An interesting new survey reports, among other things, that 55% of the American public believes in guardian angels.
Of course, guardian angels are entirely consistent with the spiritualist doctrines transmitted by mediums for well over a century. The only difference – which is mainly semantic – is that spiritualists usually think of their guardians as the spirits of departed loved ones rather than nonhuman entities.
Why is this belief so widespread? I suspect it's because of personal experience. After-death communications have convinced many people that someone is watching over them. They have felt an invisible presence, experienced a premonition or warning, or communed with a loved one in a dream.
Meanwhile, the same survey shows that atheism remains the viewpoint of only 4% of Americans. Surprisingly, atheists are not much more prevalent in other Western countries. "Europe does have more atheists than the U.S., the survey said, but no country has more than 7 percent except France, which is at 14 percent of the populace."
The article notes:
The survey, which has a margin of error of four percentage points, also revealed that theological liberals are more apt to believe in the paranormal and the occult – haunted houses, UFOs, communicating with the dead and astrology – than do conservatives. Women (35 percent), blacks (41 percent), those younger than 30 (40 percent), Democrats (40 percent) and singles who are cohabitating (49 percent) were more likely to believe, the survey said.