Eighty percent of Jews living in Israel believe in God, according to the findings of an extensive study conducted by the Guttman Center at the Israel Democracy Institute and published Thursday.
The study is a continuation of two previous surveys conducted in 1991 and 1999. A comparison shows that while the 1990s recorded a certain drop in affiliation to Jewish tradition, the following decade recorded an increase in affiliation up and beyond the numbers measured in 1991...
Three percent were "anti-religious seculars" (compared to 6% in 1999), 43% were "seculars" (compared to 46%), 32% "traditional" (compared to 33%), 15% "religious" (compared to 11%) and 7% "haredi" (compared to 5%).
Although 46% of respondents defined themselves as secular, it turns out that this self-definition is not directly linked to a belief in extraordinary forces and in the veracity of the Jewish religion...
As for the ramifications of the human conduct, 80% believe there is a reward for good deeds, and 74% say bad deeds are punished. Fifty-six believe in an "afterlife" and 51% believe in the coming of the Messiah.
Even more than the general faith in Judaism, the survey reveals that a very high percentage of Jews view traditional Jewish ceremonies to mark milestones in a person's life as extremely important: Ninety-four percent said so about circumcision, 92% about the seven days of mourning after a relative's death, 91% about the bar mitzvah ceremony, 90% about saying the Kaddish prayer over deceased parents, 86% about Jewish burial, and 83% about the bat mitzvah ceremony.
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Originally Posted by JerichoMissile
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