We Jews have other survey sources that probe these questions in a more detailed way. The leading organization for doing this seems to be the Cohen Center at Brandeis University, which surveyed my community in 2022. https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/community-studies/delaware.html I was part of their random representative sample for that one. Filling out the questionnaire took a while. They basically concluded that we fall into four categories as Jews. About 40% are personally observant in some way and engaged with the community, about 20% have a DIY religion of personal practice but negligible community ties, 20% have communal attachment but no personal belief or practice, and 20% identify as Jewish culturally but largely opted out.
There are some important differences between Brandeis and Ryan's survey. These are all people who identify themselves as Jewish as their primary religion, not as secondary afterthoughts. The survey has a sponsor with an agenda to act on the results, that is shift the unengaged to engaged and ask them for money each year, or allocate money already under their control in a different way.
Matt, the prof who tabulated and presented the findings, indicated that the results of my area were similar to regional results that the Cohen Center had done elsewhere, so probably can be generalized.
When most people who are asked why they are a Catholic, they respond they were born and raised that way. I too am a cradle Catholic.
But, I have a different answer to that question. First, I believe there is a creator or God. Second, I believe Jesus is God. Third, I believe Jesus started a Church.
Now I know this is contentious because if it is true, then the world should belong to the religion that Jesus founded. And they obviously don’t.
I am on a cruise ship and there is a priest celebrating Mass each day and the number attending is about 40-45 so this is about 2% of an older demographic. Most are from the US and Canada. For Sunday it was about 80-90 or 4% of the passengers. Why aren’t there more if 30% of this demographic identify as a Catholic. Is it mainly, they do not believe?
That is my thesis. They really don’t believe. But could they be led to believe if presented with the evidence and logic?
I feel I almost summoned this one into being after my comment on the last one 😄. Seriously though, it's really good to hear about "religious" vs. "cultural" identity but it would be even more interesting to hear of any data on direct questions on "intensity of relationship to community" vs. proxy metrics such as attendance and prayer.
Makes sense. For Judaism, ethnicity and religion are nearly identical because Judaism strongly rejected converts until recently. Rome had rules about marriage that performed the same function less strongly. Protestantism and Islam went the other way, trying to bring in as many different ethnic groups as possible.
Very interesting stuff here. There is a small branch of Judaism that people often overlook due to its small size known as Reconstruction. Though this movement has often influenced the larger Jewish branches. One of their insights is that Judaism is best thought of as a civilization and as such it includes religion but also other things like art, philosophy, and host of others. Maybe this is a way of looking at cultural Catholics. In Chicago where I grew up individual Catholic Church's were known by a sort of ethnic affiliation -- Irish, Polish, Italian, etc.
We Jews have other survey sources that probe these questions in a more detailed way. The leading organization for doing this seems to be the Cohen Center at Brandeis University, which surveyed my community in 2022. https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/community-studies/delaware.html I was part of their random representative sample for that one. Filling out the questionnaire took a while. They basically concluded that we fall into four categories as Jews. About 40% are personally observant in some way and engaged with the community, about 20% have a DIY religion of personal practice but negligible community ties, 20% have communal attachment but no personal belief or practice, and 20% identify as Jewish culturally but largely opted out.
There are some important differences between Brandeis and Ryan's survey. These are all people who identify themselves as Jewish as their primary religion, not as secondary afterthoughts. The survey has a sponsor with an agenda to act on the results, that is shift the unengaged to engaged and ask them for money each year, or allocate money already under their control in a different way.
Matt, the prof who tabulated and presented the findings, indicated that the results of my area were similar to regional results that the Cohen Center had done elsewhere, so probably can be generalized.
When most people who are asked why they are a Catholic, they respond they were born and raised that way. I too am a cradle Catholic.
But, I have a different answer to that question. First, I believe there is a creator or God. Second, I believe Jesus is God. Third, I believe Jesus started a Church.
Now I know this is contentious because if it is true, then the world should belong to the religion that Jesus founded. And they obviously don’t.
I am on a cruise ship and there is a priest celebrating Mass each day and the number attending is about 40-45 so this is about 2% of an older demographic. Most are from the US and Canada. For Sunday it was about 80-90 or 4% of the passengers. Why aren’t there more if 30% of this demographic identify as a Catholic. Is it mainly, they do not believe?
That is my thesis. They really don’t believe. But could they be led to believe if presented with the evidence and logic?
I feel I almost summoned this one into being after my comment on the last one 😄. Seriously though, it's really good to hear about "religious" vs. "cultural" identity but it would be even more interesting to hear of any data on direct questions on "intensity of relationship to community" vs. proxy metrics such as attendance and prayer.
Makes sense. For Judaism, ethnicity and religion are nearly identical because Judaism strongly rejected converts until recently. Rome had rules about marriage that performed the same function less strongly. Protestantism and Islam went the other way, trying to bring in as many different ethnic groups as possible.
Very interesting stuff here. There is a small branch of Judaism that people often overlook due to its small size known as Reconstruction. Though this movement has often influenced the larger Jewish branches. One of their insights is that Judaism is best thought of as a civilization and as such it includes religion but also other things like art, philosophy, and host of others. Maybe this is a way of looking at cultural Catholics. In Chicago where I grew up individual Catholic Church's were known by a sort of ethnic affiliation -- Irish, Polish, Italian, etc.
Oops..one of your graphs (religious vs cultural) for Catholics is backward