"Liberals are twice as likely than conservatives to believe in ghosts"

[ConfuZed]

...I'm paraphrasing but this is what Jay Leno said tonight my question is where did he get this crap?

[jobycom]

1. I seriously doubt that.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

3. Seriously.

I saw the poll on DU last night and it said 28% of conservatives believe in ghosts and 42% of liberals do.

[jobycom]

5. Who did that poll?

[Celeborn Skywalker]

9. I don't remember

but the results don't surprise me. Most of my friends believe in ghosts and they're all liberal. I think part of the reason is because most conservative evangelicals don't believe in ghosts at all so that takes away much of the Republican party.

On edit: Gallup conducted the poll.

[Trajan]

11. Where the hell did you get that notion ? ....

Show me some numbers AND the methodology of the data gathering ....

THIS I gotta see ....

Sounds like a bunch of poppycock .....

So; Evangelicals DONT believe in the 'Holy Ghost' ?

Or, they believe in THAT one ghost, but NO other ? ...

Cmon ......

[Celeborn Skywalker]

15. I went to a fundie church for awhile in high school.

They believed that the Holy Ghost was a part of God and that human ghosts seen by people were in the same category as tarot cards, astrology and psychics (that is to say they believed them all part of some "satanic scheme"). I don't know if the poll is accurate, I'm just giving my perception of things.

[tenshi816]

28. My extremely fundie stepmother

doesn't believe in ghosts but she believes in, as you say, THAT one ghost.

Her logic escapes me because the reason she doesn't believe in ghosts is because she's never seen one, but she doesn't have a problem believing in God and Jesus even though she's never seen them either. She gets furious with me when I point this contradiction out to her.

I agree with another poster on this thread who pointed out that a lot of fundies lump ghosts in with tarot cards and other things that they consider "New Age". These things are extremely suspect to them because they believe anything New Age is satanic in origin. My stepmother certainly does, and for a while about 10 years ago simply would not shut up talking about it, although she's moved on to other fundie obsessions now.

[charlie]

13. Gallup

The report is tucked in their subscriber-only section:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/content/login.aspx?ci=17275

Here's a short E&P article about it:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000977598

[jobycom]

23. Still don't believe it. And for the record, it was 25 and 42

25 percent of Repubs and 42 of liberals. That's not 2-1.

I'd have to see more data to buy that poll. Was the poll sample selected based on party, or did they do a random sample and then ask if people were liberal or conservative? The latter would clearly not be representative. The article doesn't go into enough detail.

[charlie]

26. Note the question

as E&P reports it -- do you think "ghosts/spirits of dead people can come back", which doesn't specifically measure belief in ghosts, but whether it's possible to encounter one. Someone who is sure of their existence, but thinks they're locked up in purgatory, heaven, or hell, or too insubstantial to be seen would answer no.

This Harris poll from 2003 puts the percentage of believers much higher (51%):

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=359

42% of Republicans, 54% of Democrats, and 56% of Independents in their poll said ghosts were real.

[Richard Steele]

2. WTF???

[Solly Mack]

4. Holy _______

nevermind ;)

[rawtribe]

6. Boo

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x3629583

[Mojambo]

7. Our ghosts can kick their angels' asses. n/t

[expatriot]

14. IMO, believing in ghosts is as bad as believing in angels but....

your comment gives strange insight into how people's view of the supernatural world is an transference of their ideas of the political structure of the natural world.... ghosts are a more liberal, democratic concept of supernatural beings while angels are clearly a very elite, hierarchical concept and therefore very much amenable to the conservative conception of the supernatural.

[Mojambo]

16. Actually I was just making a joke.

I don't believe in either one.

[expatriot]

18. I know it was a joke but I just ran with it. oh, I am tired.

[Mojambo]

20. Oh okay. I getcha.

I slow down around this time myself.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

8. I only caught about 40 seconds of Leno tonight and

he made a really nasty remark about John Kerry and Botox. I thought at first it was a re-run, but then he did say something about Rove.

Leno's a hack comic. I wouldn't cross the street to see him perform.

[devilgrrl]

10. That's interesting...

because David Letterman is twice as likely to be funnier than Jay Leno. :freak:

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Which explains why the GOP is the party of the "Dinosaurs are a hoax" gang

:crazy: :silly: :crazy:

Sure thing, Jay.

[expatriot]

17. Jesus, this is embarrassing....

ghosts are like a conveniently sized, mini, handheld portable God. They give explanation to localized unexplained phenomona, help give license to our dreams of immortality and fear of nothingness upon point of death and often they are an omnipresent protector of a certain ethical or value system within a localized area... they are, in short, domestic gods, ancestor worship, etc.

[Bouncy Ball]

19. WTF?

Well this is one liberal who doesn't believe in them.

In faaaact, on second thought, I'm thinking of every liberal person I know and remembering if I've ever discussed ghosts with them. I know my liberal husband doesn't believe in them, I know my two liberal best friends don't....

Hmm. Nope. None here.

Sorry Jay!

[Mojambo]

21. Same here

The closest I have is a buddy who's really into cryptozoology.

Bigfoot, Lochness monster... Stuff like that.

What a freak!
:evilgrin:

[Corgigal]

22. great

this just means that liberals are more spiritual after all.

[MattPSU]

24. Funny

Evangelicals and Biblical inerrantists should believe in ghosts, as it says quite clearly in 1 Samuel 28 that the ghost of Samuel (a human) was summoned by the Witch of Endor before Saul. I'm sure they have some way of rationalizing that though, as they do for every other error, inconsistency and absurdity in that book.

[E-Z-B]

36. lol, I was going to post this.

Good work!

[Liberal In Texas]

25. You know what? SO WHAT?

Not a big deal that some of us are interested in the paranormal. It has nothing to do with politics!

Some are also interested in flying model airplanes. SO WHAT?

Some are also untested in kinky sex...SO WHAT?

Some are also homeowners that mow the lawn...SO WHAT?

Stop putting any weight to these stupid polls, we play into the neo-cons hands when we do.

[Borgnine]

27. Right.

I'm a liberal and I believe in ghosts. So what? Big fucking deal.

[NuttyFluffers]

29. believe in ghosts, believe in angels, don't believe leno is funny.

believe bush is a moron and anyone who follows him is too. i also believe it is the height of stupidity to pay attention to this poll unless someone needs to get a hard on for who's the greater skeptic. feh, conservatives say more of them believe in god than us, and there's plenty on both sides that believe that's hooey, and many still who believe god concept itself is hooey. whatever.

i'll say this, at least liberals who believe are more consistent. always have been, always will be, because hypocrisy and selfishness is not our prime motivators. conservatives believe in the concept of the soul but not in lost/stuck/punished souls? who's the laughable walking contradiction here? yeah, that's what i thought. they can go worship their jizzed on ova and wank off to photos to dead children like they always do, culture of freaking life my ass.

[TexasLady]

30. Quite be accident, I caught a ghost on tape

or, something...

I had a voice activated recorder in an outside office run all night. Nothing was on, no one could get in, it was locked. It was a woman's voice, and it said..out, now...house.

don't know what to make of it, so count me in as one who believes in something like ghosts..or at least paranormal.

[E-Z-B]

37. I encountered my own ghost, too

It used to pull my hair every night while I slept. I'd wake up with something tugging at my hair, and when I reached back to swing at it, it would let go. Every night. Pain in the ass.

To check if you got a ghost in your state, check this out for fun:

http://theshadowlands.net/places/

Click on your state.

[ScamUSA.Com]

31. this ties directly in to an earlier thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1625727&mesg_id=1625755

[ck4829]

32. I guess that means that Liberals are twice as spiritual as Conservatives

:D

[Obamarama]

33. I believe in the ghost of the Bush Administration.......

Can't wait till they're gone. I just hope the aftermath they create doesn't haunt us too long.

[Ganja Ninja]

34. We aren't the ones trying to cure citrus canker with holy water.

I don't see any daily prayer threads here at DU. If any body's superstitious it's the GOP and their fundie sheep.

[Iris]

35. So what? I have the right to believe in whatever I want.

I don't care what Jay Leno thinks about it.

[alarimer]

38. it's probably bullshit

Conservatives are the irrational ones, not liberals who tend to be "reality-based".

[DemonFighterLives]

39. Now I'm no Ghost Expert

I personally have never seen one that I know of. My wife has and I believe her.

A few weeks ago, my very good friend, who happens to be republican, was telling me that he has been receiving visions of ghosts and things and has been having conversations with Dr James Martin Peebles. I listened to him for 3 hours and when I finally checked out Peebles on Google, I was amazed by what I found. Peebles is considered the Grand Spirit and is the source for many psychics and channelers.

Don't know what to make of it all and neither does his family. I don't think politics has much to do with it, but I have a sneaky suspicion that his visions are giving him a much more Democratic perspective. For instance, an Indian vision said that he didn't like what was happening to the land. A form of enlightening I guess.

O8)

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

40. when i was a navy corpsman

a marine came into sick call and wanted out of guard duty at night because he saw a ghost the night before. he was serious.

[noonwitch]

41. I believe in possibilities, but have never witnessed a ghost

I'm skeptical of most claims, but everyone once in a while will hear a story that I tend to believe, like the Bell Witch of Tennesee, or the ghost of the Bowers Harbor Inn in Traverse City, MI.

[Darwins Finch]

42. So what?

Conservatives are more likely to believe the Bible was originally written in English.

Now which of these two beliefs is more demonstrably false? :)

[BiggJawn]

43. I think that's horse-pucky.

Which groups is more likely to throw in with the magical thinking that say that if you display plush toys dressed like firefighters on top of your TV and stick little yellow magnets on the back of your minivan, that Some Guy in the Sky will smile upon your country and personally intervene to keep our soldiers safe?

And even after this proves to be untrue in over 1700 instances, they continue to do it.

No Liberals that *I* know of!