Religious Experience in Everyday Life

ARDA LEARNING RESOURCES Religious Experience in Everyday Life

People are often surprised to learn how much people report having religious experiences in their everyday lives. While some report feeling the guidance or direction of a Supreme Being or force, others report feelings of peace or strength. In this learning module, we explore the degree to which different kinds of Americans report having various religious experiences.

If you get lost at any point, look at the instructions on the right.

Open your web browser and go to the homepage for the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.theARDA.com) and click on “QuickStats” in the main toolbar.

The QuickStats page contains links to a number of tables and charts providing quick, easy-to- interpret data from high quality national surveys.

Under the “Classic Topics” tab, scroll down to the heading marked, “Religious Experiences,” and click on some of the links to see the various types of experiences Americans reported having. After browsing through this section, click on the link for “Feel God’s Love Directly” and answer the following questions:

1. What is the survey question on which this is based?

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2. What national survey is this question taken from?

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3. As a percentage, how many Americans said they felt God’s love directly every day or more?

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In order to explore patterns in religious beliefs, researchers often break up responses according to specific demographic characteristics such as gender, race and age. Remaining on the same page, click the tab labeled "Patterns". Here you will find several tables that break down survey respondents’ answers by different categories.

Now, locate the table that shows how respondents’ answers varied by gender.

4. Which gender was most likely to report feeling God's love many times a day? Which gender was most likely to report feeling God's love only once in a while or never?

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Now we will examine the experience of spiritual guidance. Return to the “Classic Topics” QuickStats page and click on the link marked, “Feel Guided by God”.

5. What percentage of Americans reported feeling guided by God every day or many times a day?

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6. Given what we have previously covered, do you think more men will report feeling guided by God more than once a day, or more women? Which gender will be more likely to report feeling guidance only "once in a while" or "never"?

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Click the tab labeled "Patterns" and locate the table that shows how respondents’ answers vary by gender.

7. Were you correct in your hypotheses?

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8. While we often think of religious experiences as having to do with a Supreme Being or force, some religious experiences are less concrete. Find the percentage of Americans who report that they "feel deep inner peace or harmony", and complete the following table:

Many times a day Every day Most days Some days Once in a while Never or almost never

Some religious experiences are less common than others. Using the U.S. Surveys tab, find the table that shows how many Americans have ever had a “born again” experience.

9. As a percentage, how many respondents reported having a "born again" experience?

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One of the difficulties of survey research is that it is often hard to find enough respondents from each group to make the sample representative of the total population. For example, while conducting the 2008 General Social Survey, researchers had a difficult time obtaining a large sample of respondents from each of the major racial groups in the United States. Nevertheless, some patterns are so robust that they can be found even in surveys with few categories.

10. Click on the "Patterns" tab, and examine the table titled "Has respondent had 'born again' experience by Race." Complete the following table:

White Black Other YES NO DON’T KNOW NO ANSWER

11. Members of which racial group are the most likely to say that they have had a “born again” experience?

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12. Now, click on the grey tab marked "Over Time". Has there been much of a change over the last 20 years in the percentage of people who reported being “born again”?

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So far we have seen how religious experiences differ by gender and race. Several studies have shown that religious experiences can vary by age as well.

Return to the main QuickStats page and select one of the religious experiences we haven’t already covered.

13. What item have you selected?

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14. How common is the experience you clicked on? (e.g., what percentage of Americans reported that they have had that experience?

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Next, click on the “Patterns” tab and scroll down to the table that shows the percentage of people who report having had the experience by age.

15. Are older people more or less likely to report that they have had the experience you selected? Why do you think this is?

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In this learning module we covered some of the common religious experiences Americans report having. We also looked at some of the ways these experiences can vary by gender, age and race.