The God Slot

From The Economist several years ago...

The complexities of a simple, and almost universal, belief

When Homer Simpson opted out of church once, staying home to watch football and eat waffle-batter, he dreamed that God peeled off the roof of his house and appeared, furious, in the TV room. According to a new survey, 31% of Americans see God that way. He (always he) is wrathful and ever-watchful; He wants his followers to stop sinning, and thinks the government should be promoting Him. In the South, 44% of people go in fear of His lightning bolts.

The survey, by Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion in Waco, Texas, via Gallup, found four broad views of God in America. Homer's Authoritarian God is the most popular. There then follow, in descending order of intrusiveness, Benevolent God (23%, rising to 29% in the Midwest), who still gives orders but will forgive, rather than smite; Critical God (16%, but 21% in the relativist East), who watches the world but does not intervene; and lastly Distant God (24% ), a cosmic force without interest in human matters. This God is especially popular in the wide-open West, with its huge views of the stars.

Baylor is a Baptist school with a strong evangelical slant, but only 15% of Americans call themselves evangelicals. Many more (47% ) prefer the fervent “Bible-believing”. About 11% profess no religious ties at all; but 63% of those still believe in a higher power, and only 5% dare embrace the title “atheist”. Belief in God, or some equivalent force, comforts more than 90% of the population. And 19% agree that “God favours the United States in international politics”.

In so far as this survey created slots for the American Christians it was aimed at, which one would you see yourself in?

@fmf said
From The Economist several years ago...

[quote]The complexities of a simple, and almost universal, belief

When Homer Simpson opted out of church once, staying home to watch football and eat waffle-batter, he dreamed that God peeled off the roof of his house and appeared, furious, in the TV room. According to a new survey, 31% of Americans see God that way. He (always ...[text shortened]... rvey created slots for the American Christians it was aimed at, which one would you see yourself in?

If I’m honest here, I switch back and forth. In my other words, my view of God is not really set in stone one way or another. I know that’s not good, but that’s how it is with me.