Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
First let’s define what the term “new age belief” means. It is basically a catch-all term that involves a belief in non-traditional supernatural claims such as reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees. The term “New Age” harks back to the 1970s movements that embraced such ideas … Read more
Vox has the details of a Poll that was run a week ago by Marist and sponsored by NPR/PBS NewsHour. It reveals that many white evangelicals simply do not give a damn about the victims of sexual abuse… Forty-eight percent of white evangelicals say that embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even … Read more
Often a survey or poll will ask you to tick an option such as those illustrated above. Many will dutifully respond and tick the option that best describes their cultural heritage. This however says nothing at all about what people actually believe, but instead perhaps reflects their ethnic or cultural heritage. If you want to … Read more
When people discard a mainstream religion such as Catholicism or Baptist, they often retain some belief. On a poll or census they might identify as “None” because none of the boxes available truly describes them. This gives rise to the term “nones”. If you chat with them, then you will discover that they might indeed … Read more
Pew has just published further insights into the rise of the religiously unaffiliated in the US. Moving beyond the data observation that that there is a growing demographic of “nones” (not religious), then picked a randomly selected group of people who had previously identified as a none and asked them why they chose to not … Read more
On 29th May, Pew released the results of a poll of European Christians that dug into what the term “Christian” actually meant to them and how it manifested in their lives. You can find a PDF of the full report here. (168 pages) You can also find a Pew summary here. Who Paid Pew to … Read more