Pew US Religious Landscape Survey

[Torie]

Thanks for this, Torie.  It's very useful.

I would be curious to discover what Pew does with historic peace churches.  The Amish, old order Mennonite, Evangelical Mennonite, United Brethren, Church of the Brethren, Quakers and Evangelical Friends Church come to mind.

I suspect they are broken up -- the Evangelical Mennonite and Evangelical Friends with the Evangelicals...and the rest with mainline Protestants?

And Unitarian Universalists?  Are they in the "other" category?

You can look it all up JS here starting on page 169. Oh, there is a nice summary page of everybody on page 217. Quakers are Mainline, Mennonites are Evangelical. Some groups like Baptists are split up, depending on the sub-brand. Unitarians are under "other."

[JSojourner]

Thanks for this, Torie.  It's very useful.

I would be curious to discover what Pew does with historic peace churches.  The Amish, old order Mennonite, Evangelical Mennonite, United Brethren, Church of the Brethren, Quakers and Evangelical Friends Church come to mind.

I suspect they are broken up -- the Evangelical Mennonite and Evangelical Friends with the Evangelicals...and the rest with mainline Protestants?

And Unitarian Universalists?  Are they in the "other" category?

You can look it all up JS here starting on page 169. Oh, there is a nice summary page of everybody on page 217. Quakers are Mainline, Mennonites are Evangelical. Some groups like Baptists are split up, depending on the sub-brand. Unitarians are under "other."

'Tanks!

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I decided to look at the map for unaffiliated. California is 21% unaffiliated. All in all, the map is not surprising. The deep South is the most religious whereas the Far West & New England are the least religious.

     However, one detail caught my eye. There are four states that are 10% unaffiliated or less. These are Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, & South Carolina. These happen to be the exact states that voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948.

     Also, about Mississippi. I hate to make fun of the state, but I noticed that it's just 6% unaffiliated. Is atheism illegal there or something?

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Missisipi is kind of the least socioeconomically modern place in the United States.

[Third Party]

The lack of dogmatism in American religion may well reflect the great diversity of religious affiliation, beliefs and practices in the U.S. For example, while more than nine-in-ten Americans (92%) believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit, there is considerable variation in the nature and certainty of this belief. Six-in-ten adults believe that God is a person with whom people can have a relationship; but one-in-four – including about half of Jews and Hindus – see God as an impersonal force. And while roughly seven-in-ten Americans say they are absolutely certain of God’s existence, more than one-in-five (22%) are less certain in their belief.

This is a good example of how "Pew" interprets their results quite deceptively. "God" is a monotheistic deity, so the people who state that they believe in an "impersonal force" are not actually monotheists. "Impersonal force" sounds pretty pantheistic to me, like something out of Star Wars. Curiously, Pew also adds "Other/not sure" as "believing in God." "Not sure" = agnostic, so they should not be counted as "believing in God" either.

The real significance of this poll is that only 60% say they believe in a "Personal God" (i.e. the deity described in the Bible, Koran, Torah). Of course, the actual significance of the poll gets ignored by the media, which only mentions the 92% figure, which makes the US appear far more "Abrahamic" than it actually is. The data also means that many people might call themselves "Protestant" or "Catholic", but not really believe (or care) in much of what the religion is actually about.

[Alcon]

Third Party,

If only 5% of agnostics report "don't know," I imagine that means that they believe in a God, but don't know if it's personal or not, or think it's something else.

[Хahar 🤔]

Muslims seem to be confused.

[Verily]

Muaslims seem to be confused.

Jews even more so. But the terms "personal God" and "impersonal force" are so nebulous that I doubt someone not exposed to theology on a regular basis would know what to make of them anyway.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What strikes me as odd is that 75% of Buddhists apparently believe in a god of some sort. It perplexes me because I don't recall Buddhism making reference to any sort of god.

[Хahar 🤔]

     What strikes me as odd is that 75% of Buddhists apparently believe in a god of some sort. It perplexes me because I don't recall Buddhism making reference to any sort of god.

The line dividing Buddhism and other Eastern religions is very thin.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What strikes me as odd is that 75% of Buddhists apparently believe in a god of some sort. It perplexes me because I don't recall Buddhism making reference to any sort of god.

The line dividing Buddhism and other Eastern religions is very thin.

     Buddhism & Hinduism have existed in the same region of the world for 2,500 years now. It would only make sense for them to considerably influence each other.

[ilikeverin]

     What strikes me as odd is that 75% of Buddhists apparently believe in a god of some sort. It perplexes me because I don't recall Buddhism making reference to any sort of god.

The line dividing Buddhism and other Eastern religions is very thin.

     Buddhism & Hinduism have existed in the same region of the world for 2,500 years now. It would only make sense for them to considerably influence each other.

Not just "considerably influence"... Buddha probably considered himself something of a purifier of Hinduism and a good guide for personal living rather than someone making a whole new group.  It's not quite the Judiasm/Christianity(/Islam) relationship, but in some ways it comes close.

Not that Hinduism is particularly theistic, per se, as the numberless deities are only ways to approach the one, true, impersonal God.

Muaslims seem to be confused.

Jews even more so. But the terms "personal God" and "impersonal force" are so nebulous that I doubt someone not exposed to theology on a regular basis would know what to make of them anyway.

Exactly.  My conception of the term "personal God" is someone who comes down and randomly meddles with the lives of humans and/or does silly things like changing the weather because he feels like it or torturing nonbelievers.  "Impersonal force" is closer to my conception of God than that.  Jews, because they see Yahweh as profoundly non-meddling (basically, He took the Jews out of Israel and then said "Oy vey!" and left the Jews to be the Chosen People to model good behavior in the world), would probably also go with impersonal force.

[Sbane]

     What strikes me as odd is that 75% of Buddhists apparently believe in a god of some sort. It perplexes me because I don't recall Buddhism making reference to any sort of god.

The line dividing Buddhism and other Eastern religions is very thin.

     Buddhism & Hinduism have existed in the same region of the world for 2,500 years now. It would only make sense for them to considerably influence each other.

If only Buddhism had more influence on Hinduism and not the other way around. I think Buddhism is the only "religion" I could ever belong to. Even then I am too lazy/indifferent to even try.