Market Poll: Austrians back the "Christkind" over the "Santa" by a HUGE margin

[Tender Branson]

"Who do you associate with bringing the presents on Christmas ?"

91% Christkind
  7% Santa

"How would you classify your relationship with the Catholic Church ?"

16% I'm an active member of the Catholic Church
45% I'm a member of the Catholic Church on the certificate of baptism only
25% I have been a member of the Catholic Church before, but I have officially left it
  9% I have nothing to do with the Catholic Church

"Which of these religious leaders do you trust most when it comes to advice for what's important in life ?"



http://derstandard.at/1355460472761/Umfrage-Dalai-Lama-gibt-mehr-religioese-Richtugn-als-der-Papst

[Antonio the Sixth]

LOL

[Beezer]

I'd like to see the unskewed poll on this.

[Lief 🗽]

I'm glad Europeans are standing tall against American attempts to ruin Christmas.

[Illuminati Blood Drinker]

Dalai Lama gets a 66% trustworthiness rating in a majority-Catholic country? Wut...?

[Tender Branson]

Dalai Lama gets a 66% trustworthiness rating in a majority-Catholic country? Wut...?

84% are alienated from the Catholic Church, according to this same poll.

Only 16% are actively involved in the Church.

Also: The Dalai Lama recently visited Austria and therefore has a huge name recognition anyway and he's a big FF.

[minionofmidas]

The Dalai Lama is probably the most feelgood popular living human, outside of China. *shrugs*

[Simfan34]

Dalai Lama gets a 66% trustworthiness rating in a majority-Catholic country? Wut...?

And they seemed like such rational people when I went there...

[Tender Branson]

Dalai Lama gets a 66% trustworthiness rating in a majority-Catholic country? Wut...?

And they seemed like such rational people when I went there...

Believing more in the Dalai Lama than in the Pope is rational ...

[Lief 🗽]

What kind of ridiculous person doesn't think the Dalai Lama is trustworthy?

[Simfan34]

What kind of ridiculous person doesn't think the Dalai Lama is trustworthy?

I would have thought at least someone here would have argued he was a brutal feudalist who existed in an oppressive state. "It's like North Korea with monks. For whatever reason it fascinates so many western liberals who should know better," said one about similar Bhutan.

Using that kind of thought, regarding the Dalai Lama as untrustworthy follows as easily as having a distaste for, oh, I don't know, the- you know who I'm going to say.

[Foucaulf]

I would have thought at least someone here would have argued he was a brutal feudalist who existed in an oppressive state.

Simfan, parroting the PRC's foreign policy talking points won't get you any Chinese girls.

To be less glib, the Tibetan Government in Exile has stopped negotiating with China a long time ago; the Dalai Lama in his popular role as motivational speaker doesn't have much to do with anything. For the Tibetans in China rebelling against the government, the distinction between the former Tibetan state and the current administration is academic.

[Simfan34]

I would have thought at least someone here would have argued he was a brutal feudalist who existed in an oppressive state.

Simfan, parroting the PRC's foreign policy talking points won't get you any Chinese girls.

To be less glib, the Tibetan Government in Exile has stopped negotiating with China a long time ago; the Dalai Lama in his popular role as motivational speaker doesn't have much to do with anything. For the Tibetans in China rebelling against the government, the distinction between the former Tibetan state and the current administration is academic.

I thought someone would have brought that up. I think the Dalai Lama is trustworthy, but I trust the Pope more.

[mubar]

I find it interesting that vast majority of the polled answered to trust Dalai Lama in those issues important in life, yet this is the same country where earlier this year the building of a large buddhist temple was rejected in a local referendum by a large majority of voters. Granted, that happened in some village with population of few thousand, but still this sounds a bit like a double standard: it seems that some Austrians like the public image of Dalai Lama in theory, but when it comes to actually setting up a buddhist temple, the xenophobia strikes again.

Of course, such a thing is hardly news, and it's not like double standards wouldn't exist everywhere. But still, seeing a buddhist monk beat every catholic leader in an Austrian poll and knowing how little effect that appears to have in everyday society and politics, that does make one wonder.