Word: pers
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...respondents, however, was the religious tradition of their childhood a "very marked" influence. Most claimed that its effect on them was only "moderate," in the case not only of present Christians and Jews, but also with those now in no faith. Curiously, 40 per cent of those now belonging to no religious group wished to raise their children in the faith in which they were raised. On the basis of this data, we are encouraged to believe that the tradition in which these students were raised neither made them feel bound to it nor did it make them so resentful...
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...
This individuality was perhaps the most striking aspect of the response to the questionnaire. Only 31 per cent of admitted Protestants indicated belief in the immortality of the soul (defined as "the continued existence of the individual soul as a surviving entity after the end of organic life"); 4 per cent indicated that they did not know. Jews, for whom immortality is inconsequential, overwhelmingly rejected the doctrine; most Catholics accepted it (though four out of 23 denied it and two did not know). Similarly, a large number of Protestants considered Christ as not divine, but "only as a very great...
...respondents at least, has lost the claim of sole ownership to the ethical beliefs of the secular society. Asked whether 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...
...similar individualism is found in respondents' views of the Deity. Only 18 per cent of all respondents indicated belief in an "infinitely wise, omnipotent three-person God Who created the universe and Who maintains an active concern for human affairs," 6 per cent believed in a unitarian God with the same attributes. By far the greatest number of respondents--24 per cent--believed in "a God about Whom nothing definite can be affirmed except that I sometimes sense him as a mighty spiritual 'Presence' permeating all mankind and nature." Of the non-believers, ignorance rather than denial was much more...