How religious is America?

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by moustafa
notyoueither,

I learned it from statistics based articles. I can't cite right now, but it clearly showed that African-Americans and Hispanics are much more religious than American Whites, except for the Southern part where the distribution is equal. I learned it last semester while writing a socioeconomic article. You can probably find the article in Google (Scholar).

There's lies, damed lies, and then there's statistics.

I can't speak for the South, but the NE, MW and West Coast tend to be quite a bit like where I am.

Religion is important to a lot of people, but most of those would be very quiet about it.

[notyoueither]

Overtly religious displays freak people out.

Not only do you have nonreligious people, but you have people of different sects and then others of radically different beliefs.

The wisest course, given the terrain, is to keep your God in your heart, home, and place of worship. That is what most people do.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Elok
Actually, there were several state religions in the colonial days. Virginia, for example, was strictly Anglican for some time. And of course the Pilgrims started a Puritan theocracy, not a secular state, at Plymouth Rock.

Canada sort of still has a state religion. The Queen is the head of the Anglican Church, and she is our head of state.

However, as a major part of our history was dealing with minorities a lot of accomodation had to be made and the importance of the Anglican angle was pushed more and more into the background.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Why is non-religious separate from atheism or agnostism?

Non-religious - Have no thoughts on the subject.
Atheist - Do not believe in God.
Agnostics - Believe God's existance is unknowable (and some strive to increase their knowledge).

There are fine, yet important, distinctions between the three.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


1818 actually, and you are correct. Connecticut adhered to their original charter, which had the Congregational church as state religion until the Constitution of 1818.

Ah right 1818. Sounds like an interesting subject, know any good articles/books on the last few decades of established religion in America?

[moustafa]

I have the same question.

[Arrian]

Non-religious - Have no thoughts on the subject.
Atheist - Do not believe in God.
Agnostics - Believe God's existance is unknowable (and some strive to increase their knowledge).

There are fine, yet important, distinctions between the three.

Non-religious could also mean non-practising. Someone who still identifies with the group, but doesn't go to services, doesn't realy follow the dogma, etc. There are lots of folks like that.

...

Overall, the country is quite religious. Once you get past the generalizations, however, there is quite a bit of variety. It's a big country. Around here (the aforementioned Connecticut), everyday life is pretty secular. I grew up in a very secular household (nominally protestant Christian, but actually nobody believed a word of it). We never said Grace at dinner. We went to Church once per year (Christmas Eve, for the singing), and after a while not at all. We obviously were not typical, but neither were we total misfits (well, at least not for THAT reason ).

-Arrian

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Yea, the people in my school said that Catholics didn't believe in Jesus, they just worshiped the Virgin Mary and the Pope. Oh, and were canibals.

where I want to elementary school, if you worshipped Jesus, that meant you WERE a Catlick, since everyone was either a Catlick, or a Jew. (These of course were not really pious Catholics, as those went to the Holy Ghost School. On recent visit to the neighborhood I note the parish has been renamed Holy Spirit. To me it will always be Holy Ghost) Except for the black kids who were bussed in, but they didnt talk about religion much. Once a new girl was asked if she was Jewish or Catlick. She answered that she was Christian (in fact she was Lutheran, IIRC) This elicited puzzlement, until someone explained that "that meant she was Catlick"

[Ben Kenobi]

That's the first I've heard of such a thing. Sounds extremely dubious. Like an old wive's tale.

The prayer before meals that I was taught was...

"Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from they bouty, through Christ our Lord, amen."

I'm guessing that this or similar has been the prayer for RCs since time immemorial.

I think this is confusion over the authority of the magisterium. Yes, the priests are the only ones who offer the sacrifice of the mass, but they are certainly not the only ones who can pray to God. All of us can pray whenever we want, however we want.

[Ben Kenobi]

In fact the only times I remember hearing a Sermon about going to Hell and a lake of fire and all that stuff was when I went with a friend to his Baptist church, and just a few weeks ago from my church's new Decon who recently converted to Catholicism after spending his life as... a Protestant.

I wouldn't be surprized at all if in majority Catholic countries than the fire & brimstone folks are the Catholics, and the Protestants are groovy, liberal types.

If we went by that measure, Canadian Catholics would be the conservatives and Canadian Protestants would be liberals. I have heard some fire and brimstone homilies, but far more in protestant churches then Catholics. It has more to do with the structure of the mass, then with the actual proclivities of the parishes.

[Ben Kenobi]

Canada sort of still has a state religion. The Queen is the head of the Anglican Church, and she is our head of state.

However, as a major part of our history was dealing with minorities a lot of accomodation had to be made and the importance of the Anglican angle was pushed more and more into the background

Actually, I would argue that Canada has never had a state church. When they passed the Quebec act, they had official recognition of the Catholic church in Quebec, though no official recognition outside Quebec. Canada inherited this situation during Confederation, and this was one of the requirements. There would have been no Confederation without the support of the Catholic church, since MacDonald needed Quebec.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


I think this is confusion over the authority of the magisterium. Yes, the priests are the only ones who offer the sacrifice of the mass, but they are certainly not the only ones who can pray to God. All of us can pray whenever we want, however we want.

QFT



Oh, as for me, I never pray. Yet I'm still a Christian as I still believe in Jesus Christ's divinity.

[MrFun]

GAH!!!!!


I posted the prayer answer in the wrong thread!! God will surely smite me for this.

[Japher]

Yeah, just for this... of all the things he could smite you for he's going to chose this.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by DanS


"Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from they bouty, through Christ our Lord, amen."

Hmmm I got

"Bless us oh lord and these thy gifts which you in your goodness have given us, through christ our Lord Amen."

There are some other slight variations I know of but pretty much the same.