Progress With Mainstream Religion?

[The Paineful Truth]

This was in the news Thursday. I think it was done primarily to provide a tool for evangelical, mainstream religions but there was a couple of stats I found when I dug up the press release from Baylor itself:

 

http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=s...amp;story=41678

 

In particular, "The majority (62.9 percent) of Americans not affiliated with a religious tradition believe in God or some higher power."

 

Of all believers:

• 23 percent believe in a Distant God, who is completely removed (“set the laws of nature in motion but is not active in the world”—reported in AP story by Rachel Zoll)

• 16 percent believe in a Critical God, who is judgmental but not engaged

 

That makes it 39% who believe in a stand off, laissez faire God of some sort.

 

Something else that confirms what I've believed for a long time is the percentage of those in the mainstream religions who don't believe in an interactive God, for which you have to go to the report itself: American Piety in the 21st Century pdf p.30.

 

In addition to the 16.7/41.5% of those that never attend church but who believe in a critical God/distant God, respectively,

18.6/29.2% of Catholics,

19.7/29.3% of Mainstream Protestants, and

16.7/41.7% of Jews

believe the same.

 

I think all these closet deists are good news for the future of deism and religious thought in general.

[The Paineful Truth]

Disregard. Posting on the news forum. Unfortunately I can no longer delete this one.