Americans are quite confident they will get to heaven. Mother Teresa they are not as sure about.
A poll released Friday found that 67 percent of Americans are certain that heaven exists. An even larger number - 87 percent - thought they were likely to go there, perhaps a sign that math literacy is not a prerequisite for entering the pearly gates.Mother Teresa was heaven-bound according to 79 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed in the poll commissioned by U.S. News and World Report. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey trailed the celebrated missionary, with 66 percent.
President Clinton got the heavenly nod from just over half those surveyed. That was a little bit worse than Hillary Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, but ahead of House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich's 40 percent likely vote was, however, well ahead of O.J. Simpson, who only 19 percent saw as a likely candidate for heaven.
People were much more confident about their own ability to make it to heaven than that of their friends and neighbors. Just 18 percent thought all their friends would join them in paradise.