Little green men

A survey of 1003 American adults in mid May reveals that 86% believe in the Tooth Fairy and 8% aren’t sure. Only 70% believe in Santa Claus and 69% in little green men on the Moon. Seventy-five percent believe in unicorns, with 11% unsure, and 81% agree that human infants are delivered by a stork without reference to the human reproductive system.

Seriously, though, if you can take such a thing seriously, what Frank Newport reports from the Gallup poll is that the half of the sample asked, ‘…please tell me whether it is something you believe in, something you're not sure about, or something you don't believe in’, responded as follows.

2007 May 10-13 (sorted by "believe in")	Believe in	Not sure about	Don't believe in
	%	%	%
God	86	8	6
Heaven	81	8	11
Angels	75	11	14
The Devil	70	8	21
Hell	69	8	22

The other half of the sample were asked ‘Which of the following statements comes closest to your belief about God -- you believe in God, you don't believe in God, but you do believe in a universal spirit or higher power, or you don't believe in either?’ Seventy-eight percent believed in god, 14% in a universal spirit, 7% didn’t believe in either, and 1% had no opinion. The report offers no explanation for the discrepancy between the samples, but I gather the universal spirit option attracted some of those who would otherwise have swung to the theist or agnostic positions.

With all the interest the Gallup organization apparently has in opinions about supernatural beings and mythical creatures, I can’t wait to see what they find out when they really do ask about the Easter Bunny.