tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920271329589936347.post3179897458794707163..comments2023-04-25T11:15:08.515-04:00Comments on Science & Religion Today: Most Americans Believe Angels Helped ThemHeather Waxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15610116462331794810noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920271329589936347.post-38305279544368829792008-09-22T15:39:00.000-04:002008-09-22T15:39:00.000-04:00<"Do you believe you have been protected f...<"Do you believe you have been protected from harm by a guardian angel? Do you believe you avoided an accident through the agency of a guardian angel?" says Christopher Bader, a sociologist at Baylor and an ISR researcher. "To find out that more than half of the American public believes this was shocking to me. I did not expect that."><BR/><BR/>This may be shocking to ivory tower analysts who have no contact with the average person except via questionnaires, and no inkling of how people think about matters touching their personal lives. Not just Americans, Catholics, and Protestants, but Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Jews: the vast majority of humankind would give a similar answer to the survey.<BR/>There is no rational explanation for the fact that some people escape an airline crash or a hurricane ravage or a universal epidemic or a devastating tsunami, while others perish.<BR/>Most normal human beings who grow up in cultures which have a religious framework attribute their totally unexpected survival from any such disaster to some unseen factor that intervened in their favor: an angel, a deity, a merciful God, a propitious star, or whatever.<BR/>When one says it was due to pure chance or simply uses the word “fortunately,” one is merely substituting one’s ignorance for a supernatural factor.<BR/>To say “I really don’t know how I survived when the guy near me died in the accident” may be more satisfying to some, and to say, “I was protected by a guardian angel” may be more meaningful to others. There is nothing to be impressed by one answer or be shocked by the other.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com