[Vision2020] One-third of Americans see signs of end times in extreme weather

[Art Deco]

Poll: More than one-third of Americans see signs of end times in extreme
weather

Published: December 14, 2012
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/12/14/4359348/poll-more-than-one-third-of-americans.html#storylink=cpy

By LAUREN MARKOE — Religion News Service

WASHINGTON -- More than a third of Americans believe the severity of recent
natural disasters is evidence that we are in the "end times" described in
the New Testament -- a period of turmoil preceding Jesus' Second Coming and
the end of the world.

"There is a significant proportion of Americans who see these phenomena
through a theological lens," said Daniel Cox, research director at the
Public Religion Research Institute, which released a poll on religion and
climate change on Thursday in partnership with Religion News Service.

"It's hardly a fringe belief. It's nearly four in 10 Americans who are
embracing this," Cox said.

The conviction is particularly strong among white evangelical Protestants
(65 percent), and less common among Catholics (21 percent) and the
religiously unaffiliated (15 percent). Overall, 36 percent of Americans see
signs of the end times in Mother Nature's fury.

But a majority of Americans connect recent extreme weather to climate
change, according to the poll, which was conducted Dec. 5-9, about six
weeks after Hurricane Sandy wrecked havoc on the mid-Atlantic coastline.

More than six in 10 Americans (63 percent) say the severity of recent
weather is evidence of global warming, compared to one third (33 percent)
who disagree.

Cox noted religious divisions among Americans on recent destructive storms,
floods, snowstorms and heat waves. Seven in 10 (69 percent) religiously
unaffiliated Americans link dramatic weather to global warming, compared to
60 percent of Catholics and 50 percent of white evangelicals.

"They're experiencing the same weather, but how they perceive it is very
different," he said.

The differences among Democrats and Republicans are even starker, with 70
percent of Democrats and 65 percent of Independents holding that brutal
weather patterns are evidence of global warming, compared to 43 percent of
Republicans.

In other findings, the PRRI study revealed:

* 2 percent of Americans believe in the ancient Mayan prophecy that the
world will end by the end of 2012.

* 15 percent of Americans believe that the end of the world, as predicted
in the Book of Revelation, will occur in their lifetimes.

* College graduates are four times less likely to believe the world will
end in their lifetimes than those with a high school education or less.

* About three in 10 white evangelicals (29 percent) and minority Christians
(27 percent) believe the end of the world will occur in their lifetimes.

Read more here:
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/12/14/4359348/poll-more-than-one-third-of-americans.html#storylink=cpy


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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