Comments on: Who is Secular in the World Today?

By: domajot

domajot — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 08:49:00 +0000

A lot of people that I know belong to a church, not because they are serious about each and every church teaching, but because they wish to belong to a community that stresses spirituality. The material world can seem like a cold and empty place.

It’s also a help in child rearing to have the preacher back up what mon and dad are saying about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

In cases like mine, when many generations of our family have been of the same faith, attending church and observing the rites is as much about honoring and enjoying family traditions as it is about deep felt beliefs.

I can see that the questions in a questionnaire would mean different things to different people.

By: Iconic Midwest

Iconic Midwest — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 23:40:45 +0000

I just find it intersting that, according to the map, less than 20% of the folks living in lake Michigan are religious. If I was living in the lake this winter I'd sure be praying for divine intervention.

By: Michael van der Galien

Michael van der Galien — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:59:51 +0000

Very good point Lynx.

By: Lynx

Lynx — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:52:55 +0000

Kind of interesting to see Colorado a black state in a sea of gray and white. I’m currently reading “the God delusion”, a book that states that many Atheists are “closet” atheists because of all the negative feelings that are mounted upon the term. That is, they may not have faith, but they refuse to call themselves “atheists” because it’s a dirty word. And it is a dirty word. Let’s assume that there are millions of atheists in the US, not a crazy thing to think. I’ll bet you they outnumber Jews. And yet Jews have elected representatives, Jews are elected in places where much of the electorate isn’t even Jewish. How many openly non-religious representatives or senators do we have? (hint: none).

Even a persons stated religious faith is not necessarily indicative of being a practicing religious person. Spain for instance is considered 80% catholic, and yet 60% approve of gay marriage, an even greater percentage support keeping abortion legal and the vast majority of young people have no plans to stay virgins until marriage if they can help it. A very common thing I hear from other young people is “I believe in God, but not in the Church” this basically translates to “I believe in God, but have no plans on following the traditional rules”. They are more theists than Catholics, but if you ask them, they’ll probably say their Catholic.

By: Alan G

Alan G — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:34:25 +0000

It seems from the map that the West is the most secular part of the country. I wonder if that correlates with the more libertarian character of the western states.