kevin Dougherty said the figure of 33.6 percent was determined from survey respondents' affiliations with congregations and denominations that Wheaton College scholar Lyman Kellstedt previously had grouped into evangelical, mainline, and other religious traditions.

Due to the volume of information, researchers say they will likely never fully mine the data from this study. Already the ISR is preparing for its next round of this survey, which will be administered in late 2007.

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Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion has more information on the survey.

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September (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50