I was reading the Religion section on my newspaper today

[Curmudgeoness]

and I ran across an article regarding a survey that was done. Well, actually it was two surveys, and the results are funny as well as interesting.

“I know what you did last Sunday,” claims the title of a new survey.

You skipped church. And then nearly one in seven of you fibbed about attending.

snip....


The survey finds that many Christians — and unbelievers, too — will exaggerate about attending worship in live phone interviews. However, when asked in an anonymous online questionnaire, people will answer more realistically.

On the phone, 36 percent of Americans report attending religious services weekly or more, while 30 percent say they seldom or never go.

But online, a smaller share (31 percent) of people surveyed said they attended church at least weekly, while a larger portion (43 percent) admitted they seldom or never go.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/05/17/christians-church-atheists-prri/

What I found fascinating, besides that religious people lied, is the sociological issues that this survey uncovered. Even when the are talking to someone on the phone, who doesn't know them and they should not care about being judged by them, they will try to look good by saying that they attended church when they didn't. Then it is odd that they were more honest when they were not talking to a human. I am still trying to figure this one out.

For the record, I would not lie.

[Heather MC]

1. I guess many people are not ready to openly admit

They KNOW they don't need church or religion to live a happy life. I mean once a person admits that truth out loud, Hello new Atheist! Scary stuff

[Curmudgeoness]

2. That is one of the things about this.

There were so many levels to that article. You are right, they are afraid to admit it. It also goes deeper. It shows just how much saying that you are a non-believer, or agnostic, or atheist, is looked down on in our society....so far.

I also read another article on that site about the people who are more likely to classify themselves as atheists....and women are not likely to say that they are atheists or agnostics. Highest numbers are college-educated men. Well, I always was one to buck the trends.

[defacto7]

3. If there is a real voiced human on the line

people are always more likely to impress, stick up for a particular value or feel by compulsion to promote a value they may not really believe but is "the right thing to do".

On paper, they are definitely more likely to be honest. It's like the only time they can confess to themselves what they really think. They certainly can't take on the weight of a real persons salvation by saying something that's not on the menu of righteousness. A paper can't go to hell.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I find this behavior very odd.

Apparently it is true, but since I am always one to just say what I think and not what people think that I should think, or what would impress someone on the other end of the phone, I am baffled by this.

Of course, I am no psychologist or sociologist, so I don't delve into other peoples' brains.

[Iggo]

5. I was reading the Religion section of my newspaper when I realized...

...there's a Religion section...in my newspaper!

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I wondered how long it would take

for someone to comment on that.

I am always disgusted every week when it comes out. I have noticed that there are a lot more articles about atheists than there ever were before. I think that people must be fascinated or horrified by us.

[onager]

7. One of the few honest surveys about that...

Was done in the 1990s by a group of sociologists.

In a rural Ohio county, they went into the churches every Sunday and counted heads. They also asked people if they went to church every week.

About 36% of residents said yep, they went to church every week, praise Jebus. But based on the actual head-counts, attendance was about 20%.

In the Wiki link below, this survey is discussed in the last para, "Criticism of Conventional Surveys."

The Gallup/Pew polls are almost worthless on this question, since they take the believers' claims of church attendance at face value.

Then this becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop with the Xian propagandists, who faithfully (pun intended) trumpet the "fact" that "FORTY PER CENT OF AMERICANS STILL GO TO CHURCH EVERY WEEK!!!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_attendance

[Curmudgeoness]

8. I am beginning to understand

why people would come right out and lie about their church attendance.

From your link....

The following studies confirmed a long suspected gap between an actual and self-reporting church attendance. The researchers have been wary of accusing over-reporters of dishonesty, as they found in the study, those who over report do so mainly to maintain perceptions of themselves as "churched" Americans, not because they are afraid to reveal to the interviewer that they are "bad Christians."

So they are really interested in pushing the numbers higher and putting themselves in the "church people" category, even if they aren't.

An interesting thing about that last two words in the excerpt.....why is it "bad Christians" instead of "bad believers", since the subject is not just Christian attendance but is church attendance. The assumptions abound.

[defacto7]

10. tisk, tisk,

Bearing false witness again as promoted by Martin Luther, a good lie would be acceptable to God if for the good of the church.
How many "commandments are there again? 11?"

[defacto7]

9. Yes, Gallup and Pew have to be taken with a grain.

They definitely have an angle and a supporting constituency.

[onager]

12. That's what attracted the sociologists, IIRC...

They were trying to study church attendance data, and started by going back to the very first Gallup polls on the subject. Which dated back to the 1930s or 40s. They studied the Pew polls the same way.

The results showed amazing consistency. TOO amazing. Where most subjects showed the kind of variance one would expect among Americans over 5 decades - attitudes toward drugs, race relations, sexual mores, etc. etc., - church attendance never seemed to change.

Every year the polls showed about 40-50% of regular church attendance reported among both Catholics and Protestants. And every year, as I already grumped, the churches touted those poll results as proof Americans were still an overwhelmingly church-going and gawd-fearing people.

The sociologists couldn't get any non-suspicious figures on church attendance. They finally decided the only way they'd ever find out was by going into the churches and counting noses every Sunday. Then ask the usual Gallop/Pew type of question - how often do you go to church? And compare the two figures.

I believe the same low figures were found by the Barna Research Group. Which is interesting because George Barna is a Xian Fundamentalist himself. I respect his polling (if not his beliefs) because he never seems to cook the figures. He just reports what he finds. And boy, does he piss off the other Fundies with those findings. Which is another reason I trust him.

Example: after 9/11 we heard a lot of propaganda about church attendance going way up, Americans turning back to Gawd, and on and on. Barna waited awhile, then reported that his polls found what we all suspected - an uptick in church attendance for a few weeks following the attacks, after which attendance settled back down to the usual low level.