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A great book I read by Finke & Stark called, "The churching of America," kind of debunks the myth that everyone used to be so much more religious at the country's founding. Religious adherence, aka church attendance, was at about 17% in 1776, and in 2000 it was at 62%.
A great book I read by Finke & Stark called, "The churching of America," kind of debunks the myth that everyone used to be so much more religious at the country's founding. Religious adherence, aka church attendance, was at about 17% in 1776, and in 2000 it was at 62%.
In the clip, Broun, who is a doctor, says that "as a scientist" he has found data that shows the earth is no older than 9,000 years and was created in six days. Mainstream scientific thought holds that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, give or take the odd millennia.
This man... helps make our laws. This man... thinks dinosaurs lvied less than 9,000 years ago.
Religious adherence, aka church attendance, was at about 17% in 1776, and in 2000 it was at 62%.
I'd be glad to know what documentary sources the authors used to establish rates of church attendance in 1776. More reliable would be documentary evidence from a less disturbed year or period, say 1763-73?
AFAIK, there is no direct documentary evidence of church attendance in the late-colonial era which is generalizable across British North America. Some of the Congregational churches in New England may have kept Sunday attendance records, but the evidence would likely be spotty and then only apply to that region. One could examine tithe and glebe records in those provinces with an established church - though of course that's only indirect evidence of actual attendance, it leaves out non-conformers, and it wouldn't tell you much about colonies like Pennsylvania which had no established church. Testamentary documents likewise might give you some sense for church affiliation, though again with some significant methodological and interpretive problems. I have doubts about that statistic, particularly if they mean that one specific year, but even if it could be established, attendance isn't the same as religiosity. I suspect it's impossible to establish religiosity in the late-colonial era in a quantifiable sense - it has to be done qualitatively, if at all.
A great book I read by Finke & Stark called, "The churching of America," kind of debunks the myth that everyone used to be so much more religious at the country's founding. Religious adherence, aka church attendance, was at about 17% in 1776, and in 2000 it was at 62%.
How many Churches were around in 1776? I know there were probably some in the city but what about rural areas? If you lived in rural country in 1776, you probably didn't attend church on Sunday because there was NO CHURCH close by to attend. That doesn't mean you didn't have Sunday worship at home.. I wonder how many folks in 1776 either attended church or worshiped at home on Sunday compared to today..
How many Churches were around in 1776? I know there were probably some in the city but what about rural areas? If you lived in rural country in 1776, you probably didn't attend church on Sunday because there was NO CHURCH close by to attend. That doesn't mean you didn't have Sunday worship at home.. I wonder how many folks in 1776 either attended church or worshiped at home on Sunday compared to today..
Depends on what you mean by "rural" - the Hudson Valley, for example, was pretty rural by comparison to the "big cites" of New York and Philadelphia, but by the end of the colonial period it was well stocked with churches of various denominations.
Even in the Mohawk Valley, which butted right up against Five Nations land and was therefore the edge of settlement, the largest landowner in the area, Sir William Johnson, paid for half a dozen churches in the decade after the French and Indian War and provided them with land for their support. There may not have been as many churches as such in other frontier areas - trans-Appalachia or the Ohio Valley, for example.
But that's not really the point - apparently the authors of this book are making an assertion based on church attendance, rather than the existence of churches as such. I don't know how it would be possible to establish their figures.
I'd be glad to know what documentary sources the authors used to establish rates of church attendance in 1776. More reliable would be documentary evidence from a less disturbed year or period, say 1763-73?
AFAIK, there is no direct documentary evidence of church attendance in the late-colonial era which is generalizable across British North America. Some of the Congregational churches in New England may have kept Sunday attendance records, but the evidence would likely be spotty and then only apply to that region. One could examine tithe and glebe records in those provinces with an established church - though of course that's only indirect evidence of actual attendance, it leaves out non-conformers, and it wouldn't tell you much about colonies like Pennsylvania which had no established church. Testamentary documents likewise might give you some sense for church affiliation, though again with some significant methodological and interpretive problems. I have doubts about that statistic, particularly if they mean that one specific year, but even if it could be established, attendance isn't the same as religiosity. I suspect it's impossible to establish religiosity in the late-colonial era in a quantifiable sense - it has to be done qualitatively, if at all.
I just gave you the title and authors. READ! If you would take the time to you would see how they arrived at their measurements.
In the clip, Broun, who is a doctor, says that "as a scientist" he has found data that shows the earth is no older than 9,000 years and was created in six days. Mainstream scientific thought holds that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, give or take the odd millennia.
This man... helps make our laws. This man... thinks dinosaurs lvied less than 9,000 years ago.
yea pretty scary, there was someone on this forum bemoaning the fact that it's not the parents choice weather or not to teach their children creationism in school. WTF?
A great book I read by Finke & Stark called, "The churching of America," kind of debunks the myth that everyone used to be so much more religious at the country's founding. Religious adherence, aka church attendance, was at about 17% in 1776, and in 2000 it was at 62%.
I just gave you the title and authors. READ! If you would take the time to you would see how they arrived at their measurements.
I don't want to read the damn book. It's probably not in my tiny local library and I'm certainly not going to buy it just for this little bit of information. If you've read it why not post a brief synopsis telling how they came up with those numbers?
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