Do They Think God Doesn't Notice?
Christopher Ingram of Wonkblog brings one of those chuckles we get from affirmation of something we long suspected, or, such as the colloquialism goes, "I knew it!"
This sort of behavior is, to the one, normal and expected. To the other, though, religion—and especially redemptive religion—really isn't suppsosed to be about "what the neighbors think"; it's more supposed to be between the believer and God.
So one really does wonder why they bother lying to people on the phone, unless they also believe God isn't tapping the line. Then again, this is also one of those outcomes that can be rationally grasped within a dialectic of neurosis. And that difference depends entirely on what any given beholder finds significant about the idea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...go-to-church-even-if-they-dont-belong-to-one/
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Notes:
Ingraham, Christopher. "Americans lie about how much they go to church, even if they don't belong to one". Wonkblog. May 19, 2014. WashingtonPost.com. May 19, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...go-to-church-even-if-they-dont-belong-to-one/
Christopher Ingram of Wonkblog brings one of those chuckles we get from affirmation of something we long suspected, or, such as the colloquialism goes, "I knew it!"
There are but three certainties in American life: death, taxes and fibbing about how often you go to church. That last item comes via a new Public Religion Research Institute survey (brilliantly titled "I Know What You Did Last Sunday"), which found that Americans significantly overstate their church attendance to pollsters.
Most polling happens via interviews over the phone, and when we talk to complete strangers we have a tendency to tell them what we think they want to hear. Pollsters have long suspected that this dynamic has been in play with measures of religiosity in the United States, so PRRI decided to test it out. They administered the same survey questions to two groups of people: one group was asked via a traditional telephone survey, while another took the survey online.
Less than one-third of phone respondents (30 percent) admitted to attending religious services seldom or never. But online, freed from the normative pressures of interacting with another human being, 43 percent of respondents said they seldom or never went to church. Similarly, online respondents were less likely to say they went to church weekly or occasionally than were phone respondents.
Most polling happens via interviews over the phone, and when we talk to complete strangers we have a tendency to tell them what we think they want to hear. Pollsters have long suspected that this dynamic has been in play with measures of religiosity in the United States, so PRRI decided to test it out. They administered the same survey questions to two groups of people: one group was asked via a traditional telephone survey, while another took the survey online.
Less than one-third of phone respondents (30 percent) admitted to attending religious services seldom or never. But online, freed from the normative pressures of interacting with another human being, 43 percent of respondents said they seldom or never went to church. Similarly, online respondents were less likely to say they went to church weekly or occasionally than were phone respondents.
This sort of behavior is, to the one, normal and expected. To the other, though, religion—and especially redemptive religion—really isn't suppsosed to be about "what the neighbors think"; it's more supposed to be between the believer and God.
So one really does wonder why they bother lying to people on the phone, unless they also believe God isn't tapping the line. Then again, this is also one of those outcomes that can be rationally grasped within a dialectic of neurosis. And that difference depends entirely on what any given beholder finds significant about the idea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...go-to-church-even-if-they-dont-belong-to-one/
____________________
Notes:
Ingraham, Christopher. "Americans lie about how much they go to church, even if they don't belong to one". Wonkblog. May 19, 2014. WashingtonPost.com. May 19, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...go-to-church-even-if-they-dont-belong-to-one/