4 ms·

The Pew Research Center surveyed 3,217 randomly selected U.S. adults[0] and asked them to rate how positively they viewed each belief group. Here's the ranking

by desdiv 10y ago

The Pew Research Center surveyed 3,217 randomly selected U.S. adults[0] and asked them to rate how positively they viewed each belief group. Here's the ranking from most positive to least positive: 1. Jews 2. Catholics 3. Evangelical Christians 4. Buddhists 5. Hindus 6. Mormons 7. Atheists 8. Muslims Surprisingly (at least to me), Atheists is second to last. Interestingly enough, the low ranking of Atheists persists across party lines. Both Republicans and Democrats rank Atheists only slightly higher than Muslims, and by similar margins too: 2 points in the former and 1 point in the latter. [0] http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/ http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-...

golergka 10y ago
Since they didn't seem to specify religious jews, their survey is just mixing ethnic with belief group, which doesn't make much sense.
- dsr_ 10y ago
  They are measuring perceptions, which are all inside people's heads. If they had included "lizard people" and "foreigners" on the survey, that would also be a valid way of measuring perceptions even though one group represents 7 billion people and the other zero.
- irrational 10y ago
  Isn't this the case with most of the groups? I would imagine even atheist Jews have been to synagogue at least a few times. I would consider Catholics who only go to Easter and Christmas mass to not be religious.
  - jedberg 10y ago
    The difference is that Jewish is actually an ethnic group as well as a religious group. There is some overlap between them of course, but for example there are Asian Jews and Jewish Catholics. The Jewish ethnic group are people historically descended from the people of Eastern Europe and the Middle East who practiced ancient Judaism (the religion). That's why 23andme can identify someone as X% Jewish.
xbmcuser 10y ago
I think many people in the US will hesitate saying anything against Jews so as not be considered anti semitic. Had the question been about Judaism instead of Jews you might have a different result. Atheism has been attached to communism and socialism for a long time in the US so has a bad rap. But now with almost 40% of the us public calling themselve non religious and Bernie's socialist leaning campaign shows that is changing.

by desdiv 10y ago

golergka 10y ago

Since they didn't seem to specify religious jews, their survey is just mixing ethnic with belief group, which doesn't make much sense.

dsr_ 10y ago
They are measuring perceptions, which are all inside people's heads. If they had included "lizard people" and "foreigners" on the survey, that would also be a valid way of measuring perceptions even though one group represents 7 billion people and the other zero.
irrational 10y ago
Isn't this the case with most of the groups? I would imagine even atheist Jews have been to synagogue at least a few times. I would consider Catholics who only go to Easter and Christmas mass to not be religious.
- jedberg 10y ago
  The difference is that Jewish is actually an ethnic group as well as a religious group. There is some overlap between them of course, but for example there are Asian Jews and Jewish Catholics. The Jewish ethnic group are people historically descended from the people of Eastern Europe and the Middle East who practiced ancient Judaism (the religion). That's why 23andme can identify someone as X% Jewish.

xbmcuser 10y ago

I think many people in the US will hesitate saying anything against Jews so as not be considered anti semitic. Had the question been about Judaism instead of Jews you might have a different result. Atheism has been attached to communism and socialism for a long time in the US so has a bad rap. But now with almost 40% of the us public calling themselve non religious and Bernie's socialist leaning campaign shows that is changing.