The Most Religious States in America

[babsbunny]

http://www.mainstreet.com/slideshow/lifestyle/most-religious-states-america

By Seth Fiegerman

Is Your State Godless or God-Fearing?

We always hear that Americans are more religious in the Southern states and less so in the North East, and a new survey largely confirms this assumption. However, there are several surprises in there, too.

[StarfarerBill]

1. We're #5! We're #5! Uh, wait a minute...

:yoiks:

[WeDidIt]

2. #28

I need to move to Vermont.

[Bigmack]

3. Highest divorce rates....

highest teen pregnancy... lowest education level... highest crime rate...

Same states, too.

Hmmmm.

[whyverne]

4. Interesting that out of all those bible thumpers only 53% on average

say they go to church every week.

What accounts for that? Laziness?

[Brother Buzz]

5. Utah is second in attendance but only tenth in 'belief in God'.

Odd.

My state is in the bottom third, and I notice I like all the states that rank even below my state. There is hope for us heathens.

[jmowreader]

17. It's not all THAT odd

In many parts of the Mormon belt--all of Utah, the Star Valley in Wyoming and the southeastern part of Idaho--the only social outlet in town is the church. And in a town with two or three hundred residents, not going to church leads to bad things like unemployment. So...everyone goes to church whether they believe or not.

Besides, I have the Pew Forum page on my screen--the difference between Mississippi (number 1) and Texas (number 13) is probably within the margin of error for the survey

[Randall Flagg]

6. It's interesting to compare this with the state's educational ratings.

I saw this a week ago and couldn't help but to make the connection.

Speaks volumes.

[nosmokes]

7. No surprises. Lines up fairly neatly w/ GOPosse registration as well.

[SpookyCat]

8. We're 35, which is higher than I would have thought for California.

I wonder how that would break down by areas or cities? I'm thinking San Francisco would be quite low. I'd be interested to see that, actually. (ponder...)

[glitch]

9. Lots of pockets of nasty little surprises in CA, it's a very big state.

Plenty of places to get lost and start your own creepy cult.

(my town is ok though, despite its freakish rightward slant)

[Initech]

11. Orange County has an insanely right slant to it.

I mean come on we've given the world Richard Nixon, Rick Warren, and Dana Rohrbacher among other douchebags.

[glitch]

14. Crikey! Well, my own little pocket of oddness brought Tom Doolittle to the national scene.

And of course his wife. Still waiting for those indictments. Before my time of course. At least now the us rep is conservative but not known to be corrupt, but I am sure that is only a matter of time.

[Lucky Luciano]

15. Latinos tend to be quite catholic. nt

[Mari333]

10. yay Michigan isnt in the top ten

of course, no one is left here in Michigan anymore but us heathens.

[Tailormyst]

12. I would like to point out something about New England

There is a very good chance the the results are a bit skewed. people here are very likely to have not taken a poll like this if they are religious or are likely to have told the person "none of your business". Religion here is alot less "in your face". In fact I grew up in a VERY catholic town where just about everyone went to church, yet I rarely remember religion being a topic of conversation. Religion was private.

Just a thought.

[Bluebear]

13. The Least Religious State: New Hampshire & Vermont - - yay us!

[DainBramaged]

18. New Hampshire has one of the highest alcohol consumption rates too!

[Bluebear]

21. citation?

[DainBramaged]

22. .........

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7411424

[hyphenate]

16. lol!

"New Hampshire also ranked high on our list of the Drunkest States in America. Again, we’re not saying the two are related, but it’s hard to read a prayer book when you’re half in the bag."


That's funny! I kind of figured that all of New England would be painted as less religious as members of the South.

I'm in #4, Massachusetts, at the less godly side of the scale, and yeah, I was a lapsed Catholic before I became an atheist.


What surprises me is that Illinois isn't on the list on either side, but I would think it is on the lower end.

[alfredo]

19. I live in Kentucky: one god, two teeth.

[starroute]

20. This seems to track closely with states getting more red or more blue

The map is here:
?w=965&h=824

And when it first appeared a year ago, I wondered why certain states were not only red but getting redder -- specifically Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, and northern Alabama and Mississippi.

Well, all seven of them are among the ten most religious on the list. Utah and the Carolinas are the only ones that are trending a bit more blue.

Explains a lot, I guess -- but it's a rather disconcerting confirmation that the nation is becoming divided in terms of religion rather than politics or economics. How do you keep a democracy going when its citizens don't all inhabit the same reality?

[Quantess]

23. Alaska was 2nd LEAST religious....interesting.

[Blue_In_AK]

24. Alaska is quite godless.

You would be surprised. There's a quite vocal religious right minority, of which Sarah Palin is a part, but most of the wingnuts up here are of the libertarian variety.

[phatkatt]

25. I live in #2

Not a surprise there (Alabama).