So tired of the FSM. It’s from an internet where ‘talk like a pirate’ is novel.
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Ugh thank you. While we’re at it, can we get rid of steampunk and zombies? Both were never actually cool or interesting, and even if they were, they’re played out.
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If Mormonism isn’t Christianity, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Copts, Quakers, and Gnostics. 
No thoughts as to why but them I’m not really surprised about them being second somewhere in the U.S. Probably about 12-15 years ago, I was sitting in a car near Jacksonville, FL and spent a good hour listening to the local Baha’i station. I don’t know about Florida, but here in NC you don’t get a radio station on a whim.
Speaking of which, it was a reasonably pleasant listening experience and I highly recommend it if you get the opportunity. Not a terribly religious station per se (not a problem but if you’re expecting a full education on Baha’i, not what you wanted) but it was nice to get a different perspective.
And when they do, it’s far less annoying. From what I’ve seen, official proselytizing is called Dawah which, if I recall correctly, could be translated as “a call to faith.” I’ve watched several Dawah videos and what I’ve seen was very laid back and basically a verbal presentation of the proselytizer’s faith.
I don’t know that I’m describing this in a way that makes it obvious what the difference is. Sorry about that. If you’re interested in seeing what I’m talking about, Dawah videos are easy to find on youtube. I’d link but it’s been far too long since I watched one for me to be making recommendations.
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I think you’re right about why Islam is the prominent color in the Great Plains, and it’s probably the same reason that northern New England is pink - winning by default. Having a very small sample size sure helps!
- The states have small populations. Vermont only has a population of about 630,000.
- NH, VT, and ME are often the lowest-ranked religious states. So after you subtract the ~55% of VTers that aren’t religious, you’re down to a religious sample population of under 350,000.
- The three states are also ranked as the least diverse states in the Union. There are only 5,000 Jews in the whole state (and close to as many Muslims now.)
Although if they ever get around to building the proposed Baha’i Temple in Maine, it could join South Carolina.
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That was quite interesting. My first thought was “now I know what the country will be like after the Rapture.”
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The Canadian numbers are interesting, but they probably don’t say a lot about how the US map would look if atheism was included. The intensity–or at least the demonstrativeness–of religion in the US is much, much higher. You normally never hear Canadian politicians or sports figures talk about religion or mention their beliefs, and the overall impression is that Canadians are much more atheist, and less religious, than their US counterparts. Of course, it would be nice to have hard figures to see if these impressions are correct, but my gut says that there are major differences in religiosity.[quote=“Ignatius, post:43, topic:33663”]
And when they do, it’s far less annoying. From what I’ve seen, official proselytizing is called Dawah which, if I recall correctly, could be translated as “a call to faith.” I’ve watched several Dawah videos and what I’ve seen was very laid back and basically a verbal presentation of the proselytizer’s faith.
[/quote]
When I was traveling through Central Asia, the religion question was a common one (along with: how old are you, are you married, and do you have children–questions which are inevitably followed by piteous looks when they find out how old you are and your lack of spouse/children), especially when visiting mosques. Nobody cared if you said you were Christian and I don’t think many would care if you said you were Jewish; they were just curious. But if you said you were atheist, many (especially at mosques) would become genuinely alarmed and worried for you. One guy I met was really worried for me and insisted that I repeat the Shahada before he could leave me. It was very charming,
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Intensity, yeah. But certain provinces surprised me. Newfoundland is 97.13% Christian, 2.53% non-religious, and the next on the list is Islam at 0.12%. On the other end (religiously and geographically), British Columbia is 54.92% Christian, 35.88% non-religious, and 3.5% Sikh. 3.5% Sikh is as high as percentages go for anything other than Christian and non-religious. Most number I heard for the US for non-religious is in the 10-20% region. There are probably some exceptions, but I bet if the US map was done with non-religious as a category, it would probably be second in most states.
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Spot on! 
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I wonder how many of the Jewish areas, especially Minnesota are skewed by Christians lying about their religion. Jews for Jesus will lie about almost anything in my experience if they can just get the time of day with a real Jew. As people they seem completely normal pushy Christians, which I can handle just fine, but they have created a creepy bizarro cult of (badly) copying what they imagine orthodox Jews do, look like, and say. Real religious Jews don’t fall for the obviously amateur attempt but it attracts many Israelophile Christians who like having an excuse to do the ritual when they feel like it and emulate a culture they admire.
I would be more positive if they were just out to enjoy themselves SCA style by acting out old testament stuff or dressing up like Jews; instead the mission is to find the weakest of another religion and through trickery confuse and convert them for their own good. The assumption being that Jews, especially religious ones are either ignorant and kept in the dark by evil Rabbis who want to keep getting a paycheck or too stupid to read in the actual Hebrew language what is apparently obvious to a Christian who is reading a bad English translation influenced by an overriding new testament which contradicts and invalidates the old.
I had a friend who was a surgeon in the US army, he is also an orthodox Jew. While he was saving lives in Iraq there was a Jew for Jesus chaplain who managed to get registered as Jewish who was blocking passover seder kits provided, by Jewish donation not taxpayer dollars, away from actual Jews and diverting them to Christians who wanted to try out a made up J4J seder.
I like most Christians, even pushy ones who are honest and I can play debate games with, I just cant stand someone who lies and deceives for what they believe with full faith is my own good, hoping to save my soul through trickery.
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I was thinking that “2nd place” might comprise a rather small sample.
Baha’i got a bit of media coverage here in the UK after the death of dodgy dossier sceptic David Kelly, who was an adherent.
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I’m not sure quite how you would get accurate data on active religious faith. I don’t think Mr Finch’s “Machine” would be up to the task; you might need Prof X’s “Cerebro”.
Besides the J4J folks, counting Jews is made all the more complicated by Judaism itself. Or rather, by Orthodox and Conservative understanding of Jewish law, there is a reasonable chunk of the Reform population who are not Jewish by the standards used for the last few thousand years. Why? Traditionally a person is a Jew if born of a Jewish mother or a convert who did so according to traditional Jewish law, but in the early 80s the Reform movement decided to broaden their interpretation to “a person born of one Jewish parent” in order to appease the broad section of its membership who married non-Jewish women.
BTW that story about your friend’s experience is interesting. My Rabbi knows some of the Rabbis involved in supplying seder kits to the US armed forces overseas, I’ll have to let him know this.
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Hey, isn’t that in King’s Landing?
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That is a nice looking building.
I thnk a non-trivial number of people have doubts they’d rather not confront. And a non-trivial number of people keep the faith for their kids sake. But if you asked “Do you believe God sent Jesus, his only son, to be born of a virgin to forgive our sins via his death and resurrection?” you’ll get more no responses than if you asked “Are you a Christian?”
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No, it’ll be the opposite. All those rabid we’re-better-than-you “Christians”? They’d be the ones left behind. And quite angry about it too, I’d bet.
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It all depends on what view of the ‘rapture’ you take - you could always go with the theory that true believers are the ones who will be left behind to rule the earth while the rejects are taken away for judgment.
What if only those who believed in the rapture were taken? Rapture is not a mainstream Christian belief. It first developed in the 19th century. It is rejected by mainstream protestant and all apostolic churches.
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This is extremely simplistic, but my take on it:
Baha’i : Islam :: Unitarian-Universalism : Christianity
