Second time today I have been able to use this one...
Posted on 11/02/2003 12:16:10 PM PST by mrs9x
Guess Who Doesn't Believe In God?
Ten percent of Protestants, 21 percent of Roman Catholics, and 52 percent of Jews do NOT believe in God.
That's the surprising word from a new survey by Harris Interactive of 2,306 adults that shows belief in God varies quite widely among different segments of the American public. How often do we go to a place of worship? Not much. Most people attend a religious service less than once a month. Still, Americans are far more likely to believe in God and to attend religious services than people in most other developed countries, particularly in Europe.
Who believes in God?
While 79 percent of Americans believe there is a God, only 66 percent are absolutely certain of it. Nine percent do not believe in God and 12 percent aren't sure. And weirdly, not everyone who calls himself or herself a Christian or a Jew actually believes in God.
Who worships at a religious service?
Just over half (55 percent) attend a religious service a few times a year or more. Thirty-six percent attend once a month or more often, and just 26 percent say they attend every week. Forty-one percent of women and 31 percent of men attend once a month or more. Protestants (47 percent) are more likely to go to church once a month or more often than are Roman Catholics (35 percent). Jews are least likely to go with 16 percent saying they go to synagogue once a month or more. Church attendance is highest in the Midwest and lowest in the West.
Belief in God by geography and age
Eighty-two percent of Midwesterners and Southerners believe in God, compared with 75 percent in the East and West. Our beliefs get stronger as we age. Of those 25 to 29 years old, 71 percent believe in God. That number jumps to 80 percent for people over 40, and hits 83 percent for those 65 and over.
Other fascinating facts about who believes in God:
84 percent of women believe in God, compared with 73 percent of men.
91 percent of African Americans believe in God, compared with 81 percent of Hispanics and 78 percent of whites.
87 percent of Republicans believe in God, compared with 78 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Independents.
82 percent of those with no college education believe in God, compared with 73 percent who went to college.
* Conversion is a big mishmash in the Jewish religion because there are three kinds of conversions: Reform (which sometimes seem to happen almost instantaneously), Conservative (where you must study for 6 months and learn Hebrew), and Orthodoxy, which involves more study and for which you have to have nothing in your life to keep you from theoretically observing all 613 commandments or the ones that apply to you. And not every kind of conversion is acceptable to other Jews; only Orthodox conversions are accepted by Orthodox, for example.
If it were legal and cheap, I'd probably say to bury me up in the mountains with no marker. My philosophy is, if you didn't do enough to be remembered in life, why advertise your death?
All the same, I've visited my mother's small gravestone and it has never failed to make me cry. Some things about human emotion, we may never understand.
Stupid survey.
Is it possible that some follow the teachings of Christ without believing he was the son of God? There may be many people who call themselves Christians who think this way. Who am I to say they are not Christians?
Who is better? One who follows, in general, the wisdom of the Bible, yet does not believe in God, or one who believes in God and proceeds to do all manner of evil things?
If "one doesn't believe in God" then why would "one [want to] still be going to heaven?"
The Kingdom of Heaven is where the Kingom of God is located.
Simply put: I don't know anyone who goes to permanently live with someone they don't know...a stranger that is.
Bottom line: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Therefore the opposite must be true: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God does not have prepared for those who do not believe in Him".
Most of my life I thought I was a Christian. I 'knew about' God..but I didn't 'know' God. Praise the Lord that now I am a Christian.
Hope you feel better.
Thank you. I'm just trying to take it easy and keep hydrated.
Second time today I have been able to use this one...
A personal decision? Yes.
But private? Nah. If somebody wishes to publicly profess their faith, I've no problem with that. It's their right to do so.
Somehow it all sounds quite reasonable, although sorting out doctrines of belief have always come easier to me than legal doctrines. I was referring to the Law of Return (from what I could get in "Jewish Civilization", Chartwell Books 1997) but legal doctrines have to first please the electorate. Making sense is nice too of course, but not mandatory.
Nothing good has come from the human tendency to shove one's beliefs in the face of others. It is one thing to state one's beliefs and explain how you came to hold them; quite another to cajole, and coerce others into holding those same beliefs.
For some reason I'm reminded of that bumper sticker: "You closer, me slower." In this case "You pushier, me stubborner." You can't lead someone somewhere he does not wish to go. You can only suggest a path that might lead him there, should he choose to go.
Not very many on the "science" threads...
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