A third of [British] adults believe God watches over them, says a poll commissioned by a Christian charity.
Two in five adults say prayers and one in three believes that God is watching over them, a new poll reveals. Of the 20 million Britons aged over 18 who say they pray, 13 million do so at least once a month, 12 million every week and 9 million every day.
Apart from the fact that this is one of those irritating press stories about some survey or poll that tells you absolutely nothing of substance about the supposed research (methodology? sample size?), someone somewhere appears to have some serious problems with adding up. Is this just repeated from the press release or has the journalist managed to actively screw it up?
(Also, I’ve just spotted the date. It’s not something that got shoved up in a rush a few hours ago; it’s been there for a week.)
I imagine what they mean is that 13 million people pray at least once a month, of whom 12 million do it every week, of whom 9 million do it every day. Which makes it bad writing rather than bad arithmetic. Unless of course you’re one of those dreadful cynical people who would suggest that it’s done deliberately to inflate the figures…