Fishing for answers:

A few days ago I created a poll on SurveyMonkey. While the sample size is still rather small, I will continue to leave it open to perhaps gain a more accurate picture of what we as human beings believe when it comes to some not so simple questions. Questions dealing with our religious beliefs, our political system, as well as what we believe when it comes to morality.

Today I will take a look and analyze the data. In some areas I was surprised, and in others not so much, but let’s take a look at the questions and their individual results.

1. Do you support the Separation of Church and State?

Historians will tell you that when the church is overly involved with government some terrible things may occur. One only needs to look at the basic histories of countries like Spain, England, France, or more important today the current countries that are under one form or another of Sharia Law. Basically when it comes down to the Church being a big part of government decisions, it can cause people who do not subscribe to a particular religious worldview to be subject to laws and regulations they wouldn’t otherwise be subject to.

Not surprisingly most people 87.1% said they were in favor of a separation between church and state. I honestly thought this number would much higher, either in the high 90s if not 100%.

So it would seem that 12.9% of people surveyed believe that the Church should have more influence on government. I will tackle more on what this type of thought can entail in greater detail in an upcoming piece.

2. Would you like to live in a country who’s laws were based on religious dogma that wasn’t yours?

This is where it gets a bit more interesting. In the previous question 12.9% said they would like the church to have more influence over government, but here it seems that only applies to their person religious beliefs, as only 3.28% said they would like to live in such a place.

I expected that this question would apply exactly the same as it would in question three, as I only slightly changed the premise.

3.Would you like someone to make decisions for you based on their religious beliefs that you don’t hold?

We have elected representatives in both local, state, and national branches of government, and it is no secret that in this country we are quite varied when it comes to our religious beliefs, or lack there of. This question somehow got one extra positive response, making it 4.92% that said that they would be comfortable with someone making decisions for them, even if they didn’t hold the same views.

This is interesting in that it might show a little bit about some of the people being polled. Perhaps they believe that someone with a popular religious worldview maybe be better suited to make decisions when it effects themselves and the greater population. This implies either that they feel strongly about laws being based on a religious world view even if it is not theirs, or that perhaps they believe that all major religions are fundamentally similar. I cant be sure, but I feel that even a small sample of people say the 62 that have taken this survey so far, some of them may underestimate the power that someone’s religious convictions, could have on their decisions in office.

4. Do you believe that any religious text holds the best moral outline for humanity?

27.42% said yes that a particular religious text holds the best moral outline for humanity, and the fact that the number of people who do not agree is much greater is of great importance when it comes to say pluralism, democracy, and a supporting a secular state.

5. Do you believe that your particular religious beliefs are correct and people who don’t share your religious beliefs are incorrect.

I wanted this to be similar to question four but with a slightly different shift in emphasis, instead of the text that a religious person holds to be the word of God, it is put onto their particular beliefs about said text. This time only 20.97% answered that they believed their religious beliefs were correct and others were incorrect. So either the idea of universal salvation is gaining popularity, or pluralism is being more and more accepted. In the end I can’t claim any knowledge of the intent behind anyone’s answers, I can only speculate.

6. Do you believe in subjective or objective morality?

Is morality true for some people, or all people? Do you believe that some things are more moral for a particular group of people but not for the totality of the whole? This is an interesting question and I believe it says a lot about the current beliefs of morality of the people taking the polls.

15% went to subjective, 15% went to objective, and 70% of people believe that morality is both objective but people may have subjective morals that others don’t hold. I can honestly say going forward in future pieces that I believe in objective morality. That good is good for everyone and something that is bad is bad for everyone. Some differences might come up when it comes to moral values that people take from their religious text, and people might perceive those morals to be objective , meaning they apply to all. In retrospect perhaps I should have asked a question that asked, if any religious text held the best objective moral guidelines. I can speculate that the results would be similar, but because I didn’t include that wording in the original question I wont ever know, perhaps I will ask it in the future.

The next question’s results shocked me.

7. Would you support a candidate who ran on a secular platform, or someone who was very open about taking religious influence out of our laws?

72.41% said they would vote for a candidate that would run on such a platform. This is incredibly progressive. That someone would actively seek to take religious influence out of political decisions, would do so well. It could just mean that the people polled, who were mostly friends and acquaintances are of a similar mindset. It is most likely surprising because this is something I may be open about, but most people avoid such topics in conversation whenever possible.

8. Do you believe Theists or Atheists to be more moral?

The majority 83.61%, and I would agree, said that both groups are capable of being equally moral which shouldn’t surprise anyone. I would hope in this day and age, most of us despite our differing world views, would be genuinely good to our fellow man, and genuinely concerned with the well being of all of humanity, and not the small portion of it in which they find themselves.

I know theists, and atheists that I find morally lost as it were, and I know both atheists, and theists who are genuinely good people, who really want to better the world, even if the world doesn’t agree with their particular beliefs when it comes to deity.

Currently only 62 people have replied to my survey but I will leave it open, and continue to share it, I just wanted to gain a better look at what a group of people might think about some very complex questions.

I look forward to showing why I support a secular society, and why Secular doesn’t mean anti-religious. In the meantime I hope you found something interesting in my analysis.