Just thought to share fairly recent Pew Research on religious belief in the United States: HERE

What are your take aways?

What interests me, is the 9% who do NOT believe in God but still DO believe in some kind of higher spiritual force. Not sure what to make of that whether it includes deists, Wicca, or Platonists. This quote seems not to illuminate that statistic much:

Quote:...it is clear from questions elsewhere in the survey that Americans who say they believe in God “as described in the Bible” generally envision an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving deity who determines most or all of what happens in their lives. By contrast, people who say they believe in a “higher power or spiritual force” – but not in God as described in the Bible – are much less likely to believe in a deity who is omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent and active in human affairs.

So those who do not believe in god could potentially fall into multiple categories depending on if they accept 1 or 2 out of 3 of the all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God. That's a lot of options (I'll let others do the math).

Wow 56% believing in the god of the Bible is a lot lower than I would’ve expected.

I know a lot of Deists who think that some higher power possibly exists.  I have heard a few describe it as a distant scientist who possibly aided early non-hominin apes to develop in some way, and then took no more action.  After all, to meddle in the experiment destroys the results.  I think it's all just a fun fantasy exercise.

They are still screwed up in the head so I don't really care. 

If they need that mental crutch they are welcome to it.

(April 30, 2018 at 10:59 am)Losty Wrote: Wow 56% believing in the god of the Bible is a lot lower than I would’ve expected.

That could be in part because Jewish people think the question refers to both the OT and NT. There is also an increasing Muslim and Hindi population that would answer no.

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(April 30, 2018 at 11:04 am)mh.brewer Wrote: If they need that mental crutch they are welcome to it.

That cuts both ways. Wanting to escape feelings of shame in this world and the prospect of judgement in the next could also be considered a kind of crutch.

(April 30, 2018 at 10:40 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Just thought to share fairly recent Pew Research on religious belief in the United States: HERE

What are your take aways?

What interests me, is the 9% who do NOT believe in God but still DO believe in some kind of higher spiritual force. Not sure what to make of that whether it includes deists, Wicca, or Platonists. This quote seems not to illuminate that statistic much:

Quote:...it is clear from questions elsewhere in the survey that Americans who say they believe in God “as described in the Bible” generally envision an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving deity who determines most or all of what happens in their lives. By contrast, people who say they believe in a “higher power or spiritual force” – but not in God as described in the Bible – are much less likely to believe in a deity who is omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent and active in human affairs.

So those who do not believe in god could potentially fall into multiple categories depending on if they accept 1 or 2 out of 3 of the all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God. That's a lot of options (I'll let others do the math).

You have a whole 56 percentile, counting from the bottom, to hide behind. You must be going to heaven.

Is it really fair/accurate/appropriate to consider the Bible God as a single choice ??

For instance, a believer might go for 'this' God:

Proverbs 30 (KJV)
5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.


And another believer might be in it with 'this' God:

2 Thessalonians 2 (KJV)
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.



That's 2 different Gods. Just having someone say they believe in 'both' would not satisfy either God and they'd be in trouble as a result.

Neo-Scholastic Wrote:Just thought to share fairly recent Pew Research on religious belief in the United States: HERE

What are your take aways?

What interests me, is the 9% who do NOT believe in God but still DO believe in some kind of higher spiritual force. Not sure what to make of that whether it includes deists, Wicca, or Platonists. This quote seems not to illuminate that statistic much:

Quote:...it is clear from questions elsewhere in the survey that Americans who say they believe in God “as described in the Bible” generally envision an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving deity who determines most or all of what happens in their lives. By contrast, people who say they believe in a “higher power or spiritual force” – but not in God as described in the Bible – are much less likely to believe in a deity who is omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent and active in human affairs.

So those who do not believe in god could potentially fall into multiple categories depending on if they accept 1 or 2 out of 3 of the all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God. That's a lot of options (I'll let others do the math).

There's a concept of belief in a transcendent reality or 'higher force' that I call 'Somethingism'. You've maybe heard of people proclaiming it as their stance, the ones who say 'I believe in something', by which they mean some sort of power in the universe that they don't claim to understand, but has to do with meaning and purpose and providence and maybe the origin of the universe. I think it might as well be declared the national religious opinion of Iceland, and the Dutch have a word for it: 'letsism'. Which basically means 'somethingism', so apparently I wasn't very original in calling it that.

My take it on it: America is pretty ignorant

(April 30, 2018 at 11:07 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:

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(April 30, 2018 at 11:04 am)mh.brewer Wrote: If they need that mental crutch they are welcome to it.

That cuts both ways. Wanting to escape feelings of shame in this world and the prospect of judgement in the next could also be considered a kind of crutch.

Gosh, ya got me. I'm just soooooooooo bad.