Are we religious?

Discussion in 'Your Religion & Spiritual Corner' started by jim1884again, Jul 4, 2010.

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  1. jim1884again

    jim1884again advocating baldness be recognized as a disability

    We meaning Americans and the answer is a resounding yes, according to the 2008 Pew Survey of over 35,000 respondents

    http://religions.pewforum.org/reports#

    this is the link--I may have posted it before, but it would have been a couple of years ago when it first came out

    some highlights of the report (which I encourage you to view for some fascinating data)

    78.4 % of Americans identify themselves as Christians, only 1.7% as Jews and a mere 1.6% as atheists
    12% say they don't identify themselves as anything and the rest would be a diverse mix of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, "other liberal" groups like Unitarians or New Agers, etc.

    Even more inetresting, when asked if they saw God as a personal God or an impersonal force, the numbers below were what they found:

    personal God impersonal force

    protestants**** 72% 19%
    evangelicals 79% 13%
    catholics 60% 26%
    agnostics 14% 36%

    you can see the numbers don't add up to 100% in each category--the others responded they didn't know for sure

    not surprising that agnostics (like I, commie pinko liberals who often think there is something there but aren't sure what it is) have so many in the "don't know" category and such a small percentage who see God as a personal one

    it was surprising that 13% of those who identify themselves as evangelicals see God as an impersonal force--I would have guessed the number to be about a third of that

    ****in the survey, protestants include evangelicals, mainline churches (e.g., methodists and others) and historically black churches--I separated the evangelicals in the table to show how their views compared to others--best I can tell, they surveyed over 7,000 evangelicals alone, so it would be hard to question their data given the size of the sample
     
  2. pardonme

    pardonme Guest

  3. corona

    corona New Member

    I'm not very trusting of statistics derived from self reports. It's possible that many of those who filled out the questionnaires indicated the religion they were born into which doesn't necessarily correlate with practicing it. Stating that one aligns oneself with a given religion doesn't mean one follows or practices the teachings of that religion.

    It would be interesting to find a survey that has data on those who walk the walk and talk the talk but I guess they'd have to be case studies which again don't reflect the masses. We'd have to rely on self reports of a sample population which, as you know, aren't as accurate as we'd like to believe they are.
     
  4. dizzysheba01

    dizzysheba01 New Member

    Good point Sarita.
     
  5. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    I suppose that if one's religion is simply to follow one's own wants, needs and desires, then one will never be found lacking to walk the walk one talks about. So that religion, the doctrine of which establishes that one needs only to obey one's own urges, and therefore become one's own god, must therefore be the perfect religion, one which we should all subscribe. For if we do, no one can ever rightly accuse us of hypocracy.
     
  6. jim1884again

    jim1884again advocating baldness be recognized as a disability

    look at the report in detail--no self report can be considered 100% reliable, but Pew is pretty good and they likely have fine statisticians designing and reporting--they even make mention of one of the very points you made--how many people were raised in a certain church but no longer followed that religion as adults--self report is least reliable if one is measuring deviance--if they asked the right questions in an anonymous way, (and these folks likely did) they probably got a very valid sample of the religious landscape of America--the size of the sample alone is impressive, even when broken down into all the diverse categories
     
  7. corona

    corona New Member

    Jim....I will look through it with more attention. It sounds very interesting.
     
  8. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

    I am a firm believer in God and someone who prays daily and that's pretty much the whole deal with me, and church or religion is something I decided I no longer needed about 6 years ago.
     
  9. birdmom3

    birdmom3 New Member

    As a Jewish person we can pray anywhere. Not just in a Temple. We can pray anywhere because God is everywhere. So we can practice our religion anyhwhere. And that is being a human and accepting us all. We are all connected.

    Birdmom3
     
  10. corona

    corona New Member

    Being spiritual very often allows for interconnection and interdependence.....I am because you are.
    Religion, in my opinion, can and very often does divide....it breaks connections because
    of the exclusivity factor. There is great comfort and peace in knowing that it is possible to
    transcend boundaries and barriers.
     
  11. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

    One of THEE biggest reasons I quit going to church was because Catholics make fun of Baptists, and Baptists make fun of Methodists, and Methodists make fun of Lutherans, and Lutherans make fun of Jews, and Jews make fun of Christians, and on & on & on with all of this finger pointing that I feel is disgusting and disappointing to God. :mad:
     
  12. corona

    corona New Member

    I can see how that could happen. Ultimately, we all want to feel good about ourselves and one of the ways we do this, sadly, is by putting others down (implicitly or explicitly). Nobody is immune to this phenomenon!

    A church is a good place to go to if you feel the need to find strength in numbers, congregate, worship together and feed off the energy. There is something pretty special about being in a group that shares your beliefs.

    Still, knowing what is in your heart and knowing what your values/beliefs are also makes it so you can carry that treasure with you and worship anywhere. Sounds like you've found a way that works best for you. Someone else may have given up but you chose not to :)
     
  13. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

    Oh I will NEVER give up on God or myself, and I've spent more than half of my 44 years of life in various churches and grew up with two very devout christian parents so I have plenty to stand on.
     
  14. corona

    corona New Member

    Whatever it takes to reinforce the golden rule or the categorical imperative or anything else other cultures/peoples/countries follow.
    In the end it's about being the best we can be without harming others.....or harming others minimally :D
     
  15. Chris0515

    Chris0515 New Member

    AMEN Corona! :)
     
  16. corona

    corona New Member

    Jim...sounds like someone among us is engaging in the false consensus effect :D
     
  17. dizzysheba01

    dizzysheba01 New Member

    Because of many physical disabilities and no church close enough for me to walk to, I hardly ever get to church. I love going to church and miss it so much. However, I pray all the time from my home.
     
  18. Prima Donna

    Prima Donna New Member

    Yeah, Chris. God is disgusted with all those hypocrits and finger pointers - all of them. So much so that He has dedicated a commandment to that very sin. "You shall not bear false testimony." In other words, Chris, God hates it when a person destroys the reputation of others based on a falsehood, a lie.

    My husband and I, both members of a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran church, are racking our memories for the last time we or our pastors or our church representatives 'poked fun' at the Jews. Well, we can't come up with even one time. No, wait. I do remember something .... oh, that was a discussion about the Jews being God's chosen people. hmmm. Oh, but that's not what you're looking for. Sorry. Well, so our church doesn't poke fun at the Jews, but I'm sure all the other Lutherans branches do.

    So, since I don't attend all of their services, and since you must have a broader and more objective perspective from the comfort and safety of your home, could you give me the names of all those Lutheran churches that poke fun of Jews so I can make sure never to attend their services? Better yet, Chris, why not purge us of all these bigoted churches that I just know exist out there because you say so (and after all you do have the objective perspective of someone who doesn’t attend church at all.) So, why not head a full-out campaign to destroy the reputations of them all? Paint big letters on signs “Jew Haters” and then picket them all until all Lutheran churches shut down. Maybe you can elicit the help of the Methodists since they apparently hate the Lutherans so much.

    Now, don’t stop there. Picket the Catholics for making fun of the Baptists and the Baptists for making fun of the Methodists. Don’t rest until you have been single-handedly responsible for shutting down all churches. Then we can all be just like you – all alone in our homes, with the company of our perfect selves, and no more of those pesky other sinful people to hold us accountable for anything we do or say.

    Come on Chris, be a ‘good’ Christian. Begin your crusade today. Walk the walk.
     
  19. studio34

    studio34 Guest

    I'm with you Jim – an agnostic. We cannot prove that God exists just like we cannot prove that there is no flying spaghetti monster. For me, to boil down the awesomeness of the Universe -- the utter mind-blowing nature of it -- to some stories written by superstitious people some 2,000 years ago doesn't even come close to doing it justice for me. I'll go with naturalist ... I wonder if that was on the list?

    "In the 21st century, religion in Australia remains dominated demographically by Christianity, with 64% of the population claiming at least nominal adherence to the Christian faith as of 2007, although less than a quarter of those attend church weekly. 18.7% of Australians declared 'no-religion' on the 2006 Census, (with a further 11.2% failing to answer the question) and the remaining population is a diverse group that includes fast-growing Islamic and Buddhist communities."

    Scott
     
  20. corona

    corona New Member

    Hey PD (although I know you as the library lady!!!!)

    Sometimes we generalize not because we mean all four corners of the earth. We're talking about our neck of the woods (or patch of the woods) but it seems like the whole world to us because of familiarity. I know I've generalized many times.....it's colloquial speech :D

    :)
     

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