[情報] My faith isn't the only way

[falstaff (no day but today)]

PEW FORUM做的調查
對象是美國人

底下是調查結果

Americans Are Not Dogmatic About Religion

   Many religions can lead to eternal life | There is more than one true way...
                    許多宗教也可以得永生(%)   不是只有自己教會的教導是對的(%)
Total affiliated                70                      68
全部

Protestant                      66                      64
基督教

Evangelical churches            57                      53
福音派基督教

Mainline churches               83                      82
主流基督教

Historically black churches     59                      57
黑人教會

Catholic                        79                      77
天主教

Mormon                          39                      43
摩門教

Jehovahs Witness                16                      18
耶和華見證人

Orthodox                        72                      68
東正教

Jewish                          82                      89
猶太教

Muslim                          56                      60
穆斯林

Buddhist                        86                      90
佛教

Hindu                           89                      85
印度教

=======
美聯社的分析報導

Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way
美國宗教 : 我的信仰不是唯一的方法

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-REL-Religion-Survey.html?_r=1&sq=pewforum&st=nyt&oref=slogin&scp=1&pagewanted=print

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:39 p.m. ET

America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans
don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life -- even if their
faith tradition teaches otherwise.

The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be
taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing
evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their
own faiths.

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church
attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in
conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that
view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the
teachings of their own religion.

''The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only
three inches deep,'' said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist
of religion.

''There's a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having
theological consequences,'' he said.

Earlier data from the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released
in February, highlighted how often Americans switch religious affiliation.
The newly released material looks at religious belief and practice as well as
the impact of religion on society, including how faith shapes political views.

The report argues that while relatively few people -- 14 percent -- cite
religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking, religion
still plays a powerful indirect role.

The study confirmed some well-known political dynamics, including stark
divisions over abortion and gay marriage, with the more religiously committed
taking conservative views on the issues.

But it also showed support across religious lines for greater governmental
aid for the poor, even if it means more debt and stricter environmental laws
and regulations.

By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in
God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their
respective scriptures are the word of God.

But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics,
mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about
God's existence, as did six in ten Jews.

Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified
atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent
''absolutely certain'' of it.

''Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion,'' said Peter
Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. ''What do
people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It
might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be
saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not
necessarily going to hell.'''

Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said that more research is planned to
answer those kinds of questions, but that earlier, smaller surveys found
similar results.

Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many
religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent),
members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics
(79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).

By similar margins, people in those faith groups believe in multiple
interpretations of their own traditions' teachings. Yet 44 percent of the
religiously affiliated also said their religion should preserve its
traditional beliefs and practices.

''What most people are saying is, 'Hey, we don't have a hammer-lock on God or
salvation, and God's bigger than us and we should respect that and respect
other people,''' said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock
Theological Center at Georgetown University.

''Some people are like butterflies that go from flower to flower, going from
religion to religion -- and frankly they don't get that deep into any of
them,'' he said.

Beliefs about eternal life vary greatly, even within a religious tradition.

Some Christians hold strongly to Jesus' words as described in John 14:6: ''I
am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.'' Others emphasize the wideness of God's grace.

The Catholic church teaches that the ''one church of Christ ... subsists in
the Catholic Church'' alone and that Protestant churches, while defective,
can be ''instruments of salvation.''

Roger Oldham, a vice president with the executive committee of the Southern
Baptist Convention, bristled at using the word ''tolerance'' in the analysis.

''If by tolerance we mean we're willing to engage or embrace a multitude of
ways to salvation, that's no longer evangelical belief,'' he said. ''The word
'evangelical' has been stretched so broadly, it's almost an elastic term.''

Others welcomed the findings.

''It shows increased religious security. People are comfortable with other
traditions even if they're different,'' said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy,
president of the Interfaith Alliance. ''It indicates a level of humility
about religion that would be of great benefit to everyone.''

More than most groups, Catholics break with their church, and not just on
issues like abortion and homosexuality. Only six in 10 Catholics described
God as ''a person with whom people can have a relationship'' -- which the
church teaches -- while three in 10 described God as an ''impersonal force.''

''The statistics show, more than anything else, that many who describe
themselves as Catholics do not know or understand the teachings of their
church,'' said Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput. ''Being
Catholic means believing what the Catholic church teaches. It is a communion
of faith, not simply of ancestry and family tradition. It also means that the
church ought to work harder at evangelizing its own members.''

------

On the Net:

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: http://pewforum.org

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