On the same day that most of the world was remembering the World Trade Centre attacks, Baylor University - the world's largest Baptist university - published a survey about the US and its relationship with God, writes Bonnie Malkin.
The university's Institute for Studies of Religion asked 1,721 people a series of questions about how they felt about God in an attempt to find out just how religious America really is. The answer? A little bit more religious than previously thought.
The Washington Post reported that, according to the Religion Survey, the number of atheists in the US had fallen by 10 million since 1990. While MSNBC was pleased, declaring America a country of believers, not everyone was convinced.
In a post titled Atheists Miscounted Morons.org wrote:
The percentage of those professing atheism remains controversial. The American Atheists claim thirty million Americans are atheists. Others believe that because of the stigma associated with atheism in the US, the percentage may be underreported. Still more people may attend church rarely or infrequently without the religion they practice out of habit actually affecting their lives.
Arguments aside, the survey also contained lots of theological tidbits. One of the most remarkable, reports the Houston Chronicle, was that 4% believed God has his own favourite political party.
The survey also found that most Americans believed God has one of four personalities (bossy, friendly, cold and grumpy) and that the more often you attend church, the less likely you are to have read The Da Vinci Code.
Amen.
