Wow. That was really interesting! I found the most thought-provoking part to be about White Evangelicals believing that they are the minority more than any other religious sect. It's interesting to think that, though these men are of the majority race, they believe most unanimously that they are most discriminated. I thought that the comment 'As Pew notes, "Those who belong to a particular group tend to be more likely than outsiders to say their group faces significant discrimination in American society."' from the article shows aptly how people tend to see themselves as the victims more than the outside world. Whether the people truly are being discriminated against strongly or not, this statistic absolutely shows that things are different in a group than outside of it looking it. It could be that the White Evangelicals are truly being discriminated against and the general people do not care to see it, or it could be that the White Evangelicals are confabulating more than anything else.
While I do agree that religion does seem to be losing some of its influence on society (there are certainly lots of people who consider themselves Atheists), I think Mr. Stewart had a good point about how, even in a "less religious" area, there are churches nearly every half mile. I think that this does reflect that, while religion might not be as strong as it was before, it still impacts many people in the area. I think that what really makes it feel that there is less influence in terms of religion is that there are so many branches or sects of religion and there are different degrees of worship.
Overall, I found this article to be very thought provoking because it really goes to show the influence that religion has with society (the politics) and with ideologies (gay rights, discrimination, etc). Interesting in the way that it exposes more than just the breakdown of the number of people in each religion!
Wow. That was really interesting! I found the most thought-provoking part to be about White Evangelicals believing that they are the minority more than any other religious sect. It's interesting to think that, though these men are of the majority race, they believe most unanimously that they are most discriminated. I thought that the comment 'As Pew notes, "Those who belong to a particular group tend to be more likely than outsiders to say their group faces significant discrimination in American society."' from the article shows aptly how people tend to see themselves as the victims more than the outside world. Whether the people truly are being discriminated against strongly or not, this statistic absolutely shows that things are different in a group than outside of it looking it. It could be that the White Evangelicals are truly being discriminated against and the general people do not care to see it, or it could be that the White Evangelicals are confabulating more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do agree that religion does seem to be losing some of its influence on society (there are certainly lots of people who consider themselves Atheists), I think Mr. Stewart had a good point about how, even in a "less religious" area, there are churches nearly every half mile. I think that this does reflect that, while religion might not be as strong as it was before, it still impacts many people in the area. I think that what really makes it feel that there is less influence in terms of religion is that there are so many branches or sects of religion and there are different degrees of worship.
Overall, I found this article to be very thought provoking because it really goes to show the influence that religion has with society (the politics) and with ideologies (gay rights, discrimination, etc). Interesting in the way that it exposes more than just the breakdown of the number of people in each religion!