Exaggeration of church service attendence

[Silver]

But it's harder to count how often people actually show up in the pews, the temple, the mosque or any other place they go to encounter the divine, and the statistics religious group keeps on attendance have often differed from what pollsters tend to find.

That's one reason why a Washington, D.C.-based polling firm designed a unique survey method to measure if there's truth to what observers of religious trends have said for years: that social pressure makes people exaggerate how often they go to religious services.

In results it released Saturday comparing how people responded to questions about religious attendance when asked over the phone by a live person compared to when answering an online survey, the Public Religion Research Institute concluded that, indeed, Americans tend to stretch the truth. The organization conducted two surveys using similarly sized, nationally representative samplings of Americans who were asked the same questions.

On the phone, 36 percent of Americans said they attending religious services weekly or more often, while only 31 percent said the same when answering the question online. Meanwhile, 30 percent of phone respondents said they seldom or never go to a weekly service. Online, that share jumped to 43 percent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/17...r=Religion

[Minimalist]

Hard to tell if xtians are lying for jesus or for each other.

[Silver]

If Jesus is omniscient, he already knows that they are not attending church service. Therefore, the most likely answer is that they are lying for the benefit of saving face with their fellow theistitards.

[Lemonvariable72]

If Jesus is omniscient, he already knows that they are not attending church service. Therefore, the most likely answer is that they are lying for the benefit of saving face with their fellow theistitards.

Its like when they ask you if you pay your taxes.

[Angrboda]

Only way that we're going to know the truth is to start tagging them with radio collars and observing their behavior in the wild.

[Godscreated]

Polls are notorious for being wrong, especially when not taken nation wide and not taken in areas that will produce a negative response against the pollsters. I'm not saying the polls here are true or not but I would think atheist who claim to be above average in intelligence would recognize this and give it little credit.
I've worked in the office of churches and the attendance is taken from the Sunday School classes where smaller groups can be counted, the totals are then put together in the office. This is all rechecked to make sure the info is correct and no mistakes made. Now I can't vouch for all churches but, for three I can and I do not believe the Southern Baptist would purposely make such a thing a practice. If it did it would show a lower amount of tithe per person. Like someone said God knows the truth and the church knows this better than anyone else. Just some facts that I know.

GC

[Minimalist]

Oh, they are well aware of it, G-C. In fact, no one knows better than the churchee-types!

http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pas...erica.html

1. Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church — half of what the pollsters report.