Post a Comment On: Richard Sprague

A recent survey by Baylor University (summarized in today's USAToday) found that: 28.5% of Americans have read The Davinci Code. 44% have seen The Passion of the Christ. 19% have read at least one of the Left Behind novels. 25% of US women have read The Purpose-Driven Life. The study authors also decided that the respondents (a statistically-valid representative sample of all Americans) divided their attitudes toward God into these categories: Authoritarian (28%): God is angry at sinners and won't hesitate to throw disaster at the unfaithful. Benevolent (23%): God sets absolute standards but is inclined to be nice to us. Distant (24.4%): God is a cosmic force that launched the world and now lets it run on its own.  [This is the God most common among Catholics and Jews] Critical (16%): God is judgmental, but isn't going to intervene one way or the other. [source: Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, funded by the John Templeton Foundation]