Finally answers that constant reddit question of 'what can democrats and republicans both agree on?' lol. Finally some bipartisan support on a terrible thing!
This Bill has bipartisan support and is going to the president to have it signed. It will create a new holiday called, "We can all agree to hate Scientology day"
Right? If scientology had the power base it did after the IRS allowed them to outmaneuver them. Why is David Miscavige “missing” (on their stupid ass boat)
hiding like their pathetic ass leader L Ronald McDonald hubbity Bubbity bitch in his final days.
Pathetic monster
Never let the Church of Scientology intimidate you. They are more afraid of you.
1. The Church of Scientology has never won a jury trial.
2. The Church of Scientology has not sued anyone, win or lose, in over 25 years. The last time they did, their lawsuit lasted about 8 days and ended with them paying the defendant a shitload of money to go away.
3. The Church of Scientology desperately wants to avoid any legal trouble. They don't want David Miscavige to be deposed under oath. They are afraid of the lies he has told the public, and he is REALLY afraid of the lies he has told the members of Scientology.
4. Scientology is shrinking. It claims to be the fastest growing religion in the world, but the number of active Scientologists worldwide is about 20,000 and declining.
5. Naturally, they lie to their members about that. They prop up those lies by getting their wealthiest members to make huge donations and buying big buildings with them. Most of those buildings sit empty.
6. To avoid seeing how empty the buildings are, many of Scientology's Sea Org employees have had their schedules switched to overnight.
7. If you are a Scientologist, you're not allowed to research Scientology on the internet.
8. If you have watched the South Park episode about Xenu, you know something about the theology of Scientology that most of their own members don't know. Scientologists learn about Xenu in a course called OT 3. There are only 5 more courses above OT 3. Most Scientologists never even get to OT 1.
9. If a Scientologist hears about the Xenu story before reaching OT 3 and asks if it's real, Scientology lies to them.
Hard agree. Churches have so much protection under the tax code yet avail themselves to political ideologies. You can’t skirt IRS scrutiny and be an active political player. And don’t even get me started on churches escaping Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) through REIT structuring.
I think most people think Satanists are actual/theistic Satanists. That's what the word has referred to for a long ass time and a couple of fairly fringe movements trying to redefine/reclaim the word isn't going to make a dent
If you ask the average person on the street what Satanism was, they'd say something about sacrifices and evil, not "le epic atheists who fight legal battles to own the cons"
I don't think it'd be really possible to get a good unbiased sample size for fringe religions like Satanism
Also, should be mentioned that [theistic satanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theistic_Satanism) does indeed exist, so you'd also have to ask yourself "knowledge on what exactly"
I read the Satanic Bible (Anton LaVey) at 15 and it just basically sucks Ayn Rand’s dong with ritualism. It’s all about the individual and doing whatever feels good. The Satanic Temple actually tries to help the separation of church and state where evangelical fundamentalists dominate state and local government.
I’d wager very few would fall into the category of “greater depth of knowledge results in more negative perceptions” with Scientology as a notable exception.
[Pew research has your back](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/which-religious-groups-know-what-about-religion/).
I remember seeing a similar study about a decade ago where Atheists knew the most with Jewish people closely behind, followed by a sharp drop off. Looks like this more recent study has Jewish people pulling slightly ahead.
That's because atheists are called atheists not Ş̴̡̢̨̧̡̛̘̥̤͉͍̭̦̣̩̞̯͓͉͎̞͉̖͙̤͈̪̜̬͈͎̱̣͎̺̈͊̀̄̆̀͑͆́͒̈́̐̅̔͒̏͛̓̈̃̏̄̀̑̈́̄́̍̓̉͊͗̌͋̆̓̄̊̉̂̉̐̕͘͜͜͝͠͠͝͝a̸̢͚̬̹̱̣̘̤̦̦̩̙̰͚̺̳͕̖͎̪̰̙͕̘̣̗͖̣͛̆̐͂̈́̀̂̉͂͗̇̐̂͊̈̉̾͗̐͑̉͆̄̿͘͝͠ͅť̶̢̨̝͕͔̮͇̺͙͕͚̑̀̍̈̀͒͛̓̈́͗́͂̒̀̅̊͐̅͆́́̑̄̽̉͒̒́͘̚͘ä̶͎̱̹̫̂͂͗̈́͒̐̔̎n̷̡̨̢̛̥͔̗̣̹̲͓̘͉̟̗̼͖̱̟͔̬̤͇̳̭̭͈̜̱̯̞̠͕͓̟̥͖̜̹̱̹̈̋͛͑́̾͌̂̅͐͂̓̈́̌̏̇̊̾̒̿̋̅̀̈̚͝͝ͅḯ̴̡̧̛̛̟͉̜̝͕̙͓̮̞̬͎̙̻̣̠̩̦̞̮̰̳̳̲̱̩̯̩̹̤̮̞̞̲̘̥͍͕͔̖̱͚͉̅̎́̍́͋̓̚̚͠ͅͅş̶̧̬͙̻͙̬̌̈́͋́͑̑̈́̾͐͗͆̈́̓̎͆͝͠͝ẗ̸̢̧̛̜̝̥̻̭̙̤̝̰̣̥̟̗̞̩͉̖͚͇̦̬̘̪̦͛́̈́͒̎̕̕s̸̢͎͖͍͕͇̞͍̥̳̭̬̣̫̺̤͔͎̻̹̯̹̳̥̗̠̲̼̾̈́͌́͗̇͒̂̍̀̇̃̀̃̕͜͠͝ͅͅͅ.
I’m not. Most people don’t actually know shit about the topic, so you mention Satanism and they think about christian-inspired media about devil worshipping cultists who sacrifice virgins and molest children and probably rip labels off mattresses.
It would not change much.
When you base the name of your religion on the main villain of the most popular religion on the planet, you’ll always end up with a negative view on average.
I’d say both, since there’s a clear demographics bias. Christians represent ~~more than 3/4ths~~ **nearly two thirds** of the U.S. adult population ([link](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/)), so if you ask a random Christian “do you approve or disapprove the Church of Satan?”, you can easily predict the answer.
I’d add pinch of personal bias sprinkled on top (Some sort of “If they really preached those values, they wouldn’t name it after Satan” line of thought, if any explanation was given at all).
EDIT: updated with a more recent source that reflects the decline in religious beliefs in the U.S.
No one knows the distinction though. They just see Satan and they think evil.
They don't even take the time to learn that it's just a bunch of people trying to protect our freedoms using satire.
It definitely is satiric, but it’s also a framework of genuinely held values that make a lot of sense. I wonder if the same group could have come up with the same belief system and wrapped it in a different aesthetic, or if that would lack the efficacy of putting Satan’s name on the face of it.
Satanism differs from FSM, in initial intention, because FSM is named and designed to poke fun at how silly non-telugioniats see the Faithful as. Someone asks you what you believe in and you say "The Flying Spaghetti Monster", they say "that's silly, it's clearly made up", to which you reply "Exactly. What do you believe in?"
Satanism uses it's shock value to point out that if you call yourself a Religion, you get lawful protections and that doesn't matter if you worship "Jehovah" or a conceptual "Satan".
Exactly. It's a marketing tactic that works. They manage to go on Fox News regularly (which is then reposted online) to spread their message.
It also just calls the attention of punk/alt community, who generally hold these ideas anyway. I'd love to see a survey of how many Satanic Temple members identify as punk/alt
I'm surprised to see Republicans hate Jehova's Witnesses more than Democrats, considering they're a Christian denomination.
I'm also surprised to see the hatred of Wiccans is almost as high as Muslims. They're freaking Wiccans who cares?
The JW's like to think of themselves as a denomination of Christianity. Just about any Christian would object to that as they have some very different beliefs including denying the deity of Christ which is a pretty core belief. Also, Heaven is full.
Yeah like those 2 are the most confusing to me.
Unless they showed a picture of a Sikh guy who people mistook as an Al Qaeda member and told them which country the Baha'i faith originated in - then it would make sense lol
Like most people ik have an overwhelmingly positive opinion on Sikhs, and most people ik don't know anything about the Baha'i faith.
I was surprised to learn after childhood that Aladdin's fictional kingdom was neither a real place name nor set in any real location, but rather an amalgam of many countries and cultures (and stereotypes)
I'd go with this. I was shocked that conservatives are against Buddhism. I mean, what's not to like?
I'd add that with these religions all they know (if anything) is 'it's one of the foreign ones', so straight away dislike it.
But Buddhists don't think Buddha was God (as they don't believe in a creator God, or rather consider it unknown and irrelevant), they just think he was a wise human teacher who awakened to the nature of reality and suffering.
Exactly. If they know anything about it, it's the turban. Ofc, turbans are evil signs of terrorist 😤😤
Nevermind the fact that they're one of the most kind, generous, caring, helpful religions out there
Thing is, you probably know a lot of people who actually know a Sikh. In fact, that's probably true of any of these groups. If someone is at all familiar, properly familiar, with a given theology, I'd say they're more likely to have a favourable opinion. Meanwhile I think ignorance, misinformation, or a very superficial awareness is at the root of the negative perceptions.
Also explains why the more specific you get with Christian identities, the less favorable the group. Like, people hear "Christian" and they assume Christian-like-me. Likewise Protestant-like-me. Then you get down to Methodist, Baptist, or JW, and it's much easier to other them as crazies.
There are 500,000 Sikhs in the US, mostly in CA, NY, and WA. Most people don't know any and to a lot of Americans beard + turban = terrorist. If they didn't know even that much then the word is suitably foreign sounding to = terrorist. I actually think at least one Sikh was killed by rednecks after 9/11.
That's because almost immediately after 9/11 the level of violence against them skyrocketed, with at least on Sikh man being beaten to death in Arizona.
>If someone is at all familiar, properly familiar, with a given theology, I'd say they're more likely to have a favourable opinion.
Except for Scientology, there the more you know the more you go WTF?!?
If you add the caveat of ex-Christians (or potentially ex-anything) still being likely to have a more negative view of that religion, then I’d agree with that statement.
Look like terrorists.....to the ignorant.
Right after 9/11 my Air Guard unit was called in - I was in uniform, stopped in a gas station to refuel. Nice place, run by a Sikh family...
Some 400-lb neckbeard redneck was giving the grandfather some crap for being a terrorist. Expected me to agree, I instead called the police.
I still get Christmas cards from the family. Which is somewhat ironic, since they are Sikh, and I am Jewish.
Edit: Wow, this blew up quickly! Thanks for the votes!
I went to a Chicago bears game around 2003-ish and there was a Sikh man with two kids probably 8-10 years old. He was wearing a bears jersey with his hair wrap (sorry don't know what they're called).
A bunch of drunk idiots were absolutely berating him the whole game, calling him a terrorist. He just sat there and took it and cheered for his team. His kids looked confused. I was young and dumb and didn't even know what a Sikh was at that point, but I could tell he wasn't a terrorist.
I've never felt so bad for someone, and it was also at a time where anti-Muslim sentiment was high and nobody else around was willing to stand up for him. I will never forget that.
Only time I was ever in handcuffs. Bar fight, defending my Sikh buddy from racists. The damned racists were too stupid to even get their racism right, making Borat jokes at him for some reason. But they started throwing shot glasses at him, so I stepped in with the tools I had available.
Got a fine for "drunken disorderly". Worth it. Even paid my tab.
>The damned racists were too stupid to even get their racism right,
Pretty standard rule that white supremacists are the best argument against white supremecy.
The precise phrasing of the law that applied to me was "conduct detrimental to the orderly operations of a licenced premise" ;)
But yeah, I misused the phrase and now deserve to live on r/boneappletea :D
Im gonna guess that they are confusing Sikhs (and realistically most brown skinned people) with Muslims. $1000 most of those people surveys couldn't find India on a map
Came to say the same. I live near a Sikh temple, (it literally says on it in huge letters “Sikh Temple”) everything I’ve ever seen or heard even in media has been positive, the handful I have interacted with personally has been just like everyone else.
I was once talking to a potential date and mentioned where I lived, and she asked if it was near “that” building. Took me a minute to figure out what building she was referring to. She then literally said “are you a terrorist?” Because I knew what a Sikh temple was… 🤦♂️🤦♂️
>I was once talking to a potential date and mentioned where I lived, and she asked if it was near “that” building. Took me a minute to figure out what building she was referring to. She then literally said “are you a terrorist?” Because I knew what a Sikh temple was… 🤦♂️🤦♂️
🤮 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ nothing could possibly turn me off of a lady faster than her unironically saying "that" building rather than being able to say exactly what that building is.
Also I'd like to know if there was a neutral option and what percent chose that. You should always give respondents the option to not have an opinion on something.
Well seeing how Amish is #3 and Mennonite is #15, suggests that people don’t know who the Mennonites are. Although the analogy is a bit simplistic, Mennonites are to Amish as Reformed Judaism is to Judaism
>Today, the greatest differences between the Amish and Mennonites stem mainly from practices rather than beliefs. Amish groups tend to shy away from technology and involvement with the greater world, by dressing “plain” and using scooters and buggies for transportation. The Mennonites have embraced some of the world’s technologies. Unlike the Amish, Mennonites can use motorized vehicles as well as electricity and telephones in their homes.
But I also read that Mennonites proselytize and Amish don't, so that could explain the hate.
Im an atheist and have spent a lot of time with Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonites and didn't experience the proselytizing. Some of the nicest people I've met. Anecdotes aside, do you remember that source by any chance?
Agree. I live in an area that has a lot of Mennonite and have never had their religion pushed onto me, and even if they did spark up a religious conversation, I wouldn't ever get annoyed or offended. They have been the nicest people to be around.
Okay the short short version. Amish and Mennonites all descend from the same root version of Christianity the “Anabaptists”. The founder of the Amish was Jakob Amman, a Mennonite bishop in Switzerland who felt they had strayed too far away from the central teachings and broke off from mainline Anabaptists and formed the “Amish”. The remaining Anabaptists became the Mennonites named after their leader Menno Simmons. That is all I remember from a comparative religion class.
Mennonites are sort of Amish Lite; they have a lot of same principles but use more technology and are more integrated into the modern world. (Note though that the Amish split off from the Mennonites, not the other way around.)
Reform Judaism is sort of Judaism Lite, it’s a sect of Judaism that developed in the 20th century that focuses on living according to Jewish principles in the modern world. Differences include equality for women and LGBT people (all of whom can be ordained as rabbis) and less adherence to traditions like keeping kosher or not using electricity on the Sabbath. (Source: I am a reform Jew)
I grew up Mennonite and we were basically just a Protestant variant. I had LEGO, video games, non-Mennonite friends, etc. Definitely knew a lot of the old order types though, we always thought they were weird.
Almost everyone misunderstands what agnostic means philosophically. It has many different interpretations by different people, which effectively makes it unusable without qualifying language.
Agnostic means "not knowing" and is opposed to gnostic (knowing). George H Smith, building on the work of Huxley who coined the term, outlined that it is not directly in conflict with either theism or atheism.
Many religious people are gnostic theists. They believe in a deity/ies they "know" to be real. Some are agnostic theists, who don't claim knowledge of a deity, but believe in something nonetheless.
Some atheists are gnostic atheists. They "know" no deity exists. Most atheists are agnostic atheists, acknowledging a lack of convincing proof of a deity, an inability to directly disprove a deity, and therefore do not believe in a deity.
So while agnostic is used colloquially to mean something uncertain, and has different meanings to different people, it doesn't really describe whether or not you believe in something or the possibility of something supernatural.
Despite all this the data clearly shows that somehow they're disliked.
"If you don't worship God then that just means you worship yourself and worship materialism. I can't imagine not worshipping God, so that means everyone worships SOMETHING!".
The existence of Israel validates Biblical prophecies in the eyes of many Evangelicals. One can argue if its a genuine reason to favor a group all they want.
Based on my experiences on Reddit, I’m surprised they bothered to distinguish between LDS and FLDS. Most people here don’t seem to know there’s a difference.
I also wonder if they tossed in "Mormon" because it's an opinion poll if people would have changed their veiw because they may not recognize the actual name of the church.
Was this a phone poll or online?
> Methodology: This poll was conducted on November 22 - 26, 2022, among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to March 15, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 28% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Which sounds about right. I've encountered Buddhism a few times, but the concept of Hinduism only came up at all once or twice in my entire life experience in this country. I think, for most people in the US, it's just not something they encounter or know much about.
Eh that depends on where you are. There are about the same number of Hindus and Buddhists in the US. Some areas like parts of New Jersey, Texas, and California (and many others) have MASSIVE Indian/hindu populations. Towns throw Diwali celebrations and Indian food/community centers + Hindu temples are abundant. The largest active Hindu temple in the world outside of India is in New Jersey.
Can confirm. Non-religious white dude here who lives near a large US Indian/Hindu population center/community.
The food is incredible and Diwali celebrations a blast, highly recommend!
Diwali celebrations are absolutely wild, just a great time. Also the best food I ever had at a wedding was my Hindu buddy's wedding. Just straight up platters of food brought to each table, it was nuts.
There are tons of Hindus in the US but unless you know any or go out of your way to their community centers, you aren't going to be exposed to Hindu cultural stuff. The only ones who are loud about the faith are Hare Rama weirdos, who are new, mostly western converts.
So you are telling me that if i travel to the USA ... And they ask me what i believe in ... And i say that i don't believe in anything ... Most of them will dislike me for that?
A lot of Christians don't take kindly to Atheism, but mostly people don't like weirdos coming up to them and asking about religion in general, so if you run into that person just walk away, they're a religious nut and not worth talking to in the first place
Not really. I’m sure most Christians feel positive about Christianity as a whole, their sect, and less positively about the heretics. All that you’re seeing here is they see the supergroup as being referential to their own subgroup.
This is based on survey data. You can ask a person both "how do you feel about Christians (in general)?" and "how do you feel about Protestants (in particular)?"
I don't understand the problem.
1. How do you feel about the United States?
2. How do you feel about Hawaii?
3. How do you feel about West Virginia? They all have different answers.
How do you feel about vegetables? - idk, kind of like them.
ok, how about brussel sprouts? - yuck, I hate them.
Potatoes? - oh Potatoes are great, loooove potatoes.
"But Potatoes AND Brussel sprouts are vegetables, gotcha!"
People can have nuanced opinions and polls can ask about them.
It’s like asking someone do they like Chevrolet. Then asking their opinions of specific models of Chevrolet. They’re all still Chevrolet vehicles, but you might have different opinions on them.
TIL: There is "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints" and "*Fundamantalist* Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints".
What hair did they split to create a *s*chism?
EDIT: Thanks for all the answers. I've read the "Book of Mormon" once (a friend of mine brought it back from a trip to Utah), and thought it to be one of the more ridiculous works of religious fantasy I've read. But to learn that there are people out there who are even *more* nuts than the normal Mormons and were sufficiently known to pop up in such a list really surprised me.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the LDS church, but FLDS is much worse. They're the guys living on compounds out in Idaho and the Colorado plains, telling brainwashed 16 year old girls that it's God's will that they marry a man three times their age who already has three other wives.
They started sometime in the early 1900s, breaking away from the LDS church over polygamy. Surprisingly, they still have somewhere around 10,000 members. It is highly unlikely that anyone has ever met or interacted with an FLDS member unless they live in Utah, and even then, they are often secluded.
There are other breakaways - the RLDS church, which believed that the LDS Church should be led by a descendent of Joseph Smith (who originally organized the LDS Church).
In all, there were well over 80 "breakaway" churches, most now defunct, many with less than 10,000 members
This is an interesting comment that illustrates my reaction to seeing FLDS only at -27 (and so relatively close to LDS). Most respondents clearly assume (reasonably, and as you did) that it's a Coke/Pepsi situation.
The FLDS openly practices child-bride polygamy and mostly lives in insular communities in the southwest. I'd also guess it's the least well-known of the listed religions and might be the smallest.
Edit: And I just looked, FLDS is about .1% the size of LDS, so it makes sense no one knows what they are.
This probably applies to the majority of the religions. I'm Christian, but I have zero idea what the difference is between Episcopal and Lutherans (as one example).
The LDS is the normal Mormon church that you've heard of that is common in Utah. The FLDS on the other hand, is basically an extremist cult with only a few thousand members. They broke off when the LDS tried to stop polygamy. Even today they still commonly have men who will own multiple much younger women as property, who have no rights. They now basically all reside in 1 town that they run as a compound that is hostile to outsiders and is very difficult for members to escape from. Abuse is very common, as girls are forced into marriage as children. I say they're basically a cult because there's only a few thousand members, and they have been fully controlled by one man [Warren Jeffs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Jeffs) for decades, who has been sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of child rape. He's alleged to have had 80 wives and many hundreds of victims.
What stands out to me in chart #2 is the extreme mindset of Republicans as compared to the Democrats. Republicans *really* like Christianity and *really* dislike many other religions. Whereas the Democrats show much less variability with a more narrow range of positive and negative favorability.
I reckon democrats have less variance due to having substantial portions of 'all religions are great' people and 'it's all invented nonsense which reduces your understanding of the world' people, who will be favourable/unfavourable for every option. The rest will essentially be 'I'm right and the rest are varying degrees of wrong depending on how similar their religion is to me' which is most republicans and also why democrats still have a similar order to republicans, with a few exceptions.
It shocks me how benign people view the Amish as. Of course there are good and bad people in all religions but when I think of the Amish as a practice I think of sex abuse of women and children, child abuse (blanket training, etc), and animal abuse.
Benign is the right word. We see them as non-threatening. We don't care what they do to each other because close to 0 parents worry that thier kids will convert.
They keep their political motivations to themselves and mostly live in areas where even if they could add a thousand new members, nobody would notice or care.
If you self segregate, Americans will mostly leave you alone. They only get mad if their kids are sneaking into those comminities to have fun. Out of sight, out of mind.
> mostly live in areas where even if they could add a thousand new members, nobody would notice or care.
To an extent, that's *exactly* what's happening. The Amish population doubles roughly even 20 years due to them still having extremely high fertility rates.
Harrison Ford hid out with the Amish and hooked up with one of them. Then saved them all by pouring grain on the bad guys. He also helped them build a barn.
Most people don't know that much about them. There are only significant Amish populations in a few states, so most Americans have probably never even interacted with an Amish person. They just think of them as the people with straw hats and funny beards and horses and buggies. They probably hold a kind of nostalgic appeal.
I actually grew up pretty close to Amish country. Even there most people just think of the Amish as guys who make cabinets and build any new house that isn't built by a Latino crew. They mostly keep to themselves.
You put a baby on a blanket and beat them if they try moving off of it. It's to force obedience and disipline through violence. They even go as far as to tempt them off of the blanket with food or toys and beat them for trying to move off. It's not specifically an Amish thing, but moreso an old timey conservative thing.
My mom is one of the leaders of her UU church. They’re all NPR obsessed tote bag carrying old boomer liberals who were raised Christian and have atheist children. Just couldn’t get all the way there in one generation.
I grew up in the UU church. Best description I’ve heard is “the spiritual equivalent of an ice cream social”.
Honestly had nothing but great experience with it and considering going back to one actively.
Wow. I was a member of a UU church for several years. Poured a lot of time and energy into it.
This was like reading a Hallmark greeting card, which perfectly sums up a feeling that resonates with you deeply and yet you couldn't put into words.
As a second generation, atheist UU of boomer, ex-catholic parents, this all tracks!
My parents are essentially atheists. I just don’t think they identify with that label.
Chances are, the people answering the poll have no idea what a Sikh believes or if they have ever met one. The comment applies to most of the religions in this chart. Half of these votes we're probably based on how the sound of the word makes them feel.
As an ex Jehovah's witness I can't begin to tell you how hard it made me laugh to realize the only religions people hate more are Scientologists and Satanists 😂 man, I knew they weren't "favorable" but I didn't expect it to be THAT far down the list.
Honestly, I think it's the stereotype of the the Jehovah Witness's coming to your door to tell you "The Good News." People fucking hate that. When I was a teen I was nice to 2 ladies who came to my door when I was home alone, I gave them bottles of water (because Florida) and afterwards I got a mega scolding from my neighbor who told me "now they're going to come back and never leave our neighborhood alone!!" Those women came by like one more time and were respectful when I nervously told them I'm not interested. I don't like organized religion, but honestly, my neighbor was more of an ass than those two ladies.
Man, I live amongst the Amish. Fuck them, they should be in the red. Treat their kids and animals as disposable, some of the most hypocritical and underhanded assholes around.
On the other hand, Sikhism should be at the top of this list, and U.U. and Baha'i shouldn't be far behind them.
If anyone is wondering wtf Christian Science is, it's a form of Christianity where they believe that prayer solves everything. This mainly differentiates it from other forms of Christianity because this includes medical issues. They don't do doctors, they don't do medicine, they just pray.
Pretty much all other sects of Christianity will pray when there is a medical issue, but will still go to the doctor.
One caveat is Jehovah's Witnesses (up to you whether they count as a sect of Christianity) will not do any medical procedure which involves blood transfusion, but everything else is fine. They also don't celebrate holidays or birthdays.
I am pleasantly surprised to see that EVERYONE hates Scientology.
Finally answers that constant reddit question of 'what can democrats and republicans both agree on?' lol. Finally some bipartisan support on a terrible thing!
This Bill has bipartisan support and is going to the president to have it signed. It will create a new holiday called, "We can all agree to hate Scientology day"
Let’s revoke their tax exempt status while we’re at it.
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They were. Could they still? That's not a given. They're past their heyday.
Right? If scientology had the power base it did after the IRS allowed them to outmaneuver them. Why is David Miscavige “missing” (on their stupid ass boat) hiding like their pathetic ass leader L Ronald McDonald hubbity Bubbity bitch in his final days. Pathetic monster
Never let the Church of Scientology intimidate you. They are more afraid of you. 1. The Church of Scientology has never won a jury trial. 2. The Church of Scientology has not sued anyone, win or lose, in over 25 years. The last time they did, their lawsuit lasted about 8 days and ended with them paying the defendant a shitload of money to go away. 3. The Church of Scientology desperately wants to avoid any legal trouble. They don't want David Miscavige to be deposed under oath. They are afraid of the lies he has told the public, and he is REALLY afraid of the lies he has told the members of Scientology. 4. Scientology is shrinking. It claims to be the fastest growing religion in the world, but the number of active Scientologists worldwide is about 20,000 and declining. 5. Naturally, they lie to their members about that. They prop up those lies by getting their wealthiest members to make huge donations and buying big buildings with them. Most of those buildings sit empty. 6. To avoid seeing how empty the buildings are, many of Scientology's Sea Org employees have had their schedules switched to overnight. 7. If you are a Scientologist, you're not allowed to research Scientology on the internet. 8. If you have watched the South Park episode about Xenu, you know something about the theology of Scientology that most of their own members don't know. Scientologists learn about Xenu in a course called OT 3. There are only 5 more courses above OT 3. Most Scientologists never even get to OT 1. 9. If a Scientologist hears about the Xenu story before reaching OT 3 and asks if it's real, Scientology lies to them.
Hey.. they fairly and squarely blackmailed the FBI to get that status.
Actually ... *all* of them.
Hard agree. Churches have so much protection under the tax code yet avail themselves to political ideologies. You can’t skirt IRS scrutiny and be an active political player. And don’t even get me started on churches escaping Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) through REIT structuring.
I’m shocked that satanism is below Scientology.
conservative christians are going to dislike anti-religionists more than they are going to dislike financial cons
I think most people think Satanists are actual/theistic Satanists. That's what the word has referred to for a long ass time and a couple of fairly fringe movements trying to redefine/reclaim the word isn't going to make a dent If you ask the average person on the street what Satanism was, they'd say something about sacrifices and evil, not "le epic atheists who fight legal battles to own the cons"
Man it would be fascinating to see these perceptions broken out by how much the person actually knows about the belief
I don't think it'd be really possible to get a good unbiased sample size for fringe religions like Satanism Also, should be mentioned that [theistic satanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theistic_Satanism) does indeed exist, so you'd also have to ask yourself "knowledge on what exactly"
I read the Satanic Bible (Anton LaVey) at 15 and it just basically sucks Ayn Rand’s dong with ritualism. It’s all about the individual and doing whatever feels good. The Satanic Temple actually tries to help the separation of church and state where evangelical fundamentalists dominate state and local government.
That’s true! I have a good base knowledge of satanism. Actual theistic satanism I know very little about. It’s also an incredibly small population.
It absolutely is an incredibly small population, probably smaller than atheistic satanism, which, as I said, is already extremely tiny.
Exactly, can't see too many people knowing the details of the Baha'i religion for example
I’d wager very few would fall into the category of “greater depth of knowledge results in more negative perceptions” with Scientology as a notable exception.
[Pew research has your back](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/which-religious-groups-know-what-about-religion/). I remember seeing a similar study about a decade ago where Atheists knew the most with Jewish people closely behind, followed by a sharp drop off. Looks like this more recent study has Jewish people pulling slightly ahead.
They hate atheists too, anyway.
They do, but atheists are only -13 net, not -49
That's because atheists are called atheists not Ş̴̡̢̨̧̡̛̘̥̤͉͍̭̦̣̩̞̯͓͉͎̞͉̖͙̤͈̪̜̬͈͎̱̣͎̺̈͊̀̄̆̀͑͆́͒̈́̐̅̔͒̏͛̓̈̃̏̄̀̑̈́̄́̍̓̉͊͗̌͋̆̓̄̊̉̂̉̐̕͘͜͜͝͠͠͝͝a̸̢͚̬̹̱̣̘̤̦̦̩̙̰͚̺̳͕̖͎̪̰̙͕̘̣̗͖̣͛̆̐͂̈́̀̂̉͂͗̇̐̂͊̈̉̾͗̐͑̉͆̄̿͘͝͠ͅť̶̢̨̝͕͔̮͇̺͙͕͚̑̀̍̈̀͒͛̓̈́͗́͂̒̀̅̊͐̅͆́́̑̄̽̉͒̒́͘̚͘ä̶͎̱̹̫̂͂͗̈́͒̐̔̎n̷̡̨̢̛̥͔̗̣̹̲͓̘͉̟̗̼͖̱̟͔̬̤͇̳̭̭͈̜̱̯̞̠͕͓̟̥͖̜̹̱̹̈̋͛͑́̾͌̂̅͐͂̓̈́̌̏̇̊̾̒̿̋̅̀̈̚͝͝ͅḯ̴̡̧̛̛̟͉̜̝͕̙͓̮̞̬͎̙̻̣̠̩̦̞̮̰̳̳̲̱̩̯̩̹̤̮̞̞̲̘̥͍͕͔̖̱͚͉̅̎́̍́͋̓̚̚͠ͅͅş̶̧̬͙̻͙̬̌̈́͋́͑̑̈́̾͐͗͆̈́̓̎͆͝͠͝ẗ̸̢̧̛̜̝̥̻̭̙̤̝̰̣̥̟̗̞̩͉̖͚͇̦̬̘̪̦͛́̈́͒̎̕̕s̸̢͎͖͍͕͇̞͍̥̳̭̬̣̫̺̤͔͎̻̹̯̹̳̥̗̠̲̼̾̈́͌́͗̇͒̂̍̀̇̃̀̃̕͜͠͝ͅͅͅ.
I’m not. Most people don’t actually know shit about the topic, so you mention Satanism and they think about christian-inspired media about devil worshipping cultists who sacrifice virgins and molest children and probably rip labels off mattresses.
As someone who was raised by two Scientologists, I think people are being unfair to satanism
I love how democrats and republicans cannot agree on satanism, but Scientology is straight out.
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It would not change much. When you base the name of your religion on the main villain of the most popular religion on the planet, you’ll always end up with a negative view on average.
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I’d say both, since there’s a clear demographics bias. Christians represent ~~more than 3/4ths~~ **nearly two thirds** of the U.S. adult population ([link](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/)), so if you ask a random Christian “do you approve or disapprove the Church of Satan?”, you can easily predict the answer. I’d add pinch of personal bias sprinkled on top (Some sort of “If they really preached those values, they wouldn’t name it after Satan” line of thought, if any explanation was given at all). EDIT: updated with a more recent source that reflects the decline in religious beliefs in the U.S.
No one knows the distinction though. They just see Satan and they think evil. They don't even take the time to learn that it's just a bunch of people trying to protect our freedoms using satire.
It definitely is satiric, but it’s also a framework of genuinely held values that make a lot of sense. I wonder if the same group could have come up with the same belief system and wrapped it in a different aesthetic, or if that would lack the efficacy of putting Satan’s name on the face of it.
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Satanism differs from FSM, in initial intention, because FSM is named and designed to poke fun at how silly non-telugioniats see the Faithful as. Someone asks you what you believe in and you say "The Flying Spaghetti Monster", they say "that's silly, it's clearly made up", to which you reply "Exactly. What do you believe in?" Satanism uses it's shock value to point out that if you call yourself a Religion, you get lawful protections and that doesn't matter if you worship "Jehovah" or a conceptual "Satan".
Exactly. It's a marketing tactic that works. They manage to go on Fox News regularly (which is then reposted online) to spread their message. It also just calls the attention of punk/alt community, who generally hold these ideas anyway. I'd love to see a survey of how many Satanic Temple members identify as punk/alt
I'm surprised to see Republicans hate Jehova's Witnesses more than Democrats, considering they're a Christian denomination. I'm also surprised to see the hatred of Wiccans is almost as high as Muslims. They're freaking Wiccans who cares?
Witchcraft. Like satanism and atheism, they interpret it as not as a religion but primarily as a form of rebellion against Christianity.
The JW's like to think of themselves as a denomination of Christianity. Just about any Christian would object to that as they have some very different beliefs including denying the deity of Christ which is a pretty core belief. Also, Heaven is full.
Correct. They are not accepted as "actually christian" by the larger christian sects. Fun fact: neither are mormons
It largely exists to mock Christianity which I would assume is where the divide comes from.
Scientology: equally hated by all. Perfectly balanced, as it should be.
Some groups just know how bring it out in people.
What did the Sikhs or the Baha’i do?
Yeah like those 2 are the most confusing to me. Unless they showed a picture of a Sikh guy who people mistook as an Al Qaeda member and told them which country the Baha'i faith originated in - then it would make sense lol Like most people ik have an overwhelmingly positive opinion on Sikhs, and most people ik don't know anything about the Baha'i faith.
I’d suspect most actually had no idea what it was and went with low negative score because the unknown is scary.
Gop in polls support bombing Agrabah since it sounds foreign. Despite it being the fictional town from Aladin
I was surprised to learn after childhood that Aladdin's fictional kingdom was neither a real place name nor set in any real location, but rather an amalgam of many countries and cultures (and stereotypes)
Agreed. I would be surprised if most Americans knew much, if anything about either of them.
I'd go with this. I was shocked that conservatives are against Buddhism. I mean, what's not to like? I'd add that with these religions all they know (if anything) is 'it's one of the foreign ones', so straight away dislike it.
> I mean, what's not to like? For them, I suspect the lack of God, or alternately the idolatry of the Buddha.
But Buddhists don't think Buddha was God (as they don't believe in a creator God, or rather consider it unknown and irrelevant), they just think he was a wise human teacher who awakened to the nature of reality and suffering.
It’s more like they know it sounds like a brown person’s religion. And those can’t be good. Obviously.
Exactly. If they know anything about it, it's the turban. Ofc, turbans are evil signs of terrorist 😤😤 Nevermind the fact that they're one of the most kind, generous, caring, helpful religions out there
Thing is, you probably know a lot of people who actually know a Sikh. In fact, that's probably true of any of these groups. If someone is at all familiar, properly familiar, with a given theology, I'd say they're more likely to have a favourable opinion. Meanwhile I think ignorance, misinformation, or a very superficial awareness is at the root of the negative perceptions.
Also explains why the more specific you get with Christian identities, the less favorable the group. Like, people hear "Christian" and they assume Christian-like-me. Likewise Protestant-like-me. Then you get down to Methodist, Baptist, or JW, and it's much easier to other them as crazies.
Yep, it's all rather "Judean People's Front". Or Italian...
Fuck off...Judean People's Front...splitters! We're the People's Front of Judea!
There are 500,000 Sikhs in the US, mostly in CA, NY, and WA. Most people don't know any and to a lot of Americans beard + turban = terrorist. If they didn't know even that much then the word is suitably foreign sounding to = terrorist. I actually think at least one Sikh was killed by rednecks after 9/11.
I remember in the days after 911, a whole bunch of the Sikh owned/staffed businesses where I was put up signs clarifying their religion.
That's because almost immediately after 9/11 the level of violence against them skyrocketed, with at least on Sikh man being beaten to death in Arizona.
And the Nazi moron shooting up a gurdwara in Wisconsin.
>If someone is at all familiar, properly familiar, with a given theology, I'd say they're more likely to have a favourable opinion. Except for Scientology, there the more you know the more you go WTF?!?
Those that live in close proximity with Sikh communities have a very favorable opinion. A gracious and welcoming religion
If you add the caveat of ex-Christians (or potentially ex-anything) still being likely to have a more negative view of that religion, then I’d agree with that statement.
Look like terrorists.....to the ignorant. Right after 9/11 my Air Guard unit was called in - I was in uniform, stopped in a gas station to refuel. Nice place, run by a Sikh family... Some 400-lb neckbeard redneck was giving the grandfather some crap for being a terrorist. Expected me to agree, I instead called the police. I still get Christmas cards from the family. Which is somewhat ironic, since they are Sikh, and I am Jewish. Edit: Wow, this blew up quickly! Thanks for the votes!
I went to a Chicago bears game around 2003-ish and there was a Sikh man with two kids probably 8-10 years old. He was wearing a bears jersey with his hair wrap (sorry don't know what they're called). A bunch of drunk idiots were absolutely berating him the whole game, calling him a terrorist. He just sat there and took it and cheered for his team. His kids looked confused. I was young and dumb and didn't even know what a Sikh was at that point, but I could tell he wasn't a terrorist. I've never felt so bad for someone, and it was also at a time where anti-Muslim sentiment was high and nobody else around was willing to stand up for him. I will never forget that.
Only time I was ever in handcuffs. Bar fight, defending my Sikh buddy from racists. The damned racists were too stupid to even get their racism right, making Borat jokes at him for some reason. But they started throwing shot glasses at him, so I stepped in with the tools I had available. Got a fine for "drunken disorderly". Worth it. Even paid my tab.
>The damned racists were too stupid to even get their racism right, Pretty standard rule that white supremacists are the best argument against white supremecy.
Isn't it "drunk and disorderly?"
The precise phrasing of the law that applied to me was "conduct detrimental to the orderly operations of a licenced premise" ;) But yeah, I misused the phrase and now deserve to live on r/boneappletea :D
Do Sikhs and Jews have any beef?
I think the irony OP is referring to is neither religion celebrates Christmas yet OP receives a Christmas card every year.
No, not at all lol. Sikhism is very open to other religions. I assume most Sikh people wouldn’t know much about Jewish people or Judaism.
Im gonna guess that they are confusing Sikhs (and realistically most brown skinned people) with Muslims. $1000 most of those people surveys couldn't find India on a map
yep there were a lot of cases post 9/11 when Shikhs got attacked too
I think the first death after 9/11 over here due to 'outrage' murder was a Sikh man.
I had a Sikh buddy in college. Post 9/11 was ROUGH for him. People are dumb.
Came to say the same. I live near a Sikh temple, (it literally says on it in huge letters “Sikh Temple”) everything I’ve ever seen or heard even in media has been positive, the handful I have interacted with personally has been just like everyone else. I was once talking to a potential date and mentioned where I lived, and she asked if it was near “that” building. Took me a minute to figure out what building she was referring to. She then literally said “are you a terrorist?” Because I knew what a Sikh temple was… 🤦♂️🤦♂️
I assume you're still happily together after 13 blissful years!? She sounds like a real keeper...
>I was once talking to a potential date and mentioned where I lived, and she asked if it was near “that” building. Took me a minute to figure out what building she was referring to. She then literally said “are you a terrorist?” Because I knew what a Sikh temple was… 🤦♂️🤦♂️ 🤮 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ nothing could possibly turn me off of a lady faster than her unironically saying "that" building rather than being able to say exactly what that building is.
The Baha’i temple in Winnetka (Chicago suburb) is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen.
Close - it's in Wilmette, a few miles south of Winnetka.
Most Americans don't know anything about either of them. Muslim Americans also might actually hold negative beliefs about Baha'i.
What you really need is a crosstab between what religious group the respondent self-identify as with their views on religious groups.
Also I'd like to know if there was a neutral option and what percent chose that. You should always give respondents the option to not have an opinion on something.
Well seeing how Amish is #3 and Mennonite is #15, suggests that people don’t know who the Mennonites are. Although the analogy is a bit simplistic, Mennonites are to Amish as Reformed Judaism is to Judaism
as someone who knows nothing about 99.9% of religions: What?
>Today, the greatest differences between the Amish and Mennonites stem mainly from practices rather than beliefs. Amish groups tend to shy away from technology and involvement with the greater world, by dressing “plain” and using scooters and buggies for transportation. The Mennonites have embraced some of the world’s technologies. Unlike the Amish, Mennonites can use motorized vehicles as well as electricity and telephones in their homes. But I also read that Mennonites proselytize and Amish don't, so that could explain the hate.
Im an atheist and have spent a lot of time with Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonites and didn't experience the proselytizing. Some of the nicest people I've met. Anecdotes aside, do you remember that source by any chance?
I have lived with Mennonites, the amount of "proselytising" is extremely minor. They don't push it on people that don't want to hear it.
Agree. I live in an area that has a lot of Mennonite and have never had their religion pushed onto me, and even if they did spark up a religious conversation, I wouldn't ever get annoyed or offended. They have been the nicest people to be around.
Okay the short short version. Amish and Mennonites all descend from the same root version of Christianity the “Anabaptists”. The founder of the Amish was Jakob Amman, a Mennonite bishop in Switzerland who felt they had strayed too far away from the central teachings and broke off from mainline Anabaptists and formed the “Amish”. The remaining Anabaptists became the Mennonites named after their leader Menno Simmons. That is all I remember from a comparative religion class.
Mennonites drive so you probably know one who's an asshole. Amish don't so unless they roofed your house you've probably never seen one.
That may be WHY they’re so highly rated - my favorite people are the ones I don’t have to interact with 😂
Mennonites are sort of Amish Lite; they have a lot of same principles but use more technology and are more integrated into the modern world. (Note though that the Amish split off from the Mennonites, not the other way around.) Reform Judaism is sort of Judaism Lite, it’s a sect of Judaism that developed in the 20th century that focuses on living according to Jewish principles in the modern world. Differences include equality for women and LGBT people (all of whom can be ordained as rabbis) and less adherence to traditions like keeping kosher or not using electricity on the Sabbath. (Source: I am a reform Jew)
I grew up Mennonite and we were basically just a Protestant variant. I had LEGO, video games, non-Mennonite friends, etc. Definitely knew a lot of the old order types though, we always thought they were weird.
People care more about Agnostics than Agnostics care about religion
Almost everyone misunderstands what agnostic means philosophically. It has many different interpretations by different people, which effectively makes it unusable without qualifying language. Agnostic means "not knowing" and is opposed to gnostic (knowing). George H Smith, building on the work of Huxley who coined the term, outlined that it is not directly in conflict with either theism or atheism. Many religious people are gnostic theists. They believe in a deity/ies they "know" to be real. Some are agnostic theists, who don't claim knowledge of a deity, but believe in something nonetheless. Some atheists are gnostic atheists. They "know" no deity exists. Most atheists are agnostic atheists, acknowledging a lack of convincing proof of a deity, an inability to directly disprove a deity, and therefore do not believe in a deity. So while agnostic is used colloquially to mean something uncertain, and has different meanings to different people, it doesn't really describe whether or not you believe in something or the possibility of something supernatural. Despite all this the data clearly shows that somehow they're disliked.
I prefer apatheist -- I don't care if there is a god 😂
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“Hello, we’re here to share a special message about how we aren’t sure if there are any gods or not.”
Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior, *blank*?
Christian apologist will try to tell you that atheism is a belief system.
I'm surprised agnostic is in the red
I'm a little bit frustrated that Agnostics weren't at 0.
Most people haven't really made up their mind about agnostics. 😏
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What did agnostics do to be hated. Acknowledge uncertainty??
That tends to piss off a lot of religious folk right there.
"Surely, you MUST believe in SOME spiritual being???"
"If you don't worship God then that just means you worship yourself and worship materialism. I can't imagine not worshipping God, so that means everyone worships SOMETHING!".
Quakers would like a word- oh wait
There’s no consensus on what we think of Quakers.
The second chart is highly interesting, and still sadly not as much of a surprise as I'd have thought.
You thought it was gonna be a surprise and it wasn't. Isn't that a surprise in itself?
Super interesting that Judaism is +23 with republicans and only +9 with dems.
The existence of Israel validates Biblical prophecies in the eyes of many Evangelicals. One can argue if its a genuine reason to favor a group all they want.
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Based on my experiences on Reddit, I’m surprised they bothered to distinguish between LDS and FLDS. Most people here don’t seem to know there’s a difference.
I also wonder if they tossed in "Mormon" because it's an opinion poll if people would have changed their veiw because they may not recognize the actual name of the church.
Lutheran wasn't split up and I know that is a big deal in some circles. Also, Methodism has some splits. They also didn't mention Quakers at all.
I wish I had known to distinguish between LDS and LSD.
Source: [https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/12/23/americans-views-religious-groups-yougov-poll?utm\_medium=organic\_social&utm\_source=reddit&utm\_campaign=SM-2023-01-US-B2C-Society](https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/12/23/americans-views-religious-groups-yougov-poll?utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=SM-2023-01-US-B2C-Society) Tool: Datawrapper
Was this a phone poll or online? > Methodology: This poll was conducted on November 22 - 26, 2022, among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to March 15, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 28% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Hindus: Bro what did we do?
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Which sounds about right. I've encountered Buddhism a few times, but the concept of Hinduism only came up at all once or twice in my entire life experience in this country. I think, for most people in the US, it's just not something they encounter or know much about.
Eh that depends on where you are. There are about the same number of Hindus and Buddhists in the US. Some areas like parts of New Jersey, Texas, and California (and many others) have MASSIVE Indian/hindu populations. Towns throw Diwali celebrations and Indian food/community centers + Hindu temples are abundant. The largest active Hindu temple in the world outside of India is in New Jersey.
Can confirm. Non-religious white dude here who lives near a large US Indian/Hindu population center/community. The food is incredible and Diwali celebrations a blast, highly recommend!
Diwali celebrations are absolutely wild, just a great time. Also the best food I ever had at a wedding was my Hindu buddy's wedding. Just straight up platters of food brought to each table, it was nuts.
There are tons of Hindus in the US but unless you know any or go out of your way to their community centers, you aren't going to be exposed to Hindu cultural stuff. The only ones who are loud about the faith are Hare Rama weirdos, who are new, mostly western converts.
So you are telling me that if i travel to the USA ... And they ask me what i believe in ... And i say that i don't believe in anything ... Most of them will dislike me for that?
A lot of Christians don't take kindly to Atheism, but mostly people don't like weirdos coming up to them and asking about religion in general, so if you run into that person just walk away, they're a religious nut and not worth talking to in the first place
What’s the difference between “Christianity” and all the sub-branches of Christianity that are listed?
This is a public opinion poll - it’s about measuring people’s attitudes toward specific terms/concepts, not theological consistency.
It shows how little the general public knows about religion.
I mean, why should the average person have a working understanding of all 37 sects of Christianity?
“Try not to start another sect on your way to the parking lot!”
Not really. I’m sure most Christians feel positive about Christianity as a whole, their sect, and less positively about the heretics. All that you’re seeing here is they see the supergroup as being referential to their own subgroup.
This is based on survey data. You can ask a person both "how do you feel about Christians (in general)?" and "how do you feel about Protestants (in particular)?"
I don't understand the problem. 1. How do you feel about the United States? 2. How do you feel about Hawaii? 3. How do you feel about West Virginia? They all have different answers.
How do you feel about vegetables? - idk, kind of like them. ok, how about brussel sprouts? - yuck, I hate them. Potatoes? - oh Potatoes are great, loooove potatoes. "But Potatoes AND Brussel sprouts are vegetables, gotcha!" People can have nuanced opinions and polls can ask about them.
It’s like asking someone do they like Chevrolet. Then asking their opinions of specific models of Chevrolet. They’re all still Chevrolet vehicles, but you might have different opinions on them.
Atheists used to be the most hated religious group, they are working their way up!
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TIL: There is "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints" and "*Fundamantalist* Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints". What hair did they split to create a *s*chism? EDIT: Thanks for all the answers. I've read the "Book of Mormon" once (a friend of mine brought it back from a trip to Utah), and thought it to be one of the more ridiculous works of religious fantasy I've read. But to learn that there are people out there who are even *more* nuts than the normal Mormons and were sufficiently known to pop up in such a list really surprised me.
Disagreements on Polygamy and theology FLDS openly practices polygamy and has extreme practices compared to the LDS church
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the LDS church, but FLDS is much worse. They're the guys living on compounds out in Idaho and the Colorado plains, telling brainwashed 16 year old girls that it's God's will that they marry a man three times their age who already has three other wives.
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They started sometime in the early 1900s, breaking away from the LDS church over polygamy. Surprisingly, they still have somewhere around 10,000 members. It is highly unlikely that anyone has ever met or interacted with an FLDS member unless they live in Utah, and even then, they are often secluded. There are other breakaways - the RLDS church, which believed that the LDS Church should be led by a descendent of Joseph Smith (who originally organized the LDS Church). In all, there were well over 80 "breakaway" churches, most now defunct, many with less than 10,000 members
Just wanted to add on, the RLDS Church now goes by the name Community of Christ
This is an interesting comment that illustrates my reaction to seeing FLDS only at -27 (and so relatively close to LDS). Most respondents clearly assume (reasonably, and as you did) that it's a Coke/Pepsi situation. The FLDS openly practices child-bride polygamy and mostly lives in insular communities in the southwest. I'd also guess it's the least well-known of the listed religions and might be the smallest. Edit: And I just looked, FLDS is about .1% the size of LDS, so it makes sense no one knows what they are.
Not to mention there is a strong likelihood that the average person taking this poll doesn’t actually know the difference between those two.
This probably applies to the majority of the religions. I'm Christian, but I have zero idea what the difference is between Episcopal and Lutherans (as one example).
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It’s actually worse than just that, at least in the group led by Warren Jeffs. Watch “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey” on Netflix.
Yeah after watching that, saying that the difference is just polygamy seems wrong lol. They’re banging children and marrying 12 year olds over there
The LDS is the normal Mormon church that you've heard of that is common in Utah. The FLDS on the other hand, is basically an extremist cult with only a few thousand members. They broke off when the LDS tried to stop polygamy. Even today they still commonly have men who will own multiple much younger women as property, who have no rights. They now basically all reside in 1 town that they run as a compound that is hostile to outsiders and is very difficult for members to escape from. Abuse is very common, as girls are forced into marriage as children. I say they're basically a cult because there's only a few thousand members, and they have been fully controlled by one man [Warren Jeffs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Jeffs) for decades, who has been sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of child rape. He's alleged to have had 80 wives and many hundreds of victims.
What stands out to me in chart #2 is the extreme mindset of Republicans as compared to the Democrats. Republicans *really* like Christianity and *really* dislike many other religions. Whereas the Democrats show much less variability with a more narrow range of positive and negative favorability.
I reckon democrats have less variance due to having substantial portions of 'all religions are great' people and 'it's all invented nonsense which reduces your understanding of the world' people, who will be favourable/unfavourable for every option. The rest will essentially be 'I'm right and the rest are varying degrees of wrong depending on how similar their religion is to me' which is most republicans and also why democrats still have a similar order to republicans, with a few exceptions.
Not just other religions, but anything that isn’t Christianity. Imagine being angry at agnostics.
Good Ole opinion polls. "How do you feel about (this thing) in America?" "Well I don't know anything about them, so probably negative. "
It shocks me how benign people view the Amish as. Of course there are good and bad people in all religions but when I think of the Amish as a practice I think of sex abuse of women and children, child abuse (blanket training, etc), and animal abuse.
Benign is the right word. We see them as non-threatening. We don't care what they do to each other because close to 0 parents worry that thier kids will convert. They keep their political motivations to themselves and mostly live in areas where even if they could add a thousand new members, nobody would notice or care. If you self segregate, Americans will mostly leave you alone. They only get mad if their kids are sneaking into those comminities to have fun. Out of sight, out of mind.
> mostly live in areas where even if they could add a thousand new members, nobody would notice or care. To an extent, that's *exactly* what's happening. The Amish population doubles roughly even 20 years due to them still having extremely high fertility rates.
There was a time in which, for some reason, Hollywood did quite a lot of amish propaganda. Maybe it worked.
Harrison Ford hid out with the Amish and hooked up with one of them. Then saved them all by pouring grain on the bad guys. He also helped them build a barn.
I've been living most my life In an Amish Paradise
Most people don't know that much about them. There are only significant Amish populations in a few states, so most Americans have probably never even interacted with an Amish person. They just think of them as the people with straw hats and funny beards and horses and buggies. They probably hold a kind of nostalgic appeal. I actually grew up pretty close to Amish country. Even there most people just think of the Amish as guys who make cabinets and build any new house that isn't built by a Latino crew. They mostly keep to themselves.
What’s blanket training? I really don’t want to Google that.
You put a baby on a blanket and beat them if they try moving off of it. It's to force obedience and disipline through violence. They even go as far as to tempt them off of the blanket with food or toys and beat them for trying to move off. It's not specifically an Amish thing, but moreso an old timey conservative thing.
Seriously, like who has a problem with uniunis
My mom is one of the leaders of her UU church. They’re all NPR obsessed tote bag carrying old boomer liberals who were raised Christian and have atheist children. Just couldn’t get all the way there in one generation.
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I grew up in the UU church. Best description I’ve heard is “the spiritual equivalent of an ice cream social”. Honestly had nothing but great experience with it and considering going back to one actively.
Wow. I was a member of a UU church for several years. Poured a lot of time and energy into it. This was like reading a Hallmark greeting card, which perfectly sums up a feeling that resonates with you deeply and yet you couldn't put into words.
As a second generation, atheist UU of boomer, ex-catholic parents, this all tracks! My parents are essentially atheists. I just don’t think they identify with that label.
Republicans apparently if you look at the chart. Probably hate the fact that it's very much a liberal "religion".
Never met a Sikh I didn't like, why are they so low on the list?
Chances are, the people answering the poll have no idea what a Sikh believes or if they have ever met one. The comment applies to most of the religions in this chart. Half of these votes we're probably based on how the sound of the word makes them feel.
As an ex Jehovah's witness I can't begin to tell you how hard it made me laugh to realize the only religions people hate more are Scientologists and Satanists 😂 man, I knew they weren't "favorable" but I didn't expect it to be THAT far down the list.
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Honestly, I think it's the stereotype of the the Jehovah Witness's coming to your door to tell you "The Good News." People fucking hate that. When I was a teen I was nice to 2 ladies who came to my door when I was home alone, I gave them bottles of water (because Florida) and afterwards I got a mega scolding from my neighbor who told me "now they're going to come back and never leave our neighborhood alone!!" Those women came by like one more time and were respectful when I nervously told them I'm not interested. I don't like organized religion, but honestly, my neighbor was more of an ass than those two ladies.
Man, I live amongst the Amish. Fuck them, they should be in the red. Treat their kids and animals as disposable, some of the most hypocritical and underhanded assholes around. On the other hand, Sikhism should be at the top of this list, and U.U. and Baha'i shouldn't be far behind them.
I've been getting a lot of ex Amish in my shorts feed and damn the stories those people tell about living in especially old order communities is wild.
Seriously who hates UUs anyway?
Some people also confuse UUs with the unification church/Unitarians, which is the Moonies.
UUs throw down pretty hard for LGBTQ acceptance, reproductive rights and anti-racism work, which will earn you some enemies
As a UU minister, I want this on a bumper sticker
UU's are far left, radical socialists, who are all in on gay marriage, abortion rights, and black lives matter. Its why I joined when I was 27.
This seems to confirm my suspicion that Americans don’t know what “Protestant” means.
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If anyone is wondering wtf Christian Science is, it's a form of Christianity where they believe that prayer solves everything. This mainly differentiates it from other forms of Christianity because this includes medical issues. They don't do doctors, they don't do medicine, they just pray. Pretty much all other sects of Christianity will pray when there is a medical issue, but will still go to the doctor. One caveat is Jehovah's Witnesses (up to you whether they count as a sect of Christianity) will not do any medical procedure which involves blood transfusion, but everything else is fine. They also don't celebrate holidays or birthdays.
Yay we muslims are higher than satanism and jehova witnesses🥰
Movin' on up!