How many Americans believe in hell?

According to pollster George Barna:

“76 percent of Americans believe in heaven, and 71 percent believe in hell.
Only 32 percent believe that hell is ‘an actual place of torment and suffering.’
40 percent believe it is ‘a state of eternal separation from God’s presence.’
64 percent believe that they will go to heaven,
Only 0.005 percent believe that they will be sent to the flames.”

U.S. News and World Report (31 Jan. 2000) generally agreed. Their survey showed that:

“64 percent of Americans think there is a hell.
25 percent don’t.
And 9 percent don’t know.
More believed in hell in 2000 than did in 1990 or in the 1950s.” (Results of these two surveys were quoted from Brian D. McLaren, The Last Word and the Word after That (San Francisco, CA.: Jossey-Bass, 2005), 104).

A 2008 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey “showed that 59 percent of Americans believe in hell as a place of eternal punishment for all those who did not repent of their sin. . . . Although this number has decreased from 71 to 59 percent over the last decade” (Sharon Baker, Razing Hell (Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 186. “You can read the article online at http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsIE=16260).”

Regardless of which survey is more accurate, these results show how deeply entrenched traditional views of hell still are. And given the 0.005 percent figure above, one must wonder how effective of a deterrent the threat of an eternal hell really is? Another paradoxical fact is, hell is one of the main reasons most Christians are so lackadaisical about their biblical responsibility and disinclined to share their faith with other people. One would think the opposite would be true—that if they really believed in hell, you couldn’t stop them from constantly warning their family, friends, relatives, everyone about it and explaining how to avoid being burned in the flames. Then why don’t most Christians do this?

Sources:

1 Hell Yes / Hell No by John Noe

2 Hell Under Fire by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson

3 What’s So Great about Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza

4 The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

5 The Last Word and the Word after That by Brian D. McLaren

6 Razing Hell by Sharon Baker