50 % Never go to Church!

Yes, within this study in upstate NY, 50 % never went to church, although apparently some 85%+ were Christian(!).

The five questions that were asked:
1) Sex
2) Age
3) Are you worried about the future
4) How often do you go to Church
5) Is your personal relationship with God more important than going to Church

In each case I asked people
'Would you be interested in answering five, brief, anonymous questions'
... if they agreed...
'if you don't feel comfortable answering the questions, or they don't apply, please, just leave them blank'. Overwhelming everyone answered all the questions.

The interesting thing was, of those who were skeptical, the majority thought that I was 'selling religion'.

Initially I wanted some 200+ data points (for a 5x5 grid that gets you ~10 points per bin), however I only got just over 100. However because nature of the patterns observed, thats enough for this pilot study.

After that it was simply a matter of correlating the data.

Key points were:
1) 50% + of people (both men and women) never go to church.
2) men and women have almost identical church going habits
3) men are more likely to be worried about the future, and are more likely to think that communal religious activity is more important than a personal relationship with 'God' than women.
4) While the stats were really too low, there is the suggestion that those who go to Church once a week have a more diverse attitude to how they feel about the future than people who never go to Church. Those who never go to church are typically only 'slightly worried' about the future.

Yup I realise the limitations of such a study. However bear in mind that pervasive human behaviors, such as the Milgram and Barnam effect can be observed on very small populations, maybe as few as 10! The goal of this study was to scout around for similar effects.

Naturally it would be great to get this study done in some more volatile environments, and to try to correlate this sort of thing world wide, but before that, a little careful reflection is probably required. ;-)

Category:

Education

Tags:

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• sex
• church
• carl
• sagan
• religions
• christianity
• fear
• doubt
• worship
• thunderf00t
• why
• people
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[a1mint]

Statistics also shows that Christians divorce more than Atheists do.

[XceptionalXistence]

the funny thing is that 100 % of the people on this planet are going to die

[shinokiba]

When I was a Jew I hated waking up early on Saturdays, walking to the Shul, and praying for 4 hours. When I became an Atheist and realized that I like sleeping in much better.

[TMTours]

Slight problem with the wording (and yes I know I'm making a comment about an almost two year old vid LOL), but as an Atheist, I have no belief in god/s, but churches do exist, so the last question is somewhat of a non-sequitur.

[DaToNyOyO]

Dude, you should put some jam on your shoes and invite your trousers down for tea. Those slacks are positively Islamic XD

[eoghan147]

has anyone ever done anything like this?Im wondering because i have to do a project about "the factors that influnce the religious practice in christian teenagers.I have to do it in a survey and im stumped as to A(what to ask and B)where to find results etc

[thargor2k]

If you haven't already done this, or will do it again, I would also participate (for a few voices from Austria... ;) )

[constantresearcher34]

So the question is: Do those who are fearful of the future go to church or does the church create people who are fearful of the future? Or perhaps a mixture of both?

[YoJimBoHugabaJoe]

jesus main message was to not go to church as they will all eventually become corrupt and self serving

[FoxKnightJ07]

@XceptionalXistence Not necessarily, technology may come up with an answer to that flaw of biology before this gen kicks the bucket.

[killa432546]

@BranislavDJ Woohoo! Furries rock =P