say huh?

[the_siobhan]

So I'm doing this survey, and I come across this question:

Which of these words best describes your belief in God? Please select one response only.

• Atheist
  
  
• Agnostic
  
  
• Believer
  
  
• Believe in a different God/deity

Does that make any kind of sense to you?

Comments

[redbird]

It seems pretty clear that the survey-writer is convinced that there's only one real god.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I am less offended by the obvious bias than I am by the incredibly sloppy wording.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

It's typical of fundie speak. Obviously, the person didn't stop to think that people self-identify their beliefs using broader terms than the over-simpifications common to fundie speak.

The problem with current American Christian fundamentalism is that they believe that if they simplify the language they use enough that it will be as acceptable as possible to as many people as possible, without actually compromising their "one true God is our God" stance. (Evangelical fundie speak is a language unto itself. They really don't realize that language is a much finer tool than that.)

The four categories are representative of the "us vs them" mentality. An Atheist is considered the polar opposite of Christian, the person who has rejected all things spiritual and will likely never accept the Christian God without mountains of "logical" arguments and "evidence" of The Truth/major life altering event, such as a brush with death.

The agnostic is most commonly considered to be someone who either used to believe or someone who wants to believe in the Christian God, but has not been convinced yet.

Someone who believes in a different diety/philosphy/set of cultural values/whatever is a believer who hasn't yet realized that s/he is worshipping a false God and needs to be shown The Truth.

There are specific scripts used to deal with each situation. Every evangelical fundie with a "desire to serve God" is trained with the sales pitches (arguments) used to "effectively share their faith" with the non-believers.

To put it simply, evangelical fundies have one purpose in life and they don't care that their English bears only a passing resemblance to our Earth English.

If I actually saw the survey, I could probably give more details about how it was formulated, but with only that one question, I can guarantee that the purpose of the survey is to be used as a tool for evangelism.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

It wasn't even a survey about religion - just kind of a general "what's important to Canadian women" survey.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

My bias is obviously that of a former conservative evangelical fundamentalist Christian who was fully trained in all aspects of evangelism by several different organizatons: Assemblies of God, Southern Baptists, Campus Crusade for Christ, and small local churches wanting to adopt "effective techniques for introducing people to Jesus."

Surveys are just one evangelical tool. The topic of the survey doesn't matter. It could be about fly fishing or the last book you read. It's simply an ice breaker/screening tool. So, when I see a question like that in a survey about anything, it isn't a stretch to think that the purpose of the survey is to screen people for evangelical opportunities. It could also be a tool to create a statistic about the number of believers there are in an area.

Fundie churches are big fans of saying that only a certain percentage of people in an area are believers and of those believers only a certain number value certain things. What those things are and what those numbers show depends on what the thrust of the sermon is. The numbers are typically generated with surveys.

Also, one comment here said "Didn't you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept, and that no other religions have or practice it?" That isn't exactly sarcasm because sermons about relativism/post-modernism/major world religions assert that Christianity is unique in it's claim that a person can only be saved by faith/belief. The assertion is that all other religions teach some form of "works-based salvation" where a person has to follow rules and be a good enough person to get into whatever that religion's idea of paradise is. Christians only follow rules because they are so grateful to God that they're getting into heaven even if they break the rules because they believe.

Their language/logic bears only a passing resemblance to our Earth language/logic.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Didn't you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept, and that no other religions have or practice it?

Everything I know, I learned from Conservapedia. (http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Faith&oldid=12708)

[(Anonymous)]

I learned of Conservapedia about a week ago. When I first looked up "religion" on that site, I got "All religions other than Christianity are false." The pages have been expanding a gread deal and non-concervative Christians have added to it, I think. The entry on Satanism isn't one I would expect to see on that site. But some entries have this horrible bias.

Check out "Hypatia of Alexandria."

"A fire was built to purify her heretical flesh, and her twitching dismembered limbs were thrown in to create a pleasing scent unto the Lord."

I don't know if this is a joke or what.

Jenn*

[artistatlarge.livejournal.com]

Objectively, it *almost* makes sense- the answers seem to be "I don't believe in anything", "I believe in something but I don't have a name for it", "I believe in the Christian God", and "I'm religious, but not Christian".

Buuuut... I agree with redbird that it sure sounds like whoever wrote the survey is Christian, and maybe Fundie.

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

Sure. The last is code for, "crazy, insane, pagan devil going to hell". *g*

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

A statistically correct question would be:

Which of these best describes your belief in a higher power(s) or god(s)?

- Do not believe

- Do not care

- Believe

There's a clear bias there.

[eciklb.livejournal.com]

That still leaves out several possibilities (care but do not know, care but believe it to be impossible to know, etc.).

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

Good point, but how many hairs have to be split?

Add "Don't know."

[cris.livejournal.com]

I believe that the survey could be improved if rephrased as

• Nihilist
• Sodomite
• Crusader
• Heretic

"Say what you will about the shortcomings of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

[redbird]

Can I check two boxes? (I figure I have to have "sodomite," and might check "heretic.")

[caspervonb.livejournal.com]

All makes perfect sense if you write a question from the perspective
that Baby Jesus is the one true god.

Benign Idiocy.

Which I find reassuring because it proves to me that the
world is still dumb and self-centered and therefore has not
been switched for a less familiar world while I was sleeping.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Agnostic is fair enough. Atheist is fair enough. The other two options... are a little subjective, surely?

Different from what, exactly?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That was kind of my point.

[digital-space.livejournal.com]

How offensive!

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

What I find interesting are the assumptions people are making about the context. The question and responses are so context-free that people display their own bias / context in an almost undiluted form in their response. You could infer from the last point that the poster is a fundamentalist monotheist, but _which one_?

M.

[shara.livejournal.com]

You know your question requires a understanding of what is meant by "god". Shenanigans. But I will play.

Atheist, but the more people tell me what they think "atheist" means, the less I want anything to do with it.

I have yet to hear a pitch for anything described to me as a "religion" which I would ever consider anything other than amusing fiction. I think "faith" is something you only place in other people, generally based on a history of that person not boning up. I don't go around believing everything I am told. I don't even believe most things I am told. I am very happy with the moral compass I have.

[dj-doc.livejournal.com]

were's the "none of it" option?

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I love it when survey writers understand relative viewpoints and perspective! :/

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

So, any way I could get a link to the survey? I'm so curious about it now!

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

http://www.chatelainefeedbackpanel.com/R.aspx?r=2hH_pZ_6Q_&m=600000028

You may have to create a user ID

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

Thankee :D

[(Anonymous)]

-Someone who knows God is there, but rejects Him because he's angry.

-Someone who knows our God is the true God, but doesn't have the holy spirit and is therefore too chicken-shit to praise the lord!

-A WASP

-It's nice that people have imaginary friends!

Heh.