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"Certainly in the present election, the big issues are Iraq and the economy and … religion doesn't help you understand how people are going to vote on these things."

Nonetheless, researchers found that religious activity plays a large role in shaping views on hot-button social issues. Among respondents who attend religious services weekly, 61 percent said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and 57 percent said homosexuality should be discouraged by society.

Green said that while researchers found near-unanimity on belief in God — something espoused by 92 percent of Americans — just 51 percent said they were both absolutely certain about that belief and view God as a person (not some kind of impersonal force) with whom they can have a relationship.

"We're very religious but we're very diverse in our religiosity," Green said.

The Pew Forum survey, first released last February, is based on telephone interviews, some in Spanish, between May and August 2007. The margin of error for the overall sample is plus or minus 0.6 percentage points, but ranges widely for distinct religious groups (plus or minus 1.5 percentage points for evangelicals, for example, compared with 7.5 percentage points for Hindus).

Of the 35,000 U.S. adults surveyed,

• 92 percent believe in God
• 79 percent believe in miracles
• 68 percent believe in angels and demons
• 58 percent pray daily (outside of religious services)
• 39 percent attend religious services at least once a week
• 39 percent meditate at least once a week
• 35 percent say they read Scripture at least once a week; 45 percent say they seldom read Scripture
• 34 percent have experienced or witnessed a divine healing of illness or injury
• 31 percent say their prayers are answered at least once a month; 19 percent say their prayers are answered at least once a week
• 14 percent cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Elesha Coffman wrote about "The Problem with Counting Christians" at the release of the first part of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.

Some of the articles about the survey released today include:

Survey Shows U.S. Religious Tolerance | Although a majority of Americans say religion is very important to them, nearly three-quarters of them say they believe that many faiths besides their own can lead to salvation, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. (The New York Times)

Christians: No One Path to Salvation | Americans of every religious stripe are considerably more tolerant of the beliefs of others than most of us might have assumed, according to a new poll released Monday. (Time)

Believers in the Pews — and the Polling Booth | A new study on the intersection of politics, religion and race. (Newsweek)

Survey: More Americans dropping dogma for spirituality | Religion in the USA has a new anthem. No longer Give Me that Old Time Religion, now it's Don't Fence Me In. (USA Today)

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June (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52