Comments on Baptists Today Blogs: Americans practice fluid faith

Among the 'Unaffiliated there are three categories...

2008-03-02T07:57:00.000-05:00

Among the 'Unaffiliated there are three categories:

Atheist
Agnostic
No particular religion

Among the No particular religion there are two categories:

Secular unaffiliated
Religious unaffiliated

It would be plausible that some who didn't like the labels Atheist or Agnostic might have ended up in the Secular unaffiliated of the No particular religion category.

There are more folks in the latter category (6.3%) than folks in the Atheist and Agnostic categories combined (4%).

One might also wonder if the percentage of atheist...

2008-03-02T01:24:00.000-05:00

One might also wonder if the percentage of atheists and agnostics is skewed by the fact that those terms are generally considered "dirty words" in our society. As numerous studies have shown that many people who have feminist beliefs (believe in equality for the sexes) will not associate themselves with the word feminist, it is possible that some portion of the 6.3% secular unaffiliated population is in fact atheist/agnostic. The ambiguity in that category keeps us from knowing how many more people may technically be atheist/agnostic despite the labels.

There is the implication in the Survey Methodology...

2008-02-28T16:51:00.000-05:00

There is the implication in the Survey Methodology section that persons were asked primarily about their denomination although I don't see it addressed directly. There is a section that lists the 'kind of Protestant church - which of the three' by specific associated denominations which also implies the respondents may not have been asked a direct question about 'being Protestant.'

I haven't looked at the data collecting methods, b...

2008-02-28T15:06:00.000-05:00

I haven't looked at the data collecting methods, but my guess is that they ask about denominational affiliation and then extrapolate "Protestant" from those numbers. I doubt they leave it up to the participants to determine Protestant and non-Protestant.

I suppose some of that (not recognizing they were ...

2008-02-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

I suppose some of that (not recognizing they were Protestant) may have been a factor. Unaffiliated had the largest percentage increase from 'Childhood Religion' to 'Current Religion.' But that implies some awareness of 'what' their Childhood Religion was. The question(s) were not left at the general category of Protestant ... respondents were then asked about specific denomination. There has been lots of movement amongst denominations with only 56% still associated with denomination of their childhood.

The amount of immigration has had a major impact.

I am wondering if the word 'protestant' may at pre...

2008-02-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

I am wondering if the word 'protestant' may at present be so unfamiliar to younger people that they do not realize they are members of a protestant church. It's just an impression I have, not based on empirical data, but I'd bet that a survey of people at my Baptist church, using a question such as "Are you presently a Protestant?" would get a good number of "um, I don't know" or "No" responses.

Here is a link to the transcript.There is also a ...

2008-02-27T16:02:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the transcript.

There is also a Luis Lugo, Director of Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life available at the Interactive link on the main post.

SFox reports at Bl.com Nancy Ammerman herself was ...

2008-02-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

SFox reports at Bl.com Nancy Ammerman herself was on PBS Newshour last night to discuss the findings on the Pew Forum.
The interview is easily googled up

I've downloaded the full report and have started r...

2008-02-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

I've downloaded the full report and have started reading it (and marking it up with notations). There is lots of data in the tables, some of it surprising, at least to me.

This is a 'pathbreaking' report which means there is not a equivalent report for a prior period. So comparing this data with other reports can lead to erroneous conclusions. Many 'religious demographic' reports are compiled from data from churches. This report is from data obtained from interviewing 35,556 individuals via telephone.

The interviews were conducted between May 8 and August 13, 2007, which makes the data more recent than most compilations.

While I find the online, interactive, method of finding specific information helpful, in order to really digest that much data I find I need to 'markup' printed pages.