religion breakdown in Canada

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joe sz
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religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by joe sz »

Religion in Canada, a breakdown

The Force is no longer strong

The number of Canadians who identify themselves as Jedi has dropped so dramatically since 2001 that the figure is too small to be statistically relevant. According to Statistics Canada, the downward trend in those wise in the ways of the Force is not a phenomenon particular to Canada, but reported by statisticians in the United Kingdom and Australia. Maybe the Jedi will return to Canada in greater numbers when the next movie in the saga is released.
The Gazette

BY JORDAN PRESS, POSTMEDIA NEWS


MAY 8, 2013

A Christian country

Roman Catholics still make up the largest religious group in the country. The largest groups are in Quebec (45.3 per cent) followed by Ontario (31 per cent).

As a percentage of the population, they represent 38.7 per cent of Canadians.

In the 2001 census, that figure was 43 per cent.

The age gap

Minority religious groups tend to be younger than Christians.

Religions by median age:

United Church: 52.3

Anglican: 51.1

Roman Catholic: 42.9

Hindu: 34.2

Sikh: 32.8

No religion: 32.7

Muslim: 28.9

The growth and decline of religious numbers Religions by percentage increase:

Muslim: 72.53

Hindu: 67.68

No religion: 63.68

Sikh: 63.43

Buddhist: 22.14

Christian Orthodox: 14.82

Jewish: -0.15

Roman Catholic: -0.5

Anglican: -19.83

United: -29.29

It would be incorrect to say that the rise of the Muslim population in Canada is a recent addition to the Canadian cultural mosaic. The first Muslims arrived in Canada in the immediate years before and after Confederation.

The country’s first mosque, the Al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton, opened in 1938, at a time when the 1931 census identified some 645 Muslims in Canada.

Secular Canada

Key numbers:

23.9: Percentage of Canadian population declaring no religious affiliation.

16.5: Percentage of Canadian population declaring no religious affiliation in 2001.

48,675: Atheists in Canada

36,285: Agnostics in Canada

About one-fifth of all immigrants in the last decade had no religious affiliation, according to Statistics Canada. The top source? China.

So is religion on the decline in Canada? Experts say no.

The smallest of the religions in Canada

Mission de l’Esprit Saint: 515

Grace Communion International: 605

Swedenborgian: 830

Satanist: 1,050

Rastafarian: 1,055

Scientologist: 1,745

Jain: 3,320

Humanist: 3,455

Spiritualist: 4,315

Sikhs

British Columbia and Ontario are the top two provinces, respectively, for the country’s approximately 455,000 Sikhs. Just over three-quarters of B.C.’s population, or almost 156,000, lived in Vancouver.

But the population is growing elsewhere, says the Canadian chapter of the World Sikh Organization. The economic boom in Saskatchewan and Alberta has drawn Sikhs with the need to find a balance between a Sikh keeping his beard and turban and requirements to wear safety equipment such as gas masks.

“I gauge where the growing pains are by the number of calls I get,” said Balpreet Singh Boparai, the organization’s legal counsel.

United Church

One of the largest churches in the country continues to see a decline in their numbers. After an eight per cent drop in numbers between 1991 and 2001, numbers declined by almost 30 per cent between 2001 and 2011 based on statistics from the National Household Survey. The past 20 years has seen about one million fewer people reporting being part of the United Church.

“We know the United Church of Canada has to find a place in Canadian society that truly represents the changing nature of Canada,” said senior church spokesman Bruce Gregersen.

That means the church may have to be open and flexible, adapting its foundational beliefs to new realities to attract a new group of Canadians.

“It isn’t easy and sometimes it’s criticized that you’re simply giving up your core belief,” Gregersen said. “The other way you can look at it is we’re inviting them to join us in their questions.”

The Force is no longer strong

The number of Canadians who identify themselves as Jedi has dropped so dramatically since 2001 that the figure is too small to be statistically relevant. According to Statistics Canada, the downward trend in those wise in the ways of the Force is not a phenomenon particular to Canada, but reported by statisticians in the United Kingdom and Australia. Maybe the Jedi will return to Canada in greater numbers when the next movie in the saga is released.

How Statistics Canada defined religion

“Religion refers to the person’s self-identification as having a connection or affiliation with any religious denomination group body sect cult or other religiously defined community or system of belief. Religion is not limited to formal membership in a religious organization or group. Persons without a religious connection or affiliation can self-identify as atheist agnostic or humanist or can provide another applicable response.”


http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/new ... story.html
Lost in Space
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

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Interesting stuff, Joe.

And interesting especially about the United Church needed to change with the times. I grew up in it, and I can only say if it changed with the times any more than it has already - the first religious gay marriage in Canada was performed in the United Church and they have long embraced female and openly gay clergy - it would cease to be a religion at all. Typically, the United Churches here have leaned further and further in the direction of Unitarian Universalism.
joe sz
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by joe sz »

good point. this is why the 'orthodox' hold so strongly to tradition in any religion. At some point, a liberal mind tends to tolerate anything except intolerance of their liberal pov. The challenge is to maintain a relgious identity while remaining sane and civil to those inside and outside the belief sustem.

I was looking for a Chesterton quote about belief in God but found this:
Top 5 quotes from GK Chesterton•"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."
•"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people."
•"Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline."
•"Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere."
•"The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feels about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous."
Lost in Space
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by Lost in Space »

Google Chesterton's "39 Articles of Doubt", I know I saw that somewhere. Also, maybe read The Man Who was Tuesday - fiction but it illustrates the writer's views pretty clearly.

About Religious Orthodoxy, I think it may present a paradox in that Religion is supposed to help us make sense of the world and adjust to change but too often it becomes a confining denial of change and becomes intolerant of everything that isn't it. You say this of the Liberal mindset but it can just as well be said of the Orthodox mindset of whatever religion. To me, at times, it looks like organized Xenophobia.
Lost in Space
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

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P.s. I wonder what the actual number of New Agers is, and also, how many people belong to Secret Societies - of course it's difficult to get that number because, of course, membership is supposed to be a secret.
WofthesunEofthemoon
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by WofthesunEofthemoon »

ROFL, LiS. I don't agree with all your points, but you are on the ball here.
WofthesunEofthemoon
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by WofthesunEofthemoon »

For example, I have never seen one of your reviews on the Masonicl
Lodges. Joe. Most of which you can only join the website for if you actually belong to a lodge and where there is always a secret element which even the majority of other lodge members cannot penetrate. :D
joe sz
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by joe sz »

masons in america and europe are more like private clubs than secret societies. ex-masons have given me all the "secret" literature in the past. I lectured at a masonic hall about cults in front of masons once, and then one of them asked me to join :roll:

If you live in N Korea, then you need a secret society to follow anything the state does not approve.

To me, orthodoxy the way Chesterton approached it has a sophistication that is rare among Orthodox fundamentalists. A parallel would be Gore Vidal among liberals. This is more a matter of how well and not what to me.

Ramtha does not score well on the "well" scale.
joe sz
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Re: religion breakdown in Canada

Unread post by joe sz »

Most new age people tend to be "liberal" in politics [except my old cult of CUT: Elizabeth Clare Prophet was in the "right wing camp" even moreso than JZ who is a mixed bag of right wing anti-government survivalist subculture and left wing 'let's have a party and get stoned for enlightenment" cult. The only kind of dancing E Prophet allowed for a time was "square dancing" because i resembled a 4 square mandala of light].

To counter Chesterton, here are some gems from Gore Vidal who debated some prominent Republicans over the years :
"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn. '' gore vidal quotes: author & politcal pundit

""I don't see us winning the war. We have made enemies of one billion Muslims." gore vidal quotes: novelist and commentator

"In almost every case (where the United States has fought wars) our overwhelming commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights has required us to support those regimes that would deny freedom, democracy and human rights to their own people." gore vidal quotes: from his book the decline and fall of the american empire

"I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add." gore vidal quotes: on writing

"Until the rise of American advertising, it never occurred to anyone anywhere in the world that the teenager was a captive in a hostile world of adults." gore vidal quotes: on us advertising

"This is not at all bad, except as prose." gore vidal quotes: on writing

"For half a century photography has been the "art form" of the untalented. Obviously some pictures are more satisfactory than others, but where is credit due? to the designer of the camera? To the finger on the button? tso the law of averages?" gore vidal quotes: political pundit and author

"The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death" gore vidal quotes: on religion

"The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return." gore vidal quotes: on government

"Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies." gore vidal quotes: author and political pundit

"What other culture could have produced someone like Hemmingway and not seen the joke?" gore vidal quotes: on other writers

"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent." gore vidal quotes: on corporate america
http://thetenbest.net/gorevidalquotes/
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