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Topography of faith

Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:57 pm
by Adriorn Darkcloak
Pretty neat chart; shows religious affiliations in the US nationally and by state. Some surprises.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 3:57 pm
by kiryan
only the liberals will be surprised.

course the devil is in the details... I infrequently attend church, but I'm as resolute as I ever was. this survey probably counts me as a christian, but other surveys that peg christians at 25-50% wouldn't.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:24 pm
by Kifle
I don't see what's so surprising... Christianity is dominant, evangelical is higher in the South/Southeast, and Catholics are in higher density on the upper east and lower west coasts. It's seems pretty expected.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:26 pm
by kiryan
Check the threads, libs are constantly arguing here that christianity is irrelevant in the USA at < 50% of the population.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:31 pm
by Adriorn Darkcloak
Kifle wrote:I don't see what's so surprising...


California surprised me, as did Kentucky and Tennessee. Plus it's nice to see graphic representations of statistics.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:31 pm
by Kifle
kiryan wrote:Check the threads, libs are constantly arguing here that christianity is irrelevant in the USA at < 50% of the population.


I don't think I have ever seen that written. I've seen talks about the decline in christianity. I've seen talks about the decline in churchgoers, but never that Christianity is irrelevant. In fact, the most common annoyances from the liberals, libertarians, and moderates are that Christianity is too entwined in the US government due to it being the majority (>50%) rule -- that Christianity should not be the moral and ethical guide simple because the majority practice or believe the tenets of Christianity. So I'd say that this survey backs up what liberals, libertarians, and some moderates complain about.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:34 pm
by Kifle
Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:
Kifle wrote:I don't see what's so surprising...


California surprised me, as did Kentucky and Tennessee. Plus it's nice to see graphic representations of statistics.


You were surprised that Cali had one of the most diverse religious affiliations, and Kentucky and Tennessee both had a disproportionate weighting in favor of evangelical christianity and one of the lowest percentages of unaffiliated?

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:58 pm
by kiryan
I found Utah's mormon population of 58% interesting... 1-2% in most states, 58% in utah. Thats practically a theocracy!

i was also listening to the glenn beck conversion to mormon talk and one thing I picked up on... was that beign from utah... suggests that you're mormon. No big surprise right... now imagine if a mormon is on your interview panel or in your hr department. He specifically talks about getting hired to work at this radio station... and when he showed up everyone thought he was a mormon because he lived/worked in ogden, ut at one point.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:25 pm
by Adriorn Darkcloak
Kifle wrote:
Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:
Kifle wrote:I don't see what's so surprising...


California surprised me, as did Kentucky and Tennessee. Plus it's nice to see graphic representations of statistics.


You were surprised that Cali had one of the most diverse religious affiliations, and Kentucky and Tennessee both had a disproportionate weighting in favor of evangelical christianity and one of the lowest percentages of unaffiliated?


The huge majority of Evangelicals in KY and TN surprised me, yeah. I've been to both states many times and was surprised it was that high. But with CA, did you look at the map? Diverse compared to what, Utah? :) It's not diverse at all when compared to other states. What surprised me most was the huge amount of Catholics (which in hindsight I figured were mainly Mexicans and other Hispanics). I didn't expect to see it that high at all in CA.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 7:23 pm
by Sarvis
kiryan wrote: Thats practically a theocracy!



That word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:11 pm
by kiryan
well that depends on what the meaning of the word is is.

or apparently hostilities.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 2:08 am
by Kifle
Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:
Kifle wrote:
Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:
Kifle wrote:I don't see what's so surprising...


California surprised me, as did Kentucky and Tennessee. Plus it's nice to see graphic representations of statistics.


You were surprised that Cali had one of the most diverse religious affiliations, and Kentucky and Tennessee both had a disproportionate weighting in favor of evangelical christianity and one of the lowest percentages of unaffiliated?


The huge majority of Evangelicals in KY and TN surprised me, yeah. I've been to both states many times and was surprised it was that high. But with CA, did you look at the map? Diverse compared to what, Utah? :) It's not diverse at all when compared to other states. What surprised me most was the huge amount of Catholics (which in hindsight I figured were mainly Mexicans and other Hispanics). I didn't expect to see it that high at all in CA.


It's diverse in that it had the highest percentages of the minority religions (buddhism, etc.) especially and unaffiliated. But I live near Kentucky, so those numbers don't really surprise me. It is a nice map though, but I wonder how well those numbers can be trusted due to the sample size -- and I'm not sure what the collection procedures were either.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:53 am
by Adriorn Darkcloak
Kifle wrote:It is a nice map though, but I wonder how well those numbers can be trusted due to the sample size -- and I'm not sure what the collection procedures were either.


I just wonder why they don't use figures from last year's census. Or is it not that specific? No clue. I know with Hispanics they only do the 4 top groups: Mexicans, Puertorricans, Dominicans, and Cubans. The rest they clump into Caribbean, Central, and South American. Maybe they do the same with religious affiliations. Beats me.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 5:46 am
by Teflor Lyorian
kiryan wrote:Check the threads, libs are constantly arguing here that christianity is irrelevant in the USA at < 50% of the population.

I'm pretty sure we've ran off anyone who was dumb enough to think that Christianity is irrelevant, if anyone had said so.

There are plenty of people who have argued that it shouldn't be. Or that it isn't in terms of the law, but not because of its decline.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:46 am
by Kifle
Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:
Kifle wrote:It is a nice map though, but I wonder how well those numbers can be trusted due to the sample size -- and I'm not sure what the collection procedures were either.


I just wonder why they don't use figures from last year's census. Or is it not that specific? No clue. I know with Hispanics they only do the 4 top groups: Mexicans, Puertorricans, Dominicans, and Cubans. The rest they clump into Caribbean, Central, and South American. Maybe they do the same with religious affiliations. Beats me.


Yeah, I'd have thought they'd use census data as well, but at the bottom you'll see they just gave a survey to a small sample size (around 1k) of the state population. Which I doubt went beyond larger cities -- which can be misleading. I'd imagine you'd find more buddhists in LA than Quincy. I'd like to see a map like this taken from the census data or something much more broadly sweeping, survey-wise.

Re: Topography of faith

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:03 pm
by Ragorn
Kifle wrote:
kiryan wrote:Check the threads, libs are constantly arguing here that christianity is irrelevant in the USA at < 50% of the population.


I don't think I have ever seen that written. I've seen talks about the decline in christianity. I've seen talks about the decline in churchgoers, but never that Christianity is irrelevant. In fact, the most common annoyances from the liberals, libertarians, and moderates are that Christianity is too entwined in the US government due to it being the majority (>50%) rule -- that Christianity should not be the moral and ethical guide simple because the majority practice or believe the tenets of Christianity. So I'd say that this survey backs up what liberals, libertarians, and some moderates complain about.

You haven't seen that written anywhere. That's more of the Christians' "oh god the liberals are waging a war on Christianity" talk.

What you've seen, from me at least, is something along these lines:

Image

I do think that Christianity is irrelevant, but not for reasons of population ;)