CARA wrote:This number is often quoted and very easy to come by using surveys that include a question about whether one is still a member of the faith that they were raised in. For any religion, the percentage of adults who remain affiliated is called the "retention rate."
So you don't have to really show up at Mass or Sacrament Meeting, you just have to say that you remain in the same faith as your family of origin.
"And the human knew the source of life, the woman of him, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have procreated a man with Yahweh.'" Gen. 4:1, interior quote translated by D. Bokovoy.
palerobber wrote:by the way, we should also remember that while belief/disbelief in god(s) is strongly correlated with atheist self-identification, the two things are far from being synonymous.
from Pew, these percentages are NOT "absolutely" or "fairly" certain of the existence of "God or a universal spirit": 4% of Protestants 7% of Catholics 17% of Hindus 28% of Jews 33% of Buddhists 60% of Agnostics 85% of Atheists
15% of self-described atheists are absolutely or fairly certain of the existence of God or a universal spirit? That's a little bizarre. Then again, if someone were to profess belief in a universal spirit, they probably would be considered atheist by quite a few people in our Protestant Christian dominated culture.
I think most people leave atheism and join a church for two primary reasons. One is that another atheist has offended them. The other is that they try to justify reasons why they cannot live the demanding lifestyle of not believing in a Supreme Being.
Darth J wrote:I think most people leave atheism and join a church for two primary reasons. One is that another atheist has offended them. The other is that they try to justify reasons why they cannot live the demanding lifestyle of not believing in a Supreme Being.
You forgot the milk strippings.
If I knew what milk strippings were, I'd probably be severely tempted to apostasize. So I don't read anti-atheist dairy-oriented literature.
Zadok: I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis. Maksutov: That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
Cylon wrote:15% of self-described atheists are absolutely or fairly certain of the existence of God or a universal spirit? That's a little bizarre.
no doubt.
here's the link to Pew's numbers on that, in case someone wants to check my addition.
i kinda wish they'd left "universal spirit" out of the question. if they needed a term less ethnocentric than "God" then why not "supreme being" or something like that?
palerobber wrote:from Pew, these percentages are NOT "absolutely" or "fairly" certain of the existence of "God or a universal spirit": 4% of Protestants 7% of Catholics 17% of Hindus 28% of Jews 33% of Buddhists 60% of Agnostics 85% of Atheists
by the way, given that there are an estimated 57 million adult Catholics in the US (just to pick one demonimation), that would mean that there are roughly 4 million adults who identify as Catholic but are loosely atheist (not absolutely or fairly certain that god(s) exist). that's a large enough number to contain many times over the entire set of people who were "raised atheist" but now identify as Catholic. naturally, some of those will have been genuinely converted to the faith, but just saying.
palerobber wrote:I'm still trying to unpack the original dataset, but right off i see that "atheist", "agnostic", and "nothing in particular" are treated as seperate categories, so you may be right on about that.
It would be interesting to see the study. Mormons have a 70% retention rate? How are they defining retention? How was the sample drawn?
I believe they are looking at those who are born into a particular religious or non-religious group. Atheists are not part of a well defined group in a religiously dominate society so a low retention rate is not unexpected. How religious they become in another religion may also be a factor to take in. I bet their parents probably don't care us much which is a major factor in retention rates in more conservative groups like LDS.
Themis wrote:I believe they are looking at those who are born into a particular religious or non-religious group. Atheists are not part of a well defined group in a religiously dominate society so a low retention rate is not unexpected. How religious they become in another religion may also be a factor to take in. I bet their parents probably don't care us much which is a major factor in retention rates in more conservative groups like LDS.
And since this is coming from an inistitute at Roman Catholic Georgetown (does it have the "equivalent" of MI), I'd like to know more about the methodology.
"And the human knew the source of life, the woman of him, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have procreated a man with Yahweh.'" Gen. 4:1, interior quote translated by D. Bokovoy.
Themis wrote:I believe they are looking at those who are born into a particular religious or non-religious group. Atheists are not part of a well defined group in a religiously dominate society so a low retention rate is not unexpected. How religious they become in another religion may also be a factor to take in. I bet their parents probably don't care us much which is a major factor in retention rates in more conservative groups like LDS.
And since this is coming from an inistitute at Roman Catholic Georgetown (does it have the "equivalent" of MI), I'd like to know more about the methodology.
Knowing the methodology can help to understand the numbers better and what they actually mean. Stats are unfortunately used to support a particular agenda most of the time. I remember stats showing Utah had higher numbers of teenage mothers as though that meant LDS girls were having more sex then other groups.