So I just realized that we don't have a "general" religious forum here... so I may actually post this to both Christianity Debate and the News Forum...
Anyway, The Pew Forum has released survey results from 35,000 people taken by phone between May and August of 2007. There are a number of stories online (the first one I read was in the
New York Times), but the data itself is located here:
Pew Forum: Religion in American Culture.
Some interesting aspects that I brought out of it is just how many Americans believe in God (somewhere around 90%), and how many believe that many religions can lead to eternal life (70%).
Some of the information under Portrait and Demographics was also very interesting. One that I thought was curious is that 39% of American buddhists believe in God with "Absolute" certainty. I found this interesting because of some of the conversations on this board with respect to buddhism seemed to indicate that the number should be considerably lower...
I also found some of the numbers related to the "Unaffiliated" to be interesting, especially with respect to politics. 73% called themselves liberal or moderate, but the split between those who want smaller government (41%) and bigger government (48%) was hardly as pronounced...
The same is true of Jews, of whom 77% claim to be liberal or moderate, but the smaller/bigger spread is 40%-46%.
It's also worth taking a look at the beliefs and practices of various faiths, but I thought the evangelical section was most interesting. It seems that the numbers are in direct conflict with the assumptions and accusations of many around these parts - or forums/politics/media, etc... in general.
Take a look... I virtually guarantee you'll find something interesting.
