Varghese K George

Washington: Compared to three years ago, a Pew study has shown.

Americans were generally warmer to all religious groups, and Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims are viewed more positively compared to three years ago, a survey by the Pew Research Centre has shown. The study also shows that people tend to have a more positive view towards a religion when they know someone who practices it, the study released this week showed.

Respondents were asked to rate their feelings towards various faiths on a scale of 0-100 — the higher the rating, the greater the warmth while mean ratings reflect the collective attitude. Jews, Catholics, and mainline Protestants received the warmest rating of all, at 67, 66 and 65. Hindus and Buddhists moved to warmer zones from neutral zones that they landed in 2014, when the survey was last done. Hindus are at 58 compared to 50 in 2014 while Buddhists are at 60 compared to 53 in 2014. Feelings towards Muslims moved from the cold 40 in 2014 to neutral 48, slightly colder compared to atheists. Atheists and evangelical Protestants have the coldest feelings towards each other for any group.

Hindu presence conspicuous

Increasing visibility of Hindus in the public sphere and activism of multiple organizations such as the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) may have contributed to the better feelings towards Hindus. The U.S. Congress today has three Hindus and three Buddhists, their highest representation ever and a dramatic rise in percentage terms compared to the previous Congress.

As America’s religious diversity is expanding, people are increasingly warmer to faiths other than their own, though the warmest ratings for each religion come from their respective believers. “The increase in mean ratings is broad-based. Warmer feelings are expressed by people in all the major religious groups analysed, as well as by both Democrats and Republicans, men and women, and younger and older adults,” the study found.

While 23 per cent of U.S. adults declare themselves are religiously unaffiliated, and their number is growing, that does not exactly correspond with their belief in god. An earlier Pew study in 2015 found that 89 per cent of Americans believe in god, a dip of three percentage points over seven years, and an indication that a section of the religiously unaffiliated also believe in god. Though there has been a decline in religiosity in America in recent decades, the country remains the most religious of all industrialised countries.

Younger are warmer

The study released this week, showed that younger respondents have warmer attitudes towards faiths that are not their own. Official figures are not available on the number of Hindus in America, but according to the HAF calculations based on surveys there were 2.29 million of them in 2008, of Indian origin. HAF also estimates that a million non-Indian origin people also follow Hinduism in America.

(Source: The Hindu)