Religion and the American public

NPR’s ATC reported yesterday that the Pew Research Center for People and the Press released its second annual poll on the role of religion in public titled, Americans Struggle with Religion’s Role at Home and Abroad. Some interesting tidbits:

• A 65% majority believes that religion plays a significant role in most wars and conflicts in the world

• An overwhelming majority (75%) say that many religions can lead to eternal life
  
• The public is split about equally over whether belief in God is necessary for one to be a moral person (50% say such belief is not needed, 47% disagree).
  
• Even though most Americans (67%) consider the United States a “Christian nation,” an 84% majority believes that a person can be a good American even if he or she does not have religious faith.
  
• Atheists get very low ratings (34% favorable/54% unfavorable) and “people who are not religious” are given better but still modest evaluations (51% favorable/30% unfavorable).

Lots to like and lots to criticize here, but overall, I came away with the feeling that there are plenty of Americans who are pretty level-headed and tolerant when it comes to religion. Which indicates to me that there’s a decent-sized receptive audience for what I’m trying to do with Real Joe.