I was reading an ABC poll that said 83% of Americans identify themselves as being Christians. Is that possible? I mean, it doesn't seem apparent to me, or where I live. Knowing the diversity of Christianity, it might not be so obvious who actually believes in Christian values since those virtues may vary from one sect to the next. Anyway, I'm thinking that there may be many who do not openly profess their convictions because of current social norms; therefore, they have become "Closet Christians." I think that as society becomes less inclined towards religious worship, more people will withdraw their convictions from open view.
We can only hope. Reminds me of one of Frank Zappa's quotes. "One day atheism will disappear as a concept. Instead, there will be normal people and some weirdo believers."—Frank Zappa
Yes, those virtues vary. Which means that one can pick and choose among all the Bible's varied and mutually conflicting statements and design your own form of faith. I bet if the question were narrowed to traditional Christian doctrine, that number would be greatly reduced.
Sure, it's true out here. Where I work it's about 75%; in the community at large it's closer to 90%. Given the Christmas trees we see every year, the Easter Cross I drive by every weekend, the government closures on Sunday and Christmas, the mentions of God on our money and in our pledge of allegiance, "God bless you" as a response to everything from misfortune to sneezes - I don't think anyone is "in the closet."
Sure it's possible. I think that it might be a little high though. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found 76.0% of Americans self-identify as 'Christian'. http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/ That breaks down this way: 25.1% identify themselves with the word "Catholic" 15.8% "Baptist" 12.9% identify with the so-called "mainline" Protestant denominations (Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and United Church of Christ. 14.2% were described as "Christian Generic". These are people who just called themselves "Christian" without specifying a denomination, or who said that they belong to a non-denominational congregation. 3.5% were Pentecostal or Charismatic. 1.4% were LDS/Mormon Of the 24% who don't self-identify as "Christian", 1.2% identify their religion as Jewish. The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Jewish is higher (closer to 2%) if the question is about ethnicity. 0.9% follow "Eastern Religions", of which the majority, 0.5% are Buddhists. 0.6% identify themselves as Muslims A surprisingly large 1.2% say that they identify with a variety of new religious movements such as 'Wicca'. 15.0% are "Nones", who say that they have no religious adherence. Finally, 5.2% said they "don't know" or refused to answer. The ARIS data suggest the opposite might be the case. The above numbers ask about religious identification, not about belief. When asked "Regarding the existence of God, do you think...?" 2.3% agreed with 'There is no such thing' (atheism, as I would define it). 4.3% agreed with 'There is no way to know' (strong agnosticism). 5.7% agreed with 'I'm not sure' (weak agnosticism). 12.1% agreed with 'There is a higher power but no personal God'. And 69.5% said 'There definitely is a personal God'. (The remaining 6.1% didn't answer.) So... it seems that 76.0% of Americans identify themselves as "Christian", and an additional 1.8% are religiously Jewish or Muslim... but only 69.5% believe in a personal God. So it appears that more people are identifying themselves with a theistic religious denomination than believe in a personal God. My guess is that a lot of people do this for family or ethnic reasons. Religion has traditionally been a major component of ethnic identity here in the United States (just think 'Irish Catholic'). And many people remain partial to the religion their parents might have followed, seeking it out for weddings and funerals, even if they haven't attended a Sunday church service in decades.
