Pew & Gallup: God & Religion

[eyer]

From Pew::

- 48% of the world's Christians live in the following countries with the largest Christian populations:
1. United States
2. Brazil
3. Mexico
4. Russia
5. Germany
6. Phillipines
7. Communist Chia
8. Nigeria
9. Congo
10. Ethiopia

Approximately 50% of the world's Christians are Catholic
- 37% = Protestants (broadly defined)
- 12% = Orthodox (whatever the frig that means)
- 1% = Other (eg, Mitt Romneys, Jehovah Wits, etc)

- Although Christians comprise just under a third of the world's people, they form a majority of the population in 158 countries and territories, about two-thirds of all the countries and territories in the world.

- Muslims, the second-largest religious group in the world, make-up a little less than 25% of the world's population.


From Gallup:

- 78% of Americans identify with Christianity

82% of Americans identify with some religion
- 52.5% = Protestant/other Christian
- 23.6% = Catholic
- 1.9% = Mormon
- 1.6% = Jewish
- 0.5% = Muslim
- 2.4% = Other (non-Christian)

- 15% = None/atheist/agnostic
- 2.5% = No response

- 92% of Americans believe in God

 

[GracefullyYours]

Really surprised Brazil was number 2.

I'm also shocked that 92% of Americans still believe in God, and I think it's interesting that only 82% identify with any religion...

 

[KRCummings]

Really surprised Brazil was number 2.

I'm also shocked that 92% of Americans still believe in God, and I think it's interesting that only 82% identify with any religion...

What were you expecting? Believers have always hovered around 90% in the US and Brazil has been heavily Catholic for a long time.

 

[GracefullyYours]

What were you expecting? Believers have always hovered around 90% in the US and Brazil has been heavily Catholic for a long time.

I wasn't "expecting" anything specific, but I've never looked at a breakdown like he posted.

And now that I look at it again, he separated protestant and Catholic other places - I assumed the top 10 were only the former, not the two combined.

And if there's a 10% gap between those who believe there's a god and those who identify with any religion....I would assume that 10% would also be represented in the atheist/agnostic/none category as agnostics?

 

[Sean]

Yeah, Americans are dumber than most people. Was that your point?

 

[KRCummings]

I wasn't "expecting" anything specific, but I've never looked at a breakdown like he posted.

And now that I look at it again, he separated protestant and Catholic other places - I assumed the top 10 were only the former, not the two combined.

And if there's a 10% gap between those who believe there's a god and those who identify with any religion....I would assume that 10% would also be represented in the atheist/agnostic/none category as agnostics?

You don't have to believe in a particular religion to believe in God.
Protestants and Catholics should be separated as they're quite different.

The numbers from these polls are the same as they've always been. Little has changed over the years. You get small percentages changing over time but it's usually cyclical.
Eyer has some stupid point behind this I'm sure but overall it's meaningless.

 

[atmas]

Really surprised Brazil was number 2.

I'm also shocked that 92% of Americans still believe in God, and I think it's interesting that only 82% identify with any religion...

I would expect most Americans, like most respondents to personal ad profiles, would term themselves the excruciating "spiritual but not religious."

 

[eyer]

Protestants and Catholics should be separated as they're quite different.

Almost if one was protesting the other...

Eyer has some stupid point behind this I'm sure but overall it's meaningless.

...and that was it.

 

[phrodeau]

Percentage of people who believe that serpents could talk: 3%

 

[mercury14]

Americans are very stupid people.


Gallup Poll of Americans

- 37% believe in Haunted Houses

- 24% believe aliens are flying to earth

- 21% believe you can commune with the dea

- 21% believe in witches

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/Paranormal-Beliefs-Come-SuperNaturally-Some.aspx

 

[eyer]

Justin Gives Jesus A Leg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1001481.1325797229!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/image.jpg

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/celebrity-tattoos-gallery-1.27172

 

[Super-Surprise]

Devout catholic!

http://content.leenks.com/pics/2009/random131/random-32.jpg

 

[AngeloMichael]

Americans are very stupid people.


Gallup Poll of Americans

- 37% believe in Haunted Houses

- 24% believe aliens are flying to earth

- 21% believe you can commune with the dea

- 21% believe in witches

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/Paranormal-Beliefs-Come-SuperNaturally-Some.aspx

People are very stupid people.

 

[renard_ruse]

Approximately 50% of the world's Christians are Catholic
- 37% = Protestants (broadly defined)
- 12% = Orthodox (whatever the frig that means)...

The Eastern churches (Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Serbian, etc).

 

[renard_ruse]

I would expect most Americans, like most respondents to personal ad profiles, would term themselves the excruciating "spiritual but not religious."

No, I believe a majority are members of specific denominations but even if not, the term is not descriptive. This lumps together anyone with any spiritual/supernatural belief who is not a member of an organized denomination and is not an atheist or complete unbeliever. Its a very poor descriptive term and is so vague to be almost useless.

For example, I would describe myself as an unaffiliated monotheist (actually pantheist) of Christian ancestry but I'm not a Christian believer. I'm not a believer in the devinity of Jesus or a member of any Christian denomination, though I feel there is a benefit in respecting and preserving the Christian cultural heritage, especially that of the Catholic and Eastern Churches even if they aren't literally true. I have little use for Protestantism, but whatever floats people's boat I suppose (as a pantheist, any sincere spiritual belief is a legitimate way to worship the Universe).

 

[renard_ruse]

I would expect most Americans, like most respondents to personal ad profiles, would term themselves the excruciating "spiritual but not religious."

They should have a category for Theist (unaffiliated).

 

[GracefullyYours]

Percentage of people who believe that serpents could talk: 3%

It's called "parseltongue."

 

[GracefullyYours]

Americans are very stupid people.


Gallup Poll of Americans

- 37% believe in Haunted Houses

- 24% believe aliens are flying to earth

- 21% believe you can commune with the dea

- 21% believe in witches

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/Paranormal-Beliefs-Come-SuperNaturally-Some.aspx

*facepalm*

 

[KingOrfeo]

Protestants and Catholics should be separated as they're quite different.

And if you don't separate 'em, watch out!

 

[KingOrfeo]

From The Next American Nation, by Michael Lind:

Conservatives do not recognize how much the nation has changed since the fifties in its religious attitudes. It may be that the religion of nominal Christians in the United States can no longer be described as traditional trinitarian Christian. The scholarly term for their belief is henotheism, the belief that all ethnic groups and cultures have, and should have, their own gods and rites. In Christian theology, this is the heresy of indifferentism. Robert Linder and Richard Pierard have described the evolution of American civil religion: "Its umbrella has changed from evangelical consensus to Protestantism-in-general, to Christianity-in-general, to the Judeo-Christian tradition in general, to deism-in-general." The decline in belief in Christianity as the only true religion has been extraordinarily rapid in the United States. In a poll taken in 1924 in Muncie, Indiana, 94 percent of high school students agreed that "Christianity is the one true religion and all peoples should be converted to it." By the late 1970s, merely 38 percent of respondents in a later poll in Muncie agreed that Christianity was the only true faith. Two-thirds of the respondents in a 1991 poll agreed that Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists "pray to the same God."

 

[ChinaBandit]

One should probably separate the Shite from the Sunni in the same vain as Catholic versus Protestant. There are practical and dogmatic differences between the Islamic sects just as profound.

The tenacity of Christianity in China is admirable! It's certainly had it's blood-letting from the Taiping and Boxer Rebellion's to the Cultural Revolution. Of course, religious freedom in the PRC is assured under Article 36 of the Chinese constitution.

One wonders why missionary work was not as successful at conversion in imperialist India. There are a lot of Muslims due to years of conquest. However, the Hindi population (14% of the world's religion) proved largely non-responsive to a couple hundred years of Christian prods.

 

[eyer]

Of course, religious freedom in the PRC is assured under Article 36 of the Chinese constitution.

Of course it is...

...now, please tell us more about "religious freedom" in Communist China; maybe start off by relating who/what controls every aspect of religion in Communist China, huh?

Ever heard of a Chinaman named Watchman Nee?

Please relate "religious freedom" to Nee's fate...

...and then let us know why you're such a disingenuous putz.

Thanks.

 

[clutch1]

What if God was one of us ?

 

[GracefullyYours]

Ever heard of a Chinaman named Watchman Nee?

That is one man who has my complete and utter respect.....

 

[eyer]

That is one man who has my complete and utter respect.....

Why?..