Pew’s Hell Survey

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007, only 59% of Americans believe in the existence of Hell.

Evangelical leaders have been bemoaning this finding ever since, which is odd because, rather than rejoicing that their propaganda campaign to keep millions of people bound up in the fear of Hell has been successful, they’re disappointed that millions of others have escaped their reach!

But it’s the trend that seems to be what’s really bothering them. Back in 2001, a Gallup survey showed that 71% of Americans believed in Hell, a 12% drop in the space of only 6 years. Were this trend to continue, we could see the belief in Hell evaporate completely by the year 2060!

However, I don’t believe we can count on the fear of Hell just going away on its own. If there’s anything that we should learn from religious history, it’s that we humans tend to regress time and again. We can, and often do, fall prey to well organized propaganda campaigns, especially when those leading them are highly motivated and are willing to spend an enormous amount of time and energy developing, refining and propagating their distorting rhetoric, as well as to get their paws on the minds of as many of the young as they can, as soon as they can.

This was one of the main reasons why I wrote Hell? No! It became very clear to me a number of years ago that, unless those of us who have really researched and thought this belief through get our information out to the public, the powerful forces sponsering the radical religious right wing, those who benefit the most from this myth, will regroup.

Therefore, it’s my hope that you will not only buy and enjoy reading my book, but that you’ll find the many, many proofs contained in it easy to retain and will be able to share them with any of your friends, family or acquaintances who are a part of the 59% still enslaved by this hideous myth.