PRRI Survey - Spiritual But Not Religious

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.prri.org/research/religiosity-and-spirituality-in-america/

An interesting survey on those who self identify as Spiritual But Not Religious.

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Executive Summary

The relationship between spirituality and religiosity among Americans today is complex. To measure these dimensions, PRRI developed two composite indexes. One measured spirituality using self-reported experiences of being connected to something larger than oneself. The other measured religiosity using frequency of religious attendance and the personal importance of religion. Based on this analysis, Americans fall into the following four categories:

• 29% are both spiritual and religious;
• 18% are spiritual but not religious;
• 22% are not spiritual but religious; and
• 31% are neither spiritual nor religious.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

https://www.prri.org/research/religiosity-and-spirituality-in-america/

An interesting survey on those who self identify as Spiritual But Not Religious.

---------------

Executive Summary

The relationship between spirituality and religiosity among Americans today is complex. To measure these dimensions, PRRI developed two composite indexes. One measured spirituality using self-reported experiences of being connected to something larger than oneself. The other measured religiosity using frequency of religious attendance and the personal importance of religion. Based on this analysis, Americans fall into the following four categories:

• 29% are both spiritual and religious;
• 18% are spiritual but not religious;
• 22% are not spiritual but religious; and
• 31% are neither spiritual nor religious.

I kinda like those numbers.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

To be fair, a lot of the "neither spiritual nor religious" group became that way over the past few months because of the Trump presidency.

It's tough to reconcile that shit with the concept of a benevolent deity.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Poking around the internet, I ran into this study of the Spiritual But Not Religious phenomena.

https://www.barna.com/research/meet-spiritual-not-religious/

An interesting survey for anybody interested in this subject

 

[Underseer]

https://www.prri.org/research/religiosity-and-spirituality-in-america/

An interesting survey on those who self identify as Spiritual But Not Religious.

---------------

Executive Summary

The relationship between spirituality and religiosity among Americans today is complex. To measure these dimensions, PRRI developed two composite indexes. One measured spirituality using self-reported experiences of being connected to something larger than oneself. The other measured religiosity using frequency of religious attendance and the personal importance of religion. Based on this analysis, Americans fall into the following four categories:

• 29% are both spiritual and religious;
• 18% are spiritual but not religious;
• 22% are not spiritual but religious; and
• 31% are neither spiritual nor religious.

Sorry for my bad reading comprehension.

 

[Underseer]

31% of Americans are neither spiritual nor religious?

That's amazing. That means there are far more nontheists than anyone realizes. So many atheists in denial of being atheist[ent]hellip[/ent]

 

[abaddon]

My reading comprehension isn't so great either, not when there are so many stats mixed together. These articles are several paragraphs of "6 in 10 feel like this and 29% feel like that" sentences, with a few graphs that are just the same but pictorial, making a large stew of various combinations. Maybe some minds are inclined to sort all that out... mine isn't.

But, as well as I can tell, there are not a lot of "closet atheists" here. Just different degrees of commitment to traditional religious organization and to a feeling of spirituality.

Some statements, like this one...

White mainline Protestants are also far more likely to be neither spiritual nor religious (42%) than they are to be spiritual but not religious (18%). Catholics are much less likely to be neither spiritual nor religious (22%), while similar numbers are spiritual but not religious (15%).

... make it clear that being below-average on both the religious and spiritual scales ("neither spiritual nor religious") are people who'd label themselves protestant or catholic. They're just below-average on commitment... Does that count as "closet atheist" or are they apathetic believers?

Possibly a confusion of the words "religious" and "theist" can lead some people to think "not all that religious" = "not all that theist" = "closet atheist".

 

[Ramaraksha]

https://www.prri.org/research/religiosity-and-spirituality-in-america/
An interesting survey on those who self identify as Spiritual But Not Religious.
---------------
Executive Summary
The relationship between spirituality and religiosity among Americans today is complex. To measure these dimensions, PRRI developed two composite indexes. One measured spirituality using self-reported experiences of being connected to something larger than oneself. The other measured religiosity using frequency of religious attendance and the personal importance of religion. Based on this analysis, Americans fall into the following four categories:

• 29% are both spiritual and religious;
• 18% are spiritual but not religious;
• 22% are not spiritual but religious; and
• 31% are neither spiritual nor religious.

My reading of Religions is that God was made in the image of the most powerful man of the day - the King/Strongman. In a violent world, the King demanded loyalty and obedience in return for his favors and naturally the people of those days created heavens with a King like God demanding obedience and loyalty(belief) in return for his favors

Actually sad that in the 21st century such religions & ideas still dominate. The very same people who would be offended by being denied a job or a promotion because of their religion or some other factor besides their qualifications find no problem with a God who would parcel out his favors to those that join "his" religion. Was ok back in the day when people lived under Kings and were subject to his whims but today?

Shows how the prospect of an easy life to be had just by joining the "right" religion and praying to the "right" God brainwashes people

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

It is kind of hard to figure out just what the hell is going on here. If this involved, say 2.3% of the population, that would be one thing, but these statistics are far more significant than that. Something odd is going on and it looks like there is a lot of work to be done to understand what this all means. I do recall some studies indicating a lot of people who claim to believe in God do not believe in God as a personal God, but God as the forces of nature.

If I think to hard about all of this, my head hurts.

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/pf-2015-11-03_rls_ii-27/

Of those self identifying as Christian 22% do not believe in a personal God. But in an "Impersonal Force".

There seems to be rather a lot of stuff going on among Americans and American Christians and religion that is odd to say the least.