This was posted to sechum-l...  Enjoy.

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Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 11:15:20 -0400
From: RSRMadison@aol.com
To: sechum-l@atheist.tamu.edu
Subject: More Data on Religion
Message-ID: <960814111519_178742615@emout08.mail.aol.com>

>From Richard S. Russell (RSRMadison@aol.com), Atheists and Agnostics of
Wisconsin:

A couple of days ago I posted a newspaper article featuring data from one
George Barna, founder and president of Barna Research Group of Oxnard, CA.
Today's paper contained 2 more articles in the same vein, 1 about Barna
and a
2nd containing more data from his polls.

Not surprisingly, Barna is a dedicated Xian (a former Catholic who got fed up
with having to unquestioningly follow the rules), and he specializes in
surveys dealing with religious belief, but he avers that he doesn't allow his
beliefs to bias his polls. "My goal is to hold a mirror up to the culture and
present as accurate a picture as possible. If I find something in my research
that is not going to give glory to God, that means we have to change some of
the ways we do things." He certainly doesn't seem to pull his punches when he
publicizes facts that most Xians would probably rather not hear about, such
as the declining percent of Americans who read their Bibles regularly.
(Personally, as an atheist, I wish people would read the Bible lots MORE than
they do.)

Here are some additional tidbits of information about religious beliefs and
practices in America of 1996, taken from these 2 articles (the bio by Maja
Beckstrom, the data unattributed, both from Scripps Howard News Service):

* About 42% of adults attend church in a given week.
* About 20% of adults had attended Sunday school [unclear if this was also in
a given week or "ever"].
* Born-again Xians are slightly more likely to divorce (27%) than the general
population (23%).
* Nearly 3 out of 5 teens say they have cheated on a test. [And, based on
what I see on our streets and highways, I know WHICH test, too!]
* America's much heralded Xian revival is a myth. Barna: "There is a lot of
evidence of increased interest in religion. But there is really no evidence
of increased interest in Xianity.... People are picking and choosing
perspectives and theologies from all the different faiths which they're
exposed to. Then they're putting this together in a hodgepodge theology and
calling in Xianity. But it isn't what we'd recognize as a Biblical Xianity."
He says that 70-80% of church growth is attributable to people who are
already Xians moving to new churches.
* Evangelicals don't live much differently from other Americans when it comes
to ethical and life-style choices.
* Nearly 9 out of 10 divorced Xians saw their marriages break up after their
born-again experiences. [Careful here. It does NOT say that 9 out of 10
born-agains get divorced shortly thereafter.]
* 4 out of 5 teens want 1 marriage partner for life.
* 95% of Americans believe in a God, higher power, or universal spirit.
* 2 out of 3 adults embrace the definition of an "all-powerful, all-knowing
creator of the universe who still rules it today".
* 7% of adults say they have spoken in tongues. [booga booga -- make that 8%]
* 4 out of 5 adults want Protestants and Catholics to "put aside their
differences, focus on the things they have in common, and work together
whenever possible" [like rounding up all those filthy atheists and shipping
them off to concentration camps, I bet]. However, the remaining 20% contains
4% who think that "... the differences are so significant between them that
they have little in common and are competing with each other." [slightly
higher in Ireland].
* 4 out of 10 Americans listed a money problem as 1 of their major worries in
life. 1 out of 6 listed job concerns. Other top anxieties: health, time,
stress, parenting, education, relationships, crime.
* 3 in 5 adults gave money to a church in the past year.
* 45% of adults believe they have a responsibility to describe their
religious beliefs to those with a different set of beliefs. 3 in 10 actually
did so last year. [Wouldn't it be great if we could aim them all at each
other?]
* 3 in 4 believe there is no such thing as absolute truth. [something to
build on]
* 49% of born-again teens say they have volunteered to help needy people
compared to 44% of non-born-again teens. [Yeah, but by "help" do they include
proselytizing?]
* 58% of Americans cannot name half of the 10 Commandments. [Let's see, um,
there's the Pyramids, Sneezy, Dopey, Lust, Pride, Envy, Sloth, Defense,
Commerce, the Empire State Building, and, uh, oh yeah, Madonna. How's THAT?]
* A majority of people who make decisions to become Xians have dropped out of
church participation within 6-8 weeks. [This comports with other figures I
have seen to the effect that upwards of 80% of people who come forward to be
saved at revival meetings have already done so at least once previously in
their lives.]

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THOUGHTfully Yours,
Clark D. Adams     -=Internet Infidel=-    Moderator, alt.atheism.moderated
Ocean Springs, Mississippi, USA       YY 2B GGGGSUS      List Owner, FFRF-L
clark.adams@southwind.com                          cdadams@atheist.tamu.edu
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