Beliefs

Did mankind develop from lower forms of life?

Is hell a real place of fire and burning?

Did God spend millions of years in making the world?

These and 73 other questions like them lately went out to 1,039 Chicago Protestant pastors. They were prepared for a Ph. D. thesis by Student William W. Sloan, 30-year old Presbyterian minister, with the aid of Professor George Herbert Betts of Northwestern University School of Education. More than 500 preachers answered the questionnaire. Published last week, their replies made a good composite of Protestant belief.

Among the few questions and answers on which 90% or more of the preachers agreed:

Does joining the church make it sure one is saved? (No.)

Do those who died keep on living in another life? (Yes.)

If we pray will God help us pass an examination when we have not studied? (No.)

Has God had anything to do with running the world since he created it? (Yes.)

Questions on which Protestant opinion was more sharply divided:

Does God send storms, earthquakes, or sickness upon people to punish them for their sins? (72% no.)

Is Jesus God? (72% yes.)

Are there actual beings or spirits called angels? (60% yes.)

Is there an actual being or person called the devil? (46% yes, 42% no, 12% undecided.)

Because these replies represent averages of a whole group, they do not show the views of separate sects. To the hellfire question, 93% of the Episcopalians cried "No," 55% of the Lutherans cried "Yes." As to Evolution the average is 46% for, with the Lutherans 95% against, the Episcopalians and Congregationalists 74% for. That God records bad deeds in a big book is the belief of 51% of the Baptists, 10% of the Methodists, 14% of the Presbyterians, 3% of the Episcopalians.

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