RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health

1. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health Initial Results…

2. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 1.1 Do you believe that your religious practices or lack thereof, affect your current health state? • 36% Yes • 64% No • 1.2 Have you ever prayed to pass a midterm/exam? • 81% Yes • 19% No • 1.3 If you were told that someone you loved, family or friend, were ill, would you pray for a health improvement? • 100% Yes • 1.4 If you knew someone was praying for you, do you believe this would affect your overall health? • 64% Yes • 36% No

3. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 1.5 When depressed or feeling very alone, have you ever felt abandoned by God? • 41% Yes • 59% No • 1.6 If a loss of a loved one occurred in your family, did you ever become bitter and blame God? • 50% Yes • 45% No • 5% Blank • If we correlate the prayer data from 1.1-1.4 with the abandoned/bitter data from 1.5-1.6 we get the following sorts of results…

4. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • Let’s make the assumption that the data from 1.1-1.4 gives us something of a “score” on the use and confidence in the use of “prayer”, with each “yes” counting 1 in a very unscientific “prayer index”. Then let’s correlate abandonment and embittering experiences in 1.5 and 1.6 with those scores.

5. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 2.1 Does your religion/spirituality affect how you think about death and dying? • 91% Yes • 9% No • 2.2 Does your claimed religion correlate with how you actually think about or deal with sickness? • 55% Yes • 45% No • 2.3 If you were suffering from an illness, would you turn to religion or spirituality as a means to healing? • 86% Yes • 14% No

6. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 2.4 Have you ever been sick and been healed? • 41% Yes • 59% No • 2.5 Have you ever attended a healing ritual? • 36% Yes • 64% No • 2.6 Has religion and spirituality helped you lead a healthier life? • 55% Yes • 45% No • 2.7 Has a health professional ever joined or offered to join with you in prayer? • 18% Yes • 82% No

7. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 3.1 Do you pray? • (a) daily basis • (b) when you want something / somewhat frequent • (c) during tragedy/illness • (d) never • (a) 32% (b) 59% (c) 9% (d) 0% • 3.2 Do you attend church? • (a) daily • (b) weekly • (c) monthly • (d) yearly (special occasions/holidays) • (e) never • (a) 0% (b) 36% (c) 27% (d) 32% (e) 5%

8. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 3.3 Have you had a personal/family tragedy in your life? • 91% Yes • 9% No • 3.4 If you choose yes to number 3, circle the one that best relates to you: • (a) were religious/spiritual before AND after the experience • (b) Not religious before but was after • (c) religious before but not after • (d) not religious before or after • (a) 65% (b) 10% (c) 5% (d) 15% (5% unexplained blank) • 3.5 Do you believe there is a correlation between tragedy and someone's religious/spiritual beliefs? • 68% Yes • 32% No

9. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • 3.6 Your religious/spiritual beliefs are influenced by your personal experiences: • 1. Strongly Agree • 2. Agree • 3. Neutral • 4. Disagree • 5. Strongly Disagree • Average Score 1.7 • (1) 41% (2) 55% (3) 0% (4) 0% (5) 4%

10. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • Correlating some results… • Church attendance (3.2) correlated with prayer frequency (3.1) • Pray on Daily Basis (7/22) • 57% Weekly Church Attendance • 43% Monthly Church Attendance • Pray when needs arise/frequently (13/22) • 31% Weekly Church Attendance • 15% Monthly Church Attendance • 46% Annual/Special Occasion Church Attendance • 8% Never attend • Pray only during tragedy/illness (2/22) • 50% Monthly Church Attendance • 50% Annual/Special Occasion Church Attendance

11. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • Correlating some results… • Testing “prayer index” (1.1-1.4 cumulative score) against “prayer frequency” (3.1)

12. RELS 120: Class Survey on Religion and Health • Correlating some results… • “Have you ever been healed?” (2.4) correlated against both church attendance (3.2) and prayer frequency (3.1)