The distinction between "a personal god" and "a higher spirit" is critical. Operationally, there's very little difference between an agnostic and someone who believes "there's surely something out there" but who draws no further conclusions
If conservatives are so much more certain of God's existence, why aren't they "better at acting like it," i.e. more loving, gracious, pure, giving, gentle? There seems to be a gap between "mental assent" and "having familiarity with his nature," at least as it is represented in the Bible.
If available, I’d be curious to see this both by 1) religious affiliation and 2) level of religious attendance.
An interactive dashboard that allowed for filtering and slicing various dimensions would also be cool, or if you could send the data file referenced in the code, I’d be interested in digging into that more
"The General Social Survey" has questions about a respondent’s view of God and the Bible, and the "Pew Religious Landscape Survey .. first asks, “Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?”
Is it accurate to conclude that the Reference for the Pew survey is the "God" of the Bible? (I assume the "Universal Spirit" could be anything other than the God of the Bible?
Given the finding that "80% of Americans agree that God or a universal spirit exists," that is good news for my work. My challenge is to introduce why reducing variation from the ideal is our common ground.
So let me ask a possibly dumb question: Why aren't more people attracted to mainline churches? They seem tailor-made for people who express uncertainty but retain a hopeful optimism about God's existence, but there is still some major disconnect, and I feel it often. It seems like people *should be* more attracted to the mainline than they are, so what are we doing wrong here? Is it that the anti-establishment tide is stronger than the hopeful uncertainty?
Just an opinion, but I think it's because they've gotten so far away from the Bible. They became more worldly to appeal to the world until they appealed to hardly anyone.
"I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. ... 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." (Col. 2:4, 8)
Just an opinion, you are off base. As someone who has recently returned to a mainline church after decades in the non-denom wasteland, the younger people we have coming in are looking for an inclusive and justice-oriented church. You can be both and biblically oriented.
This is another one of those posts that makes me wish for more up-to-date/robust statistics on Canadian religion. Anecdotally, this lines up with what I see where I live, except the lack of certainty would be even higher here. Thanks for the analysis!
Amazing! Very much looking forward to it! Is it drawing on the 2025 Canadian Election Study? I've been planning on seeing what I can parse from it now that it's finally out.
I saw a different post that indicated something like 75% of African Americans were in the absolutely certain category that God does exist and they cited Pew. Is that correct and does that make them an outlier from the rest of the population?
I am addicted to your analysis. Exceptionally thoughtful and useful.
Me too
The distinction between "a personal god" and "a higher spirit" is critical. Operationally, there's very little difference between an agnostic and someone who believes "there's surely something out there" but who draws no further conclusions
In the Australian data, the population divides almost evenly into three groups: A personal god, a higher spirit, and no God/spirit. https://www.ncls.org.au/articles/is-there-a-god-or-higher-power/
If conservatives are so much more certain of God's existence, why aren't they "better at acting like it," i.e. more loving, gracious, pure, giving, gentle? There seems to be a gap between "mental assent" and "having familiarity with his nature," at least as it is represented in the Bible.
"Barely half of atheists are certain that God doesn't exist" is a fascinating takeaway.
This was interesting!
If available, I’d be curious to see this both by 1) religious affiliation and 2) level of religious attendance.
An interactive dashboard that allowed for filtering and slicing various dimensions would also be cool, or if you could send the data file referenced in the code, I’d be interested in digging into that more
Ryan, another great post.
"The General Social Survey" has questions about a respondent’s view of God and the Bible, and the "Pew Religious Landscape Survey .. first asks, “Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?”
Is it accurate to conclude that the Reference for the Pew survey is the "God" of the Bible? (I assume the "Universal Spirit" could be anything other than the God of the Bible?
Given the finding that "80% of Americans agree that God or a universal spirit exists," that is good news for my work. My challenge is to introduce why reducing variation from the ideal is our common ground.
American Society for Quality: What is the law of variation? https://asq.org/quality-resources/variation
I don't have an answer for that, Tim. The question text was copied verbatim from the codebook. Surveys rarely provide additional context.
Thank you. The information from the survey leads to another step ....
https://timjclark.substack.com/p/what-is-the-ideal-we-are-trying-to
There is some small comfort in these findings today.
So let me ask a possibly dumb question: Why aren't more people attracted to mainline churches? They seem tailor-made for people who express uncertainty but retain a hopeful optimism about God's existence, but there is still some major disconnect, and I feel it often. It seems like people *should be* more attracted to the mainline than they are, so what are we doing wrong here? Is it that the anti-establishment tide is stronger than the hopeful uncertainty?
Just an opinion, but I think it's because they've gotten so far away from the Bible. They became more worldly to appeal to the world until they appealed to hardly anyone.
"I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. ... 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." (Col. 2:4, 8)
Just an opinion, you are off base. As someone who has recently returned to a mainline church after decades in the non-denom wasteland, the younger people we have coming in are looking for an inclusive and justice-oriented church. You can be both and biblically oriented.
This is another one of those posts that makes me wish for more up-to-date/robust statistics on Canadian religion. Anecdotally, this lines up with what I see where I live, except the lack of certainty would be even higher here. Thanks for the analysis!
I've got one on Canadian religion in the queue! October 12th.
Amazing! Very much looking forward to it! Is it drawing on the 2025 Canadian Election Study? I've been planning on seeing what I can parse from it now that it's finally out.
I saw a different post that indicated something like 75% of African Americans were in the absolutely certain category that God does exist and they cited Pew. Is that correct and does that make them an outlier from the rest of the population?