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> Currently, 60% of Protestants say “yes” when asked whether they think of themselves as a “born-again or evangelical Christian,” So, the data comes from self-
by wombatmobile 5y ago
> Currently, 60% of Protestants say “yes” when asked whether they think of themselves as a “born-again or evangelical Christian,”
So, the data comes from self-reporting, not from an external or objectively calibrated method.
This makes it difficult to interpret the trend line of this data.
Are we observing a shift in religiosity, or a change in the definition of the terms?
- tzs 5y agoWhat would be an "external or objectively calibrated method" to determine what someone thinks of themselves as?
- wombatmobile 5y agoThere isn't one. Ergo, what is being measured or tallied is not an internal state, but just a social and/or political identification. It's important to be aware of that limitation of the data.
- rsynnott 5y ago> So, the data comes from self-reporting, not from an external or objectively calibrated method I'm not sure that there's a particularly effective lab test for whether someone's an evangelical Protestant... I suppose you could give people an exam, but what you'd find generally is that most people have almost no idea of the religion they identify as.