Percentage of Jews Who Have Read the Bible
NEW YORK (JTA) — Exercise you experience feelings of peace and well-beingness at to the lowest degree one time a week? Did God write the Torah? Practise you eat bacon?
If these questions seem a little personal, don't fret. They're all part of a new Pew Research Heart survey on American religion released Tuesday that shows moderate declines in religious beliefs and beliefs amongst Americans generally, merely growth among Jews in some fundamental religious categories.
Some 847 of the 35,000 Americans in the Pew telephone survey between June and September 2014 identified themselves as Jews by religion — far fewer than the 3,475 Jews interviewed for Pew'due south landmark 2013 survey of U.S. Jewry. (Unlike the new survey, the '13 study also counted equally Jews those of "no religion" who identified themselves as Jewish past ethnicity, parentage or feeling). But there's still plenty of interesting data on Jewish beliefs, practise and voting patterns in the new survey.
Here are some of the study'south more interesting findings:
Growing prayer and Torah study
Compared with the last time Pew surveyed Americans near religion, in 2007, the pct of Jews who said religion is very of import to them grew from 31 percent to 35 percent. Similarly, the percentage who said they attend religious services weekly or more frequently grew from 16 percent to nineteen percent; the proportion of Jews who said they read "scripture" at least weekly grew from 14 percent to 17 pct, and the percentage of those who said they participate in prayer groups or religious report groups at least weekly grew from 11 percent to 16 percent.
However, information technology's important to note that most of those increases are within the survey's margin of error for Jewish respondents, which is four.ii percentage points. On the question of the proportion of Jews who nourish religious services weekly or more, for example, at that place is inconsistency between this survey'due south finding of xix percent and Pew's 2013 finding of xiv pct. Alan Cooperman, Pew's director of religion inquiry, told JTA the numbers are within the two surveys' combined margins of error, but that the questions were also asked slightly differently, so directly comparisons are catchy.
Jews aren't that concerned with the meaning of life
Jews call back most the meaning and purpose of life less than American Christians or Muslims — 45 percentage of Jews compared to 64 percent of Muslims, 61 percent of Protestants, 52 percentage of Catholics and 59 per centum of Buddhists. The survey constitute that 70 pct of Jews feel a strong sense of gratitude at to the lowest degree once a week.
Did God write the Bible?
Eleven percent of Jews believe the Torah is the literal word of God. That's about the same proportion as Orthodox Jews within the United states Jewish population overall. An additional 26 percent of Jews believe the Torah is the non-literal word of God and 55 percent believe the Torah was written by men. Compared to other religious groups in America, Jews have the everyman proportion of adherents who believe God wrote the Bible (except for Buddhists, who don't believe in the Bible).
Jews too read the Bible less than other religious Americans. Among Jews, 17 per centum of respondents said they read the Bible outside of services at to the lowest degree weekly, compared to 35 percent for all Americans, 52 percentage of Protestants and 25 pct of Catholics.
Meanwhile, conventionalities in God fell slightly among Jews, from 72 percentage in 2007 to 64 percentage in 2014 (37 percent said they were absolutely certain God exists, and 27 percent said they were fairly certain).
Correct or incorrect? Jews apply common sense
Where do Jews plough for guidance on questions of right and wrong? Fifty percent use "common sense," 17 pct turn to religion, 17 percent to philosophy and 14 percent to scientific discipline. Twenty-one pct of Jews believe in absolute standards of correct and wrong, and 76 percent say it depends on the situation.
Twoscore percent of Jews say they believe in heaven, up from 38 percent in 2007, and 22 percent say they believe in hell, the same as in 2007. By contrast, 72 percent of all Americans believe in sky and 58 percentage believe in hell. 70-ix percent of Jews believe other religions can likewise lead to eternal life — a college proportion than among Christians (66 percent) or Muslims (65 percent).
Jewish women pray more than Jewish men
Most Jewish survey respondents — 53 percent — said they belong to a local house of worship (the survey did non intermission downward results past religious denomination). Though 19 pct of Jews surveyed said they attend services at to the lowest degree once a week, 29 percent said they pray at to the lowest degree one time a twenty-four hour period (up from 26 percent in 2007), 24 pct said they pray weekly or monthly, and 45 percentage said they seldom or never pray. While there is a significant split up between the sexes amongst Americans generally when it comes to daily prayer — 64 per centum of American women vs. 46 per centum of American men pray daily — among Jews the gender divergence is slight: 31 percent of Jewish women compared to 27 percent of Jewish men pray daily.
Nigh American Jews eat pork
When information technology comes to observing religious dietary restrictions, Jews are less captious than Muslims or Hindus. While 90 percent of Muslims surveyed said they abjure pork and 67 percent of Hindus said they avoid beef, only forty percent of Jews abstain from eating pork. L-seven percent of Jews surveyed affirmed they swallow pork. (One percentage of Jewish respondents said they were vegetarian; the survey did not ask Christian respondents well-nigh vegetarianism.)
Jews are not at peace with themselves
While 59 percentage of all Americans said they feel deep feelings of spiritual peace and well-being at least once a week (68 percent of Protestants, 57 percentage of Catholics and 64 percent of Muslims), the effigy for Jews was only 39 percent. But that was still more than agnostics and atheists, who experience those feelings weekly at rates of 37 per centum and 31 percent, respectively.
Are religious organizations a strength for good?
80-eight pct of Jews said their houses of worship and other religious organizations bring people together and strengthen customs bonds, but only 63 percent said those institutions protect and strengthen morality in society. Past dissimilarity, 83 percent of Christians and Muslims said their institutions protect and strengthen morality in society.
At the aforementioned time, 54 percent of Jews surveyed said religious institutions are too concerned with money and power (compared to 52 percent of all Americans), 59 percent said they focus besides much on rules (51 pct among all Americans) and 59 percent said they're as well involved with politics (48 percent among all Americans).
Jewish Republicans proceeds, only and so do Jewish liberals
Although the increase in Republican Jews is within the survey's margin of error for Jews, the percentage of Jews who identified as Republican or leaning Republican grew past 2 points between 2007 and 2014, from 24 percent to 26 percent. Concomitantly, the proportion of Jews who identified as Democrats or leaning Democratic fell from 66 percent in 2007 to 64 percent in 2014. However, while the percent of Jews who identify as politically conservative stayed constant during that time, the per centum of Jews who identify as liberal grew from 38 per centum to 43 percent — by and large defectors from the "moderate" camp.
Among Americans generally, the change between 2007 and 2014 was a 3-betoken growth for Republicans and a 3-point drop among Democrats. 9 percentage of Jews surveyed in 2014 identified every bit independents, compared to 17 percent among Americans generally.
Jews are more accepting of gays than other Americans
Credence of "homosexuality in club" grew amidst all Americans between 2007 and 2014, from 50 percent to 62 percent, and among Jews from 79 percent to 81 percent. The religious groups least tolerant of homosexuality in order are Mormons (just 36 pct favor societal acceptance), Jehovah'due south Witnesses (xvi percent) and Protestant evangelicals (36 percent). Buddhists were the virtually accepting at 88 percent. 70-seven percent of Jews said they back up same-sex marriage, compared to 53 percent of all Americans.
Yous're a dedicated reader
We're really pleased that yous've read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That'due south why nosotros started the Times of Israel x years agone - to provide discerning readers like y'all with must-read coverage of State of israel and the Jewish world.
Then now we accept a asking. Unlike other news outlets, we oasis't put up a paywall. Merely every bit the journalism we do is plush, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to assistance back up our piece of work by joining The Times of State of israel Community.
For as piddling as $vi a month you can aid support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of State of israel Advertisement-FREE, too every bit accessing sectional content bachelor simply to Times of Israel Community members.
Cheers,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Bring together Our Customs Join Our Community Already a fellow member? Sign in to stop seeing this
Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/57-of-us-jews-eat-pork-and-9-other-findings-from-new-pew-study/
0 Response to "Percentage of Jews Who Have Read the Bible"
Post a Comment