Schott's Almanac of (UK) Belief

[Androsphinx]

Was in the Times last week, and is a PDF here

Interesting results include (from the summary here

34 per cent of Labour voters believe in a global Alien conspiracy, compared with 23 per cent of Lib Dem voters.

Labour voters are more likely to read their horoscope regularly (28 per cent) than Conservative (22 per cent) or Lib Dem voters (17 per cent).

42 per cent of respondents who considered themselves not to be superstitious would still touch wood before any perilous undertaking.

and 58 per cent of people who considered themselves not to be superstitious believed in souls (as compared with 76% of those who did)

[Bounty]

I'm baffled that people are more likely to believe in ghosts than they are to carry a good luck charm. I would've though the latter was more common.

[Zablorg]

I'm baffled that anyone, let alone 54 percent, could belive in a soul. I would have thought that for someone to believe in something, they would have to be able to define it first.

[Androsphinx]

I think that the very vague nature helps a great deal, actually. It thus includes everyone from "physical afterlife" to "vague sensation". Also religious people, funnily enough, might not consider themselves to be "superstitious"

[Darth Wong]

I'm baffled that anyone, let alone 54 percent, could belive in a soul. I would have thought that for someone to believe in something, they would have to be able to define it first.

That does not occur to most religious people. They genuinely have no concept of the fact that it's ridiculous to believe in something if you can't even define the concept first. To them, it's perfectly natural to say that they believe in something they cannot define, because they don't realize that they're actually believing not in a defined discrete concept, but in a set of traditions which relate to that concept.

Imagine that I create a religion around the concept of the super-rat. What is the super-rat, you say? It doesn't matter. The point is that every week, we get together and have a little social gathering where we talk about how believing in the super-rat makes us better than everyone else. And we, as a group, have done many good things, which makes the super-rat a good thing by association. We've also done many bad things, but that's because of human foibles, not because of the super-rat. And when good things happen in your life, that's because of the super-rat, so you should thank him. And we will repeat these statements thousands of times in your childhood so that they become reflexive and you don't question them. Eventually, you simply stop asking what the super-rat is. All you know is that he's real, and he is good, because you get together with all of the other super-rattists every week.

[PeZook]

<snip>

You forgot the part where you create arbitrary restrictions and entry rituals, and then act as if the fact you had your left testicle/ovary surgically removed upon entry into the group makes you a better person.

And then go to war with heathens believing in the Holy Kitten.

You know, I think that every time somebody tries to argue something with inane phrases like "God loves you anyway!" I will reply with "The super-rat loves me more than your stupid God."