Utsyn reports that they had repeatedly tried to learn how the question in the original survey was phrased. When they were denied an answer they carried out their own poll, in clear language: "Do you believe people can end up in hell when their life on earth is over?"
To this version 11.3 percent of the 1,577 interviewed answered yes, and the magazine trumpeted their refutation of coverage like "Fewer believe in hell" that ran in Christian daily Vårt Land.
The manger of ANB, Svein Erik Hole, admitted that their poll was ambiguous and that some of the offered alternatives did not rule out a belief in damnation.
Utsyn editor Espen Ottosen admitted to Vårt Land that the result still poses a formidable challenge to the revivalist NLM, with three out of four Norwegians dismissive of the hard choice of damnation or salvation.
Ottosen said the polls show how important the phrasing of a question is, and believed that they could have achieved even higher numbers.
"If we had replaced the word hell with perdition we would have had much higher numbers," Ottosen said.
