Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
Religious survey reveals Americans’ attitudes about God, churches


By TERRY LEE GOODRICH
tgoodrich@star-telegram.com

Megachurches may be big, but they are not impersonal.
Books by atheists may be bestsellers, but the "godless" population in American is not on the rise.

And despite some stereotypes that America is out of touch with God, nearly half of Americans report having at least two religious or mystical encounters.

Those are three of the newest findings from the Baylor Religion Survey, according to researchers with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in Waco. The results were released today at a news briefing in Washington D.C.

The findings were compiled from questionnaires mailed by the Gallup Organization in fall 2007. They represent 1,648 English-speaking American adults age 18 and older, Baylor researchers said.

Baylor surveys started in 2005 and will be conducted every two years through 2018.

The researchers’ analysis of responses to more than 350 items turned up surprises, they said. Among them:

-- Megachurches — those with congregations of more than 1,000 — are more intimate than congregations with less than 100 members.

"To people on the outside looking in, that might seem totally ridiculous," said Byron Johnson, Baylor sociology professor and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion, in a phone interview with the Star-Telegram. "But these people at megachurches are going out of their way to counter the stereotype that they’re not friendly."

While churchgoers in a huge congregation may not know those they are rubbing shoulders with in a pew on Sunday, they tend to gather during the week in smaller groups with members who have similar interests or needs.

They also are more likely to invite friends to church, witness to strangers, tithe and attend Bible studies, the survey showed.

"People get to know each other in very close ways," Johnson said. "Not only do they establish relationships, but the facades come down. They can share their imperfections and struggles, and people are checking in on you and praying for you ... .

"Many have single parents’ groups on how to handle finances, on English as a second language. Here’s the church saying, 'We care about this part of your life. ... We aren’t here to condemn, but to help.’ "

-- While 11 percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation, the Baylor survey showed that a majority who claim they are not religious are not atheists — and they do pray.

"When people say, 'I have no religion,’ what they mean is 'I have no church,’ " said Rodney Stark, co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion and a distinguished professor of the social sciences at Baylor.

During the past six decades, polls show the percentage of atheists has stayed at about 4 percent of Americans. But books by atheists — such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion — became bestsellers in 2006 and 2007 because atheists number more than 12 million people, a majority of them potential book buyers, according to Baylor’s analysis.nTwo-thirds of respondents report having had at least one religious or mystical experience; 45 percent report having had two or more.

"We have a very, very large number of people who have heard God’s voice or think there is a guardian angel," Stark said.

Conservative Protestants are more likely than liberal Protestants, Catholics or Jews to report religious or mystical experiences, such as feeling called by God, witnessing or receiving a miraculous physical healing and speaking or praying in tongues.

But such experiences occur with considerable frequency in nearly all religious groups. The survey also showed that women, African-Americans and Republicans are more likely to have such experiences.

-- Despite some social scientists’ perceptions, Bible believers are not superstitious or easily convinced, researchers say.

Traditional Christian religion decreases belief in such things as UFOs, haunted houses and astrology, while education has relatively little effect on such beliefs, the study showed.

"One of the things I think is very interesting is the notion that religious believers are a bunch of gullible people that buy into any kind of nonstandard belief," Stark said. "But the less active you are in your church, the more likely you are to believe in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster."

-- 82 percent of those surveyed said they were "absolutely sure" or "pretty sure" that heaven exists.

And 46 percent are at least "quite certain" they will go to heaven, while another 20 percent are "somewhat certain."

Few Americans think heaven is very exclusive.

"People aren’t as exclusionary as they were 30 or 40 years ago," Stark said. "Now they’re more likely to say 'I don’t know.’ "

Certainty that heaven exists is highest in the South — 76 percent — and lowest in the East, with 50 percent.

The Rev. Ken Diehm of First United Methodist Church in Grapevine, which has about 2,500 members, said he was not surprised by the findings about megachurches, noting they generally have enough staff and financial resources to focus on a variety of ministries.

Neither was he startled by the high percentage of people reporting religious or mystical life-changing experiences, he said.

"I believe that God created us to be spiritual beings and live in relationship with God," Diehm said. "The idea that most people have encountered God is very understandable. It makes sense."

This is the stark truth: A Christian bible believer’s worldview might include Creation, The Fall (Original Sin), the Trinity (though the good book is somewhat mum regarding that theological construct), the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection (or the requirement of human blood sacrifice - or the blood sacrifice of a god itself - as atonement in the first place). Oh, let’s not forget about Heaven or…gulp…Hell. It is truly encouraging that bible believers are not superstitious or easily convinced, as the researchers say. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster indeed, how preposterous!

After slavery, the biggest single flaw in this country's historical development has been a Puritanical Christianity. And just as slavery did not die but merely morphed into ongoing racism and economic and social discrimination, Puritanism too just evolved (eek!) into the kind of superstitious background brainwashing described above.

Once you can step outside that frame of mind, you see what a weird place this country really is. No wonder people from other countries sometimes shake their heads at our behavior...

First, I would be interested to see how they came up with the 1,648 people they chose and also how many of these questionnaires were mailed as opposed to how many were returned. Second, was this poll only conducted in Waco (commonly known in much of Texas as Whacko). I would be willing to bet that they sent out considerably more questionnaires than they got back and then did they go through them to sort them to show the statistics they wanted them to.

You shouldn't pay any attention to anything coming out of Baylor, or anything in Whacko Texas for that matter.

They have taken polls and "interpreted" them.

One terrific example is:

"Traditional Christian religion decreases belief in such things as UFOs, haunted houses and astrology, while education has relatively little effect on such beliefs, the study showed. "

and it increases belief in demons, angels, exorcism and the Virgin Mary appearing in guacamole.

This, to them, is evidence that chistians are LESS superstitious :)

If you want reliable polling information about religion in America, the Pew foundadtion is an honest broker, and even the Barna group has much higer standards than Baylor.

Level of education decreases belief in traditional Christianity.

Thank you NightSwimmer for that "swim by" posting. I beg to differ on "traditional" but only semantically and so very slightly. I would use the word “fundamentalist” and apply it equally to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Who could doubt them?

I hear the Institute for Italian Bakers has recently come up with a study saying people like pizza.

Sorry that I don't always have adequate time to dedicate to this forum. "Traditional" was the word used by the Harris Poll. It is not a word of my choosing.