OK, tipped off by Philip at the Tricycle blog, I just killed 45 minutes clicking around the cool graphs and comparative data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's big ol' U.S. Religious Landscape Survey that they released the other day. So can you. I won't tell your boss, promise.
Seems like Buddhists make up about 0.7% of the adult U.S. population, so there are maybe 2-3 million of us running around the States. Also, along with our Jewish brethren (there's a lot of crossover, resulting in two hilarious book titles: The Jew in the Lotus and That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist), I'm happy to report that we weigh in as the most liberal politically and most tolerant of other religious paths and lifestyles.
One bizarre bit stuck out for me. 67% of Buddhists reported they were "absolutely" or "somewhat certain" in their belief in God! Then I saw that the question read, "Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?" But still. With this and some of the others I felt the wording of the questions skewed toward a Christian and/or monotheistic religious perspective that I would have had trouble answering accurately if I had been surveyed. For example, the one the Jehovah's Witnesses ate up read like this: "IF RESPONDENT HAS A RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION, ASK:] Now, as I read a pair of statements, tell me whether the FIRST statement or the SECOND statement comes closer to your own views even if neither is exactly right. First/next: My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life, OR: many religions can lead to eternal life." Well, no educated Buddhist would frame the goal of Buddhist practice as "eternal life." We would say "liberation from samsara" or "enlightenment." But then the Pew folks did note that some of the respondents might not have been too well educated in the actual theology of their respective traditions.
Anyway, we'd all be interested in your own observations in the comments.
Jehovah's Witnesses meditate more than we do?! I gotta step up my practice...
Posted by: Leamur | June 25, 2008 at 08:45 AM
I also saw something about this a few days ago and I think there was another question that was something like, "Do you believe the scriptures of your faith come from God?" Me thinks the Pew people need to do some more research of their own.
I'm in Korea now, by the way. Just posted a brief entry on my blog, but no pics yet.
Posted by: Rinchen Gyatso | June 26, 2008 at 06:21 AM
I'm no statistician, but those sample sizes sure seem odd. About 9400 Evangelicals compared to 410 Buddhists? Pew, something stinks.
Posted by: Sangye | June 27, 2008 at 03:14 PM