Religion

Preliminary Report

There were several questions which were designed to see what part religion pays in the different positions held by those sampled.

25. What is your religious affiliation?

Right here we begin to notice somthing which will become nearly monotonous as we continue through this chapter. Among the Evoutionists most of them (69%) claim no religious affiliation. Such a high percentage holds true for all of the following charts.

So far in this poll, Protestants are the largest group among the Creationists.

26. Protestants

I need to first appologize to the majority of those who claimed to be Protestant, that we did not list their churches. We tried to list those which have historically been involved with Creationism according to R. Numbers. But obviously we missed the mark here. I finally wised up (after the first 120 or so responses) and added an input box, so the "Other" respondants could list their church affiliation. It is probably too late now to analyze the relationship of these other church groups. Well, there is always next time. I also learned that many Baptists and members of the Church of Christ do not consider themselves Protestant. So I'll make that adjustment on future polls.

Baptists and SDAs make up the majority among the Creationary Catastrophists. This matches the historical facts that modern Creationary Catastrohpism owes it's origin and promotion largely to George McCreedy Price (SDA) and Henry Morris (Baptist).

The mainline Protestant Churches -- Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians -- appear to make up the majority (other than Others) of the Evolutionists and Creationary Evolutionists.

27. How important is religion in your life?

Here again we see that for the Evolutionists, religion is largely unimportant. However, for the Creationists, religion is very important. This is not much of a surprise.

28. About how often do you attend church in a year?

The importance of one's beliefs finds expression in what one does. Church attendence (or lack there of) can displays ones commitment.

It is not surprizing that the majority of Evolutionists never attend church. Why should they? Slightly more Creationary Catastrophists attend church meetings twice a week than the Creationary Evolutionists.

29. Religiously, which of the following terms describes you best?

To hear Evolutionists talk, all Creationists are Fundamentalists. Perhaps this next chart will disabuse some of that falacy.

The largest group of self-proclaimed Fundamentalists (40.48%) are among the Creationary Catastrophists. More than 50% of the Creationary Catastrophists consider themselves Conservative. About 6% of the Creationary Evolutionists claim to be Fundamentalists. Fundamentalists do make up a significant portion of Creationists, but certainly not the majority.

It is no surprise that the Evolutionists consider themselves non-religious or holding to Liberal religious viewpoints.

91. Everything written in the Bible is literally true.

I received complaints that this question was confusing. Did this question mean that everything which the Bible wrote about was literally true or was every written word to be taken literally? I think this explains the wide spread across the possible responses for both groups of Creationists. The Evolutionists would care less, they reject the Bible as true in any case. I think that the next question helps clear up the confusion.

120. The Bible is made up of many styles of writings, history, poetry, symbolisms, prophecy, etc.

Nearly everyone agress that there are many different styles of writing in the Bible. So in regard to the previous question, I think that many of the Creationists consider that the Bible speaks of truths, but that not every single word is to be taken literally.

Now in regard to Genesis, the Creationary Catastrophists read the first chapters of Genesis as historical prose, while Evolutionists and Creationary Evolutionists consider them mythology. The problem does not appear to be science, per se, but rather, interpretations of the Bible.

Figures of Authority

69. Your parents.

68. Your religious clerics (priest, pastor, etc.)

67. Your College Instructors.

It appears that most of us have a healthy respect for our parents. The same holds true for religious clerics except for among the Evolutionists. The Creationary Catastrophists are much more skeptical of college instructors than the others. It appears that for the Evolutionists, college instructors have taken the place of religious clerics as holders of truth.

Summary

The Evolutionists hold no religious affiliation, think that religion in unimportant and are non-religious, never attend Church (why should they?), and don't consider that the Bible holds truth.

The Creationary Evolutionists are mostly Protestant, think that religion is very important and hold conservative to moderate religious positions, attend church regularly and believe that the Bible holds truth expressed by various styles of writings.

The Creationary Catstrophists are also mostly Protestant, think that religion is very important and hold fundamentalist to conservative religious positions, attend church slightly more often than Creationary Evolutionists and believe that the Bible holds truth expressed by various styles of writing.