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Interesting graph of beliefs in USA
- Thread starter Markio44
- Start date
My Southern Baptist Ex-preacher says "good people go to hell, only saved people go to heaven."Mapp said:The question of whether God sends good people to hell is one a lot of Christians are uncomfortable with.
Fucked up, huh?
EvilLiberal
Member
I've got to admit, I'm a little sceptical of any survay that claims that one in 20 mormons do not believe that there is a heaven (inc. 'other', whatever the hell that means on a yes/no question). Whilst it doesn't necessarily mean that anything has gone wrong in the 'number crunching' process, it kinda points to the idea that the data collection for finding an individuals affiliations may have been a little wonky, possibly for lack of some classifications or other small methodological problems.
Nonetheless, a very interesting set of statistics - what would be great would be if they could do the same in 5-10 years, see how things change.
Nonetheless, a very interesting set of statistics - what would be great would be if they could do the same in 5-10 years, see how things change.
Since I live in Utah, I thought I'd say a bit about the Mormans in regards to this survey.
58% is the highest percentage of a single religion in the entire US, and even though there are places outside the US that have a higher percentage (or so I've been told), the cultural domination more than makes up for it. It was surprising that it wasn't more, though...you'd think it was up in the 70s or 80s based on how dominant the culture is here. Another interesting thing was that there was only 1% of people that were other religions, while 16% were unafiliated...so you get Christians that Mormans can get along with and people deconverted Christianity but can't/don't want to get out of the state. :roll:
As far as the Morman heaven/hell, they believe in multiple levels of heaven. The celestial kingdom (I think; might be called something different) is the highest and what all religions would consider heaven, and you have to be a full-out Morman, married in the temple and all that jazz, to go there. Outer darkness is the closest thing to hell, and you only go there if you join the church, take the oaths or whatever and then leave, and even then, they believe it's just the least-good; it's not eternal hellfire. Everyone else gets put in the middle somewhere. So, in regards to their religion, Pascel's wager says you shouldn't join their religion, because then you're never at risk of leaving. :lol: So even Hitler or Stalin aren't in the worst hell. And Ghandi is in a good level, but not quite the highest level. This is what was explained to me, at least; some Mormans probably believe differently.
Oh, and they don't pray for dead people to get into heaven, they babtise them. :lol: This is generally the source for their fascination with geneology. Of course, I've also been told that's not quite right, either... A lot of their beliefs are somewhat inconstistant. And their most closely held beliefs are extremely secret...it's all rather cultish, honestly. For example, once a prophet is democratically elected by the church leaders (yes, this is how they choose their prophets :facepalm: ), then if he ever even considers lying to the church, god kills him. And if you ever expose the part of the marriage ritual that's held in the temple, something really bad happens to you. I can't remember what, but it was rather specific and kinda frightening. Also, I can't imagine how homophobic JW are if they're worse than Mormans...I'm only out to 2 people that actually know me in real life... :|
58% is the highest percentage of a single religion in the entire US, and even though there are places outside the US that have a higher percentage (or so I've been told), the cultural domination more than makes up for it. It was surprising that it wasn't more, though...you'd think it was up in the 70s or 80s based on how dominant the culture is here. Another interesting thing was that there was only 1% of people that were other religions, while 16% were unafiliated...so you get Christians that Mormans can get along with and people deconverted Christianity but can't/don't want to get out of the state. :roll:
As far as the Morman heaven/hell, they believe in multiple levels of heaven. The celestial kingdom (I think; might be called something different) is the highest and what all religions would consider heaven, and you have to be a full-out Morman, married in the temple and all that jazz, to go there. Outer darkness is the closest thing to hell, and you only go there if you join the church, take the oaths or whatever and then leave, and even then, they believe it's just the least-good; it's not eternal hellfire. Everyone else gets put in the middle somewhere. So, in regards to their religion, Pascel's wager says you shouldn't join their religion, because then you're never at risk of leaving. :lol: So even Hitler or Stalin aren't in the worst hell. And Ghandi is in a good level, but not quite the highest level. This is what was explained to me, at least; some Mormans probably believe differently.
Oh, and they don't pray for dead people to get into heaven, they babtise them. :lol: This is generally the source for their fascination with geneology. Of course, I've also been told that's not quite right, either... A lot of their beliefs are somewhat inconstistant. And their most closely held beliefs are extremely secret...it's all rather cultish, honestly. For example, once a prophet is democratically elected by the church leaders (yes, this is how they choose their prophets :facepalm: ), then if he ever even considers lying to the church, god kills him. And if you ever expose the part of the marriage ritual that's held in the temple, something really bad happens to you. I can't remember what, but it was rather specific and kinda frightening. Also, I can't imagine how homophobic JW are if they're worse than Mormans...I'm only out to 2 people that actually know me in real life... :|
Buddhism and Hinduism win for having the biggest margin of education being a big factor influencing their thinking. Though it's scary that so many people think there's a Heaven. Has no one read the letter from satan by Mark Twain?
Using this as a tool, my preferred religions are Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Also, is there anywhere in the US that christians occupy less than >25%? Or at least >50%? No wonder so many people blindly believe in the 'invisible hand'.
Using this as a tool, my preferred religions are Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Also, is there anywhere in the US that christians occupy less than >25%? Or at least >50%? No wonder so many people blindly believe in the 'invisible hand'.