History of religion in...90 seconds!

Oh, my.

Perspectives on various faiths

From the Pastor's Weekly Briefing (H.B. London)

Most Americans will say they know little or nothing about the practices of Islam and Mormonism even though they both have gained increasing national visibility in recent years.

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center reveals the ways that Americans view these faiths and their followers. Forty-one percent say they know a great deal about the Muslim religion with 58 percent saying they do not know very much or next to nothing. Forty-nine percent say they know a great deal about Mormonism with 51 percent saying they don't know very much about this religion.

The following percentages show how the 3,002 adults polled viewed different religious groups:

• Jews: 76 percent favorable; nine percent unfavorable; with 15 percent having no opinion.
• Catholics: 76 percent favorable; 14 percent unfavorable; with 10 percent having no opinion.
• Evangelical Christians: 60 percent favorable; 19 percent unfavorable; with 21 percent having no opinion.
• Mormons: 53 percent favorable; 27 percent unfavorable; with 20 percent having no opinion.
• Muslim Americans: 53 percent favorable; 29 percent unfavorable; with 18 percent having no opinion.
• Muslims: 43 percent favorable; 35 percent unfavorable; with 22 percent having no opinion.
• Atheists: 35 percent favorable; 53 percent unfavorable; with 12 percent having no opinion.

Most Americans believe that their own religion has little in common with either Islam or Mormonism. Sixty-two percent say the Mormon religion is very different from their own, while 70 percent say Islam is very different.

The most frequently used negative word to describe Islam was "fanatic," with "radical" and "terror" often mentioned. The most positive word was "devout." For Mormonism, the most commonly used negative word used to describe it was "polygamy," even though they banned polygamy almost a century ago. The most positive word was "family."

The "religious" are more happy

Here.

How do religious Americans compare to the secular when it comes to happiness? In 2004, the General Social Survey asked a sample of Americans, "Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?" Religious people were more than twice as likely as the secular to say they were "very happy" (43% to 21%). Meanwhile, secular people were nearly three times as likely as the religious to say they were not too happy (21% to 8%). In the same survey, religious people were more than a third more likely than the secular to say they were optimistic about the future (34% to 24%).

The benefits of religion

Medved is a Jew, but argues a couple of simple points even the skeptic would have to agree with...if he was actually trying to be fair.

Americans - more religious than we realized?

There are many ways to discern how religious America is. While I don't think that it is "morning in America" it is always interesting to get a perspective that seems to go against the notion that we are getting more secularized by the minute. This from the WashPost.

A survey released yesterday posits the idea that the United States -- already one of the most religious nations in the developed world -- may be even less secular than previously suspected.

The Baylor University survey looked carefully at people who checked "none" when asked their religion in polls. Sociologists have watched this group closely since 1990, when their numbers doubled, from 7 percent of the population to 14 percent. Some sociologists said the jump reflects increasing secularization at the same time that American society is becoming more religious.

But the Baylor survey, considered one of the most detailed ever conducted about religion in the United States, found that one in 10 people who picked "no religion" out of 40 choices did something interesting when asked later where they worship: They named a place.

Considering that, Baylor researchers say, the percentage of people who are truly unaffiliated is more like 10.8 percent. The difference between 10.8 percent and 14 percent is about 10 million Americans.

"People might not have a denomination, but they have a congregation. They have a sense of religious connection that is formative to who they are," said Kevin D. Dougherty, a sociologist at Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion and one of the survey's authors. Baylor is a leading Baptist university, located in Waco, Tex.