Word: felted
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When asked their views of the Deity, a very small number of non-believers--16 per cent--felt that God was "a fiction unworthy of worship." When asked their reasons for their present attitude to religion only 8 per cent of the non-believers attributed it to "parental influence." These students' decisions were very definitely individual and independent--of the nine suggested reasons for their apostasy, none received a significant majority. These non-believers are, however, generally willing to recognize the value of religion for other students; only 10 per cent felt any need to "enlighten others by persuading them...
...disapprove on the basis of the seventh commandment. This was the largest percentage of disapproval on these questions; in no case did any more than 22 per cent oppose pre-marital intercourse, birth control, homosexuality, divorce, or legalized abortion on religious grounds. It is likely that many students felt that God's commandments were not a sufficiently telling raeson for objecting to these practices, but their social, and not religious, consequences were evil...
...they "believe that correct ethical principles are grounded on religious faith, and that a genuine knowledge of man's moral obligations necessarily involves a belief in God," only 28 per cent of those believing in some Divine presence replied in the affirmative. Seventy-nine per cent of the believers felt that the ethical opinions of atheists and agnostics were quite similar to theirs, and that both groups were just as likely to do "the morally right or kind thing." Atheists and agnostics felt the same way. If religion is separated from ethics, it loses a powerful hold on the souls...
Respondents' attitudes about the attributes of God reflect this same refusal to commit oneself to a consistent system of beliefs. Thus, while most respondents (63 per cent) believed that God is all-powerful, few (40 per cent) felt that God would alter the natural course of events to answer a prayer. While most (62 per cent) believed that God is just, even more (78 per cent) felt that undeserved suffering occurs in the world. Few (32 per cent) believed in the doctrine of grace, even fewer (14 per cent) in the concept of Hell. Were one to construct a concept...
Such a refusal to commit oneself is repeated also in respondents' views on attendance at church or synagogue. Sixty-nine per cent of the respondents felt that "the Church (i.e., organized religion) stands for the best in human life," despite "minor errors and shortcomings," which are common to "all human institutions." The smallest percentage--3--considered the church "the one sure and infallible foundation of civilized life." Thus, again, the way is left open to view organized religion in an independent manner, the student regulating it rather than the other way round. For while the Church may "stand...