YouGov poll cheered me up...

[matgb]

Righty ho. Ages ago, I signed up for YouGov, and currently am nowhere near the threshold needed to get a payment from them; the old weighted sample thing means that internet geeks are much less likely to get selected than, for example, retired ladies, because they're sampling from internet users. But, I actually do enjoy doing the surveys for the most part (although BrandIndex I avoid), and today one of the pages worth of questions really cheered me up, so, given the limitations of LJ polls, I've replicated it under the cut.

I've made results viewable to just friends, because some might not like ticking boxes about their faith for anyone to know, I'm more than a little open about my atheism/Humanism, just as el_steplador is very open about her Anglicanism (and appears to be enjoying the pilgrimage muchly, go check her journal), but, y'know.

[Poll #964678]

Yes, I'm aware that this is a completely unrepresentative sample, but it's curiosity rather than any sense of scientific enquiry.

Now, why did this cheer me up? They've specifically given options for 'atheist' and 'agnostic' for both belief and background. I ticked atheist and agnostic respectively, as my father is an Agnostic of the Dawkins school, and my mother is a soft Anglican. With any luck, this YouGov poll will give food for thought to a lot of politicians; I really like the background versus belief question, last survey I saw of relevence seemed to indicate people said they were Christian, but in fact didn't believe, it's just a background thing; I'd love to see a similar distinction made in the next UK census.

Oh yeah, if you fancy signing up for YouGov, and are in the UK, sign up here and they'll give me money as well as you for the first three months. Get paid to tell people what you think, for a reputable polling organisation, gotta be a good plan...

Comments

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

What? No Jedi? No FSM? Rubbish! :P

[matgb]

That would be the 'other' boxes.

TBH, if I'd redone it, they'd have been there, but all I did was reduce the options down to 15 per list to make them fit, adding more would've made it not the YouGov poll.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

I'm in kind of a weird place for religion questions.

I was raised RC, but I'm Jewish now. So I answered Jewish for the first question but not the second. As far as my "religious background," I guess it would be Catholic, even though those aren't my religious beliefs. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten through grade 12, followed by a Jesuit college. For me, "background" and "religion" as two distinct things. I'm culturally and ethnically Italian, but the religion I happen to practice is Judaism.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

That should say are distinct things, not as.

[matgb]

I was going to ask this awhileback when you posted something, I forget what, but I think my internet died; given that it's a very unusual change, was there anything specific that made you switch?

Also; does 'unsure' mean you regret that, or you're moving away from religion as something for you anyway?

(assuming you don't mind me asking of course; I figure not, because you've commented, but, well...)

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

Your post made me go and type up my own whole post about the whole thing because linking to that filtered post is just too embarassing. :-p Plus, it's now public, so anyone who's interested can read. Here if you care (http://baseballchica03.livejournal.com/610336.html).

And about the unsure question, my religion is important to me, but I don't see myself as "religious." The word has a very specific, negative connotation to me.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

That's quite an interesting switch; I don't know you at all, just thought I'd comment as it's not very expected. Good on you though, if it's what you believe in!

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

I'm always surprised about how many converts or those considering conversion who I talk to who are former Catholics. It must be something about the ritual of it all without the Jesus business that draws us to it. :)

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

You didn't put enough characters for the "please write below" box :P

* bes verbose *

[matgb]

Well, yeah, because I couldn't think of any religions with a name longer than 50 characters; you could've just put relX / RelY y'know...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

You should know that there's always some gobby twat who wants to make things complicated. There always is when I post a poll, anyway ;)

[matgb]

Well, yes, I know, and I wish LJ would make the display for input fields a bit better, but can't have everything...

[foxfirefey]

I know! I wanted to explain why I put Mormon instead of selecting Christian--Christian is not very specific, there's so many different flavors, like Catholicism. Someone raised Catholic has a very different background from someone raised, say, Baptist.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

I ticked the "Christian" box but then put Charismatic church in the "other" bit to get around that problem. I like the use of the word flavours, though!

[matgb]

I guess, to an extent, that's partially a British thing, over here there are two main denominations, Anglican and Catholic, and then the other groups, which have members but not huge numbers.

You're right, of course, but for a UK based survey being Christian counts for more than a specific denomination, for the most part.

[tlingel.livejournal.com]

Interesting link to yougov, but they ought to know that _county_ isn't part of an address these days. Their website is seriously slow.

[matgb]

I've never had an issue with it, but then, I'm so used to dial up that I probably wouldn't notice, ah well.

[doccy.livejournal.com]

Religion's always been a tricky thing for me... But only because of the semantics of it. I was raised to believe in whatever was taught in the churches in Suffolk that I attended, but I'm pretty much agnostic - there may or may not be one or more God(s), but it doesn't really bother me if there is or there isn't.

The semantics, for me, is -what- I was raised as. I'm about 90% certain I was CofE, but then again I don't even know what Anglican is, and after all I was from East Anglia, so surely that's where the Anglican Church is?

Either way, I was raised one of them, and now I'm not ;)

[matgb]

Church of England is the English branch of the worldwide Anglican communion that accepts the Archbish of Canterbury as its nominal head. So you're probably Anglican.

I'm actually surprised by the number of agnostics I'm getting, especially that they're on their own beating the religious, but perhaps I shouldn't be.

[the-mendicant.livejournal.com]

Cool I joined yougov, at last someone's going to have to listen to me MWAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

I'd actually state my background as Catholic rather than Christian. I know that might seem like a bit of a weird distinction, but it certainly shaped me growing up very differently than being Anglican would have done. It's a mainstream/non-mainstream thing.

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I filled this in as atheist and from a Christian background - scouts, religious grandmother, occasional Sunday school because my parents wanted me christened/baptised and, for some reason (illness, I think), this was done at the age of 5 and not 0.

I probably count as atheist, but at the same time, infinite universe and all that, I'm quite prepared to believe that there could be vastly more intelligent life out there, and that some people might view them as a god. That's not exactly what I mean by either atheist or agnostic, though.

[paulrattew.livejournal.com]

I tend to fill in all the YouGov polls that they ask me to do, but i also found this one quite interesting. I would like to see the next census make the slipt between considering yourself a part of, and beleiving in, a specific religion or just having a background that is opne of them. Also, it would be interesting to see a survey that asks if people consider themselves to be active believer/members of a religion and the degree of this. This one has edged towards that with the question on whether you attend religious services but this isn't quite the same thing.

Somehow i don't think that thge next survey will go this far. The questions asked tend to be rather conservative in nature, which is partly a problem that is inherant in censuses (to be of real benefit they need to be able to see trends and this can only really be done with any accuracy is the questions are kept very similar each time).

It will be interesting to see how well the new survey types that YouGov are going to have more of (the ones asking you to actually write what you think as opposed to selecting from a set of options). If they can make them work well i think that they could really give politicians, and the other groups that use the information from these surveys, some real food for thought.

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

(Wanders over from IB's journal- and the pub).

I put Atheist with Agnostic background, as I've never really asked my parents about their religious beliefs- They don't believe in a God, and religion wasn't mentioned during my childhood- though I recall my mother was christened as a child. (Entirely her idea too.)

Further back my family are Jewish, and my Great-Grandmother converted from Scottish Presbyterian to Orthodox Judaism, which was an interesting combination.

[matgb]

Just mostly responding in a 'forgot to add you after we met' manner than anything else. Am also pretty sure I walked right passed you at Inferno last weekend while looking for the loos, didn't realise till afterwards.

Meh; thanks for comment, this has turned out to be the most votes I've had in a poll without a link from a major community, which is pretty cool overall. Results are surprising, will try to remember to write them up when I'm sober.

Any typos in above blame on the whisky...