OT: Poll: Religious Devotion High in U.S.

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

Maybe this will bore some of you but as a professional people watcher I

find this to be a tad surprising and very interesting because it offers

explanations for some of the questions I (who has spent half his life

outside the USA) have had on attitudes in Europe .. Turkey .. the USA ..

and some other countries. The attitudes I speak of are not necessarily

religious in nature .. more often they are social and political.

 

Matters not (methinks) what you and I (members of this list) think about

this issue .. but I believe it might be important to see why others may

believe as they do .. because it matters to us .. on both a national and

an international basis .. the decisions that are made in the U.S.A., in

Europe and the rest of the world will be influenced by these attitudes.

 

The following statement explains (at least to me) a good bit about how

certain attitudes are developed .. attitudes that I have seen in some of

my own children, " Some say rejecting religion is a natural response to

modernization *** " Meaning (methinks) .. if you hold on to religious

beliefs you are not with the program. Meaning (methinks) if you want to

be one of the enlightened ones .. you must reject the old beliefs and

grab on to the new. A possible problem resulting from that might be

the direction society has turned regarding drugs and violent crime.

 

Was a time here in Turkey that crimes against persons and property were

so rare that they made headline news .. and even today we probably have

less violent crime in the entire country than a single major city in the

USA or Europe has in one year. But the change I am seeing is (methinks)

due to changing attitudes toward religious beliefs .. the educated young

folks are slowly turning away from traditional values and trying their

best to be considered as a part of the new enlightened group .. those

who embrace modernity (whatever that is).

 

Finally .. over the years I've come to believe that maybe religious

beliefs are a bit like air and sex .. only important when you need them

and don't have any. In my years in combat I rarely found a soldier who

was willing to say they were an atheist .. or even an agnostic. ;-)

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

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Poll: Religious Devotion High in U.S.

06/06/05 03:00

 

Religious devotion sets the United States apart from some of its closest

allies. Americans profess unquestioning belief in God and are far more

willing to mix faith and politics than people in other countries,

AP-Ipsos polling found.

 

In Western Europe, where Pope Benedict XVI complains that growing

secularism has left churches unfilled on Sundays, people are the least

devout among the 10 countries surveyed for The Associated Press by Ipsos.

 

Only Mexicans come close to Americans in embracing faith, the poll

found. But unlike Americans, Mexicans strongly object to clergy lobbying

lawmakers, in line with the nation's historical opposition to church

influence.

 

" In the United States, you have an abundance of religions trying to

motivate Americans to greater involvement, " said Roger Finke, a

sociologist at Penn State University. " It's one thing that makes a

tremendous difference here. "

 

The polling was conducted in May in the United States, Australia,

Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.

 

Nearly all U.S. respondents said faith is important to them and only 2

percent said they do not believe in God. Almost 40 percent said

religious leaders should try to sway policymakers, notably higher than

in other countries.

 

" Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian policies and religious

leaders have an obligation to speak out on public policy, otherwise

they're wimps, " said David Black, a retiree from Osborne, Pa., who

agreed to be interviewed after he was polled.

 

In contrast, 85 percent of French object to clergy activism - the

strongest opposition of any nation surveyed. France has strict curbs on

public religious expression and, according to the poll, 19 percent are

atheists. South Korea is the only other nation with that high a

percentage of nonbelievers.

 

Australians are generally split over the importance of faith, while

two-thirds of South Koreans and Canadians said religion is central to

their lives. People in all three countries strongly oppose mixing

religion and politics.

 

Researchers disagree over why people in the United States have such a

different religious outlook, said Brent Nelsen, an expert in politics

and religion at Furman University in South Carolina.

 

Some say rejecting religion is a natural response to modernization and

consider the United States a strange exception to the trend. Others say

Europe is the anomaly; people in modernized countries inevitably return

to religion because they yearn for tradition, according to the theory.

 

Some analysts, like Finke, use a business model. According to his

theory, a long history of religious freedom in the United States created

a greater supply of worship options than in other countries, and that

proliferation inspired wider observance. Some European countries still

subsidize churches, in effect regulating or limiting religious options,

Finke said.

 

History also could be a factor.

 

Many countries other than the United States have been through bloody

religious conflict that contributes to their suspicion of giving clergy

any say in policy.

 

A variety of factors contribute to the sentiment about separating

religion and politics.

 

" In Germany, they have a Christian Democratic Party, and they talk about

Christian values, but they don't talk about them in quite the same way

that we do, " Nelsen said. " For them, the Christian part of the Christian

values are held privately and it's not that acceptable to bring those

out into the open. "

 

In Spain, where the government subsidizes the Catholic Church, and in

Germany, which is split between Catholics and Protestants, people are

about evenly divided over whether they consider faith important. The

results are almost identical in Britain, whose state church, the Church

of England, is struggling to fill pews.

 

Italians are the only European exception in the poll. Eighty percent

said religion is significant to them and just over half said they

unquestioningly believe in God.

 

But even in Italy, home to the Catholic Church, resistance to religious

engagement in politics is evident. Only three in 10 think the clergy

should try to influence government decisions; a lower percentage in

Spain, Germany and England said the same.

 

Within the United States, some of the most pressing policy issues

involve complex moral questions - such as gay marriage, abortion and

stem cell research - that understandably draw religious leaders into

public debate, said John Green, an expert on religion and politics at

the University of Akron.

 

The poll found Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to think

clergy should try to influence government decisions - a sign of the

challenges ahead for Democrats as they attempt to reach out to more

religious voters.

 

" Rightly or wrongly, Republicans tend to perceive religion as,

quote-unquote, 'on their side, " ' Green said.

 

The survey did find trends in belief that transcend national boundaries.

Women tend to be more devout than men, and older people have stronger

faith than younger people.

 

The Associated Press-Ipsos polls of about 1,000 adults in each of the 10

countries were taken May 12-26. Each has a margin of sampling error of

plus or minus 3 percentage points.

 

On the Net:

 

Poll results are available at:

 

http://wid.ap.org/polls/050606religion.html

 

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved.