According to this The Age article: God is still tops but angels rate well

The following is true of what Aussies believe (Nielsen poll, 1000 people):
- MOST Australians believe in God or a similar universal spirit, but a majority also believe in miracles, heaven, life after death and angels
- nearly half the population believes in psychic powers such as extrasensory perception and 41 per cent believe in astrology
- women are much more likely to believe in God and other phenomena than men
- 34 per cent of Australians believe UFOs exist, men are more likely to do so than women
- 68 per cent of us believe in God or a universal spirit
- 50 per cent say religion is important or very important in their lives
- 24 per cent do not believe in either God or a universal spirit, 7 per cent are not sure or say they ''don't know''
- 56 per cent of women say they believe in God and 13 per cent saying they believe in a universal spirit, compared with 43 per cent and 11 per cent of men
- 64 per cent of believers identified as Christians
- next biggest faith was Buddhism, at 2 per cent, followed by Hinduism and Islam, which each had 1 per cent of believers
- 63 per cent believe in miracles
- 3 per cent believe in life after death
- 51 per cent believe in angels
- 49 per cent who hold faith in psychic powers like ESP
- 56 per cent of people believe in heaven, only 38 per cent believe in hell <-- HAHAHA, my favourite stat
- 37 per cent believing in Satan
- 22 per cent think witches exist
- 50 per cent of the population classified as Christian were also asked about their specific beliefs in Jesus. Ninety-four per cent believed he was a real person who lived 2000 years ago
- 72 per cent of the Christians think the mother of Jesus Christ was a virgin
- a quarter of us believe the biblical account of human origins over the Darwinian account
- Forty-two per cent of people believe in a wholly scientific explanation for the origins of life and 32 per cent believe in an evolutionary process ''guided by God''

Some scary stuff right there. The scariest part, of course, is that these people vote. That's how K-Rudd is in power, amirite Spookus!!?? AMIRITE!? :-)))

I actually was sure I put the link in my original thread and pretty sure I typed out some more stuff didn't realise post was incomplete till it was locked.

50 per cent of the population classified as Christian were also asked about their specific beliefs in Jesus. Ninety-four per cent believed he was a real person who lived 2000 years ago

I didn't even think it was up for debate whether Jesus was a real person, he was he just didn't do a lot of that s*** in the bible..obviously

I believe there are UNIDENTIFIED objects that are seen to be flying yes, bit of a stupid question really

Some scary stuff right there. The scariest part, of course, is that these people vote. That's how K-Rudd is in power, amirite Spookus!!?? AMIRITE!? :-)))

What's worse is that the christian lobby will have more power than I thought when it comes to the internet filter and getting 'objectionable' stuff they want blacklisted [/faceman]

It would probably be worse with Abbot in power, the Mad Monk would flail his banhammer on everything from the EC to abortions. Not to say Krudd is any better, all pollies are f***ed imo.

- Forty-two per cent of people believe in a wholly scientific explanation for the origins of life

42

We need Costello as Treasurer and Kim Beazely as Prime Minister.

OLD SKOOL.

Oh what did I say?

ahahahaha...

I still cannot believe John Howard ever made it in, however I will admit, he made our economy strong and put Labour in a pretty wealthy spot to have some fun in.

I cannot remember who krudds opponent was in the election but all I can remember is that they were as bad as one another, and obviously the other one was worse?.

I don't believe in god (or how jesus walked earth, water to wine blah blah) i believe there is SOMETHING there or something... because as far as our mind can comprehend, something must come from something else.

So how did we get here??? planets, all of "SPACE" all animals, history... A big bang??? Errr.... I've had lots of big bangs (sexual) or sporting whatever and never made life lol... (apart from my daughter which was intentionally heh) BUT!! you get me.

I think you don't really have an accurate result polling 1000 people though.

But: - 3 per cent believe in life after death - believing in god means life after death... (if you're a good boy).

Virgin mary?? (maybe god had a tool better than orgasmo??)

end.

what a crock of s***, did they do this survey out the front of a church or something?

MOST Australians believe in God or a similar universal spirit, but a majority also believe in miracles, heaven, life after death and angels

3 per cent believe in life after death

I don't get this. How can 3% be classed as the majority?

Talking to an older female family member the other day.

She was scoffing at the idea of snuggle pot and cuddle pie and how it was just a stupid idea, wrapped up in leaves indeed. Same conversation she said she believed in faeries. She'
s a regular church go'er and god botherer

f*** it must be awesome being you kat, you're always right on everything and everyone else is sooooooooo dumb and trashy! dunno how you survive being so far ahead of the curve

1000 people? Wow that's like nearly everyone from a small hick town!

These sort of polls are completely useless without knowing precisely the questions asked and how they were phrased. Coaching people to give the answers you want to make your poll more controversial is a pretty basic technique that is usually used in conjunction with flat out falsifying information. It's like those phone in polls they have on morning TV where the presenters go on and on about an issue pushing their opinion and surprise surprise, the poll results at the end of the show seem to validate them.

When they do it on Fox news in America the percentages usually don't even add up to 100%.

I was thinking of going to midnight mass this year. Not religious in any way but it's sometimes interesting going to such things.

I believe there are UNIDENTIFIED objects that are seen to be flying yes, bit of a stupid question really

Yeah I was thinking this about the 'witches' questions. There are witches, as in people who identify themselves as being witches that I am pretty happy to call witches - I don't reckon they can actually do anything, but that's another question entirely...

- 56 per cent of people believe in heaven, only 38 per cent believe in hell <-- HAHAHA, my favourite stat

I know some religious people, and this is quite common. Modern Christianity shies away from the notion of an everlasting punishment & torment. Its a bit hard to validate a benevolent, all-powerful God who permits that s***.

On the basis of only dimly-remembered reading somewhere, I thought classical Hell was a relatively recent construct of the Church? The idea being that a ridiculously OP punishment would to act as the belief stick for middle-ages peasants whose drudgery prevented a true understanding or appreciation of an epic reward in the afterlife?

last edited by Hogfather at 10:52:22 19/Dec/09

The scariest part, of course, is that these people vote. That's how K-Rudd is in power,

these would be the same people that previously put howard in power though right? it's just a random poll... just like statistic... doesn't really mean anything or it means what you want it to mean ;p all depends on the presentation.

93% of statistics are are load of bulls***.

So many ways that polls like that can be skewed, the way they ask the questions etc.

63 per cent believe in miracles

What does this even mean? Miracle is such a broad term im not sure how can they ask people if they believe in it or not, did they frame exactly what a mircale was? People say that child birth is a miracle, so therefore everyone believes in miracles?

- 3 per cent believe in life after death

- 56 per cent of people believe in heaven

heav⋅en   /ˈhɛvən/
1. the place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life.

Something tells me the people who made this poll weren't statisticians.

- Forty-two per cent of people believe in a wholly scientific explanation for the origins of life



42

good pickup.. hahh

There was a Rasmussen poll over here in the US that asked "Did scientists falsify research to support their own theories on global warming?"
Results as reported by Fox news:
59% Somewhat likely
35% Very likely
26% Not very likely

Amazing.

I still cannot believe John Howard ever made it in ... I cannot remember who krudds opponent was in the election but all I can remember is that they were as bad as one another, and obviously the other one was worse?.

Ummm, you seriously wrote those two sentences after one another? Did you even vote? John Howard was Kevin Rudd's opponent.

Zy - if you're gonna believe in a space magician who created the entire universe, the immaculate conception is pretty f***ing low on the totem pole.

- 72 per cent of the Christians think the mother of Jesus Christ was a virgin

turkey baster

I believe in Jesus and his name is Justin Hodges. Both start with the letter J, coincidence?

murderer, brezley and costello are two different parties.

- 56 per cent of people believe in heaven, only 38 per cent believe in hell <-- HAHAHA, my favourite stat

yeah that's gold. That's like the old devil worshippers who don't believe in God. I larf so hard. God belives in the Devil and the Devil believes in God, you can't have one without the other, same thing for Heaven and Hell.

Why can't you have Heaven without Hell, exactly?

cos this ain't no utopia

Its a belief system.

As it doesn't rely on observable facts, how the f*** can you determine what is valid or not? Of course you can't.

Purgatory was the original place for sinners before the Church decided it wasn't scary enough. Theoretically Heaven cannot exist with Hell, since the fear and knowledge of Hell makes any true form of Heaven an impossibility. But logic has never stopped them before.

I love how once again QGL know better than a professional polling company, usually it's scientist / politician / journalist / lawyer or any professional better equipped to provide an answer than say some personal opinion based on your gut feeling / experience with small group of friends. Those of you questioning this poll, do you really not see how obsurd it is that you disregard a professionally conducted poll over your own instincts?!?!

only those by professional idiots

a professional polling company

(Nielsen poll, 1000 people)

1000 people

1000

professional

last edited by Phooks at 11:56:49 19/Dec/09

^Hi Phooks, you don't understand polling do you?

Also, Nielsen are the same company which conducts fortnightly political polling which is considered accurate, those polls usually run around 2000 people.

last edited by imitation at 12:19:06 19/Dec/09

absurd

Because asking less than .05% of the total population is an accurate measurement of a collective viewpoint, yeah imitation?

Let me put it this way.

You go to a school of 1000 kids, and ask 5 students their view on whether they like the school or not.

You then publish those 5 whole views as the collective opinion. *BREAKING NEWS* 80% of school students hate school!

and this poll would STILL BE MORE STATISTICALLY ACCURATE than the one in this thread.

and again, as one of the comments on the OPs site put,

I'd like to know where they found the 1000 people surveyed... walking out of church last Sunday morning? Maybe at a new age fair or homeopathy school.
lostinscientia | Glen Iris - December 19, 2009, 11:24AM

Such as small target group is extremely vulnerable to harsh locational bias.

polling is never perfectly representative of the population, there is always room for error.

having said that it's a given that Nielsens would employ statisticians/econometricians who have a clue about statistics and polling. you can disagree with the results of the poll but i'm sure that they use a relaiable and rigorous polling method. ripping on it for only surveying 1000 people is retarded and you've clearly never studied statistics in your life, amirite on that one?

l2statistics phooks.

edit: for the record i have reservations about the results of this poll. pretty sure nielsens do random phone polling so i doubt there's any serious selection bias apart from the inherent one of the only responses given are from people who could be bothered to do the (somewhat lengthy?) survey. also the way questions are asked can have a massive influence on the respondents' answers, i'm sure billy h could chime in a bit on that.

so in conclusion, as (un)englightening as everyone's armchair criticisms are, without further info it's pretty much pure speculation.

last edited by taggs at 12:51:15 19/Dec/09

Just because it's a belief system doesn't mean you get to make up your own rules to suit.

Much like a board game isn't life, but if you cheat no one will play with you.

Bible says there's a hell to go along with heaven. There's a devil to counter god (though only god could explain why he's so "powerful"). Bible says jesus was born 2000 years ago and died without sin.

If you're a christian, surely these are facts to you.

Else you're your own religion?

and again, as one of the comments on the OPs site put,


I'd like to know where they found the 1000 people surveyed... walking out of church last Sunday morning? Maybe at a new age fair or homeopathy school.
lostinscientia | Glen Iris - December 19, 2009, 11:24AM



Such as small target group is extremely vulnerable to harsh locational bias.

Rather than rely on crackpot comments on a website go and check out who Nielsen are and read about their polling methods I'm sure you'll then agree these are most likely relatively accurate results maybe a 3-4% margin of error.

I'm sorry but no matter how rigorous your polling methods are, interviewing less than 0.00005% of a population is NOT ACCURATE.

so phooks, how much statistics have you studied again?

I did a little poll

92.4% of those tested believe religion is full of s***

end of poll

want to enlighten me with your masters degree in statistics instead taggs? how is that statistically accurate?

ooooh, a standoff!

politics is amazing because of people like this. the people who responded in this survey are those people that we never see or hear from until election day.

standing out the front of a polling booth you sure do see some weird people. i just scratch my head as they walk through consumed by their only little world of problems so keen to get in and out because voting is a necessary evil. they only come out of the crack to vote because it is compulsory in australia.

so it is both john howard and kevin rudd who got elected on the backs of these people. they drive crappy cars, they have weird beliefs and they vote.

last edited by infi at 13:09:35 19/Dec/09

http://www.custominsight.com/articles/random-sample-calculator.asp

just pwned myself

There was a Rasmussen poll over here in the US that asked "Did scientists falsify research to support their own theories on global warming?"
Results as reported by Fox news:
59% Somewhat likely
35% Very likely
26% Not very likely

Amazing.

"Climategate" is pretty huge over there though. I haven't heard a tenth much as much since I got back to Aus. Plus Americans seem to have a much better developed cynicism of science.

Back on religion though, none of that really suprised me. Also the percentage identifying as Christian (64%) is the same as it was in the 2006 census. So its not completely inaccurate.

wow you only need 1000 people to represent 20 billion people with a 4% margin of error

it would be so easy to choose 1000 people that completely misrepresent the population

i'm no statistician but i've done a few years of it in my econ/comm degree.

matey, i'm just making the point that trying to criticise something without having a basic understanding of how it works just makes you look like a retard. i'm not here to educate your lazy ass.

it's like when creationists try to rip on evolution with unimaginally stupid arguments like claiming evolution is a breach of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. you know how you always quietly lol inside whenever you see/hear a retard saying something like that?

right now, you're that retard.

ps. if you read my earlier post again you'll notice that i expressed some reservation about the results of the poll but suggested without further info all anyone could do is speculate. but don't let that stop you from aimlessly flailing about, it's entertaining :D

edit: failspelling

+

wow you only need 1000 people to represent 20 billion people with a 4% margin of error

it would be so easy to choose 1000 people that completely misrepresent the population

yeah, cause a polling/market research company that deliberately manipulates the polling results that it provides to clients would stay in business for a long time!


last edited by taggs at 13:18:07 19/Dec/09

doesn't have to be deliberate, plus how would you prove it anyway
There are entire sections of the population that don't fill in surveys, or go walk in malls, or want to talk to polling people on the phone. I can't think of a method you would use to poll people without somehow skewing the sample. Who surveys the boongs in alice springs sitting on VB cartons?

Ummm, you seriously wrote those two sentences after one another? Did you even vote? John Howard was Kevin Rudd's opponent.

haha^^ that's the kind of retardation you get from the people who responded to this survey. see they exist everywhere!

thermite: you're my favourite poster btw

@therm

polling is never perfectly representative of the population, there is always room for error.

osup.

you're right though, there is always potential for selection bias.

murderer, brezley and costello are two different parties.

- 56 per cent of people believe in heaven, only 38 per cent believe in hell <-- HAHAHA, my favourite stat

yeah that's gold. That's like the old devil worshippers who don't believe in God. I larf so hard. God belives in the Devil and the Devil believes in God, you can't have one without the other, same thing for Heaven and Hell.

Remaining 18% is Purgatory?

what the hell are you doing? your turning a perfectly good religious argument into how statistics are interpreted.

PS. its a strange lot of people that answer "yes" to "have you got a moment to take a quick survey", normally overly nice and polite people. which means that rude people are being misrepresented.. and considering %99 (statistically proven, if you disagree talk to my arse) of you pricks out there are rude bastards, so the its really impossible for the statistics to be a true representation of the populations view point.

that being said..

3 per cent believe in life after death

is clearly wrong from either typographical or statistic error. If part of information is wrong then all of the information given must be questioned.

3 per cent believe in life after death

is clearly wrong from either typographical or statistic error. If part of information is wrong then all of the information given must be questioned.

or its referring to reincarnation. if ~3% of australians buddists that'd be about right, right?

I have no faith in Nielsen since they always f*** up TV ratings.

thermite is right. Australian population = 22 million. People surveyed = 1000.

Also, non of this stuff is anywhere near scary and you're crazy if you think these are worrying statistics.

- Forty-two per cent of people believe in a wholly scientific explanation for the origins of life and 32 per cent believe in an evolutionary process ''guided by God''

So 74% of people believe in evolution. THIS IS FREIGHTING STUFF OMG!

p.s nearly all of the politicians are Christian (and therefore believe in god), yet this doesn't worry you.

41 per cent believe in astrology

How could that not worry you? That's like saying that 41% of people believe in the Easter Bunny.

yeah that's gold. That's like the old devil worshippers who don't believe in God. I larf so hard. God belives in the Devil and the Devil believes in God, you can't have one without the other, same thing for Heaven and Hell.

LaVeyan Satanists regard Satan as a symbol of man's inherent nature, they don't actually worship Satan. So they're not really "devil worshippers".
Also, certain Judeo-Christian groups don't believe in Hell, you either go to Heaven or just rot in the ground. It's all based around differing interpretations of things.

Bible says there's a hell to go along with heaven. There's a devil to counter god (though only god could explain why he's so "powerful"). Bible says jesus was born 2000 years ago and died without sin.

If you're a christian, surely these are facts to you.

Else you're your own religion?

I'm not a Christian. A lot of Christians choose not to literally interpret the Bible. A lot of people who identify as being "Christian" probably haven't been to Church in a very long time, and have their own derivative belief system rather than strict official doctrine.

On balance, this is probably a good thing.

41 per cent believe in astrology

How could that not worry you? That's like saying that 41% of people believe in the Easter Bunny.

This question was probably worded along the lines 'Do you know your star sign?' or Can you name the star signs?'

And anyone that answered 'yes' must therefore believe in astrology.

^
I think you made that up on the spot, based on nothing at all. c/d?

I made it up on the spot, based on personal experience from s***ty polls.

they drive crappy cars, they have weird beliefs and they vote.

So people with crappy cars are less entitled to vote? Your a bit of an elitist f*** arent you.

Also, your leader of the liberal party has some weird beliefs, he's a pretty strong christian, therefore he believes in the space magician (thanks for that one hogfather)

Someone probably already pointed this out but Nielsen is an online surveying company.

Someone probably already pointed this out but Nielsen is an online surveying company.

That is not all they do, ffs go and read about them before you just post nonsense s***.

http://au.nielsen.com/company/what.shtml

I used to work in market research, and in my time I conducted some Nielsen polls.

For a nation-wide poll like this, you would poll proportionate amounts of people from each state. So if Queensland has like 20% of our population, then 20% of the sample should come from Queensland. Participants would also be broken up into age groups. This poll would probably be broken up in age groups which are proportionate to Australian demographics. Commercial polls are often broken up into age groups based off purchasing power. So more middle aged people are sampled than 16-24 year olds or 60+. The geographical breakdown of the sample varies, it could be just broken up into states, or states might be further broken down into capitals + rest of state.

AFAIK, participants in phone polls are usually selected at random from a digital copy of the white pages. You would usually spread the call times out over different times of the day to avoid biasing the sample. Say you were interviewing 200 people from Queensland, you wouldn't do the whole sample from say 9am-12pm on a Sunday morning, as you'd probably miss a lot of church goers.

Hey CT, very nice info, thanks.

Whenever I get a phone poll, if they say it's Nielsen I actually do it. If it's some random I don't. The reason I do that is because I know that I have a pretty good chance of being able to find the results of the poll. Plus, they are generally quite useful polls (but not always).

Only thing that annoys be about Nielsen polls are their inserted questions (which they obviously sell the answers to) like, "When did you last go on a holiday?" and s*** like that.

There was a Rasmussen poll over here in the US that asked "Did scientists falsify research to support their own theories on global warming?"
Results as reported by Fox news:
59% Somewhat likely
35% Very likely
26% Not very likely

Amazing.

"Climategate" is pretty huge over there though. I haven't heard a tenth much as much since I got back to Aus. Plus Americans seem to have a much better developed cynicism of science.

That... and the fact that Fox presented it in a way that adds up to 120% to make it look like more people think it's likely.

A) You always need to to see the exact question asked in the poll to tell if the point presented is valid, because there are so many tricks to making something look like the public support it (when maybe they don't agree, nor feel strongly - but it was best option presented).

B) You also need to see how the data was manipulated. In this case 'very likely' and 'somewhat likely' were added to give 'somewhat likely'. Then 'very likely' was presented again, so when you only see it quickly it gives the impression that a huge majority think it was likely to some degree. This time it was relatively easy to catch (and present on the Daily Show etc) because it adds up to 120%, but it isn't always so obvious.

Whenever I get a phone poll, if they say it's Nielsen I actually do it. If it's some random I don't. The reason I do that is because I know that I have a pretty good chance of being able to find the results of the poll. Plus, they are generally quite useful polls (but not always).

Galaxy is also another good company worth doing polls for. The political polls in the newspapers are usually done by Galaxy. Back in my day Galaxy election polls were the most accurate in the industry.