Wednesday, January 31, 2007

We believe

The survey of American belief I keep talking about is the latest Baylor Religion Survey, released in 2006, which the researchers call "the most extensive and sensitive study of religion ever conducted." The complete report is downloadable for free at the website. It reveals, among countless other interesting things, the percentage of Americans who believe in a variety of paranormal phenomena:

  • That ancient advanced civilizations, like Atlantis, once existed, 41 percent.
  • That places can be haunted, 37 percent.
  • That it is possible to influence the physical world through the mind alone, 28 percent.
  • That some UFOs are probably spaceships from other worlds, 25 percent.
  • That creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster will one day be discovered, 18 percent.

    In fact, belief in Atlantis (41 percent) and belief in hauntings (37 percent) are both more widespread than belief in an authoritarian God (31 percent), while belief in UFOs (25 percent) is more widespread than belief in a benevolent God (23 percent).

    My question: If you believe in, for example, haunted houses, then do you read a haunted-house story as fantasy? Or as something else?
  • 3 Comments:

    Blogger Tara said...

    You could almost use this to argue that all fiction is, in fact, fantasy. I mean, most people don't believe that the events in their books are actually taking place somewhere. I guess it mostly comes down to the split between "Belief" and "Reality", whatever those mean. Since there is no proof of any of those things, one would have to assume that there is someone that doesn't believe in each, so everything is pretty much someone's fantasy. I think ultimately, the labelling lies with the author's intent. If the author believes in a god or in UFO's or whatever, then it isn't intended to be read as fantasy. If they don't, though, then it is. I guess the trouble is in finding out what they mean.

    10:06 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I believe in most everything, including ghosts, but I didn't read "Stone Animals" as non-fiction. I don't doubt that similar things could happen though.

    9:54 PM  
    Blogger kate said...

    personally i'm more skeptical regarding hauntings and things along those lines. therefore everything we read just about i read as that, a work of fantasy. however, if i believed strongly in some of these common elements of fantasy, i think the whole genre would almost become terrifying in a sense because everything would seem somewhere within the actual realm of possibility...i feel like if i believed in all those things it would completely change my feelings about this classification of literature

    3:01 AM  

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