According to the American Religious Identification Survey (2001), "while nearly half of blacks say their outlook is religious (49 percent), only 37 percent of whites, 30 percent of Hispanics and 28 percent of Asians agree" ("One Nation, Under God? - U.S. Religious Demographic Information," American Demographics, <http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4021/is_2002_Jan_1/ai_82264532>, 1. Jan. 2002). What's the national breakdown of Asian-American demographics? "A total of 2.7 million Asian American residents are Chinese (excluding Taiwanese) or Chinese (excluding Taiwanese) in combination with one or more other races or Asian groups, making Chinese the leading Asian group. Filipino (2.4 million) and Asian Indian (1.9 million) follow. The largest Pacific islander groups are native Hawaiian (401,000) and Samoan (133,000)" ("Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: May 2004," <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/001738.html>, 19 Apr. 2004). So, while the Chinese are indeed the largest component, they constitute only 20.6% of the total Asian-American population of 13.1 million ("Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: May 2004," <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/001738.html>, 19 Apr. 2004).
>could you elaborate on why you think its probable that indian
>scientists are less religious than american (lets say white, black)
>scientists?
Since Asian-Americans are less religious than other races, I thought it probable that Asian-American scientists are also less religious than those of other races. But that's a hypothesis only, highly probable though it seems to me. If anyone has evidence that shows that, in contrast to Asian-Americans in general, Asian-American scientists are as religious as or more religious than scientists of other races, I'll be all ears.
>[lbo-talk] RE: An Appeal to Ignorance
>snitsnat snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
>Mon Jun 13 21:19:04 PDT 2005
<snip>
>It's as if because you say you're spiritual that you have a corner
>on the experiences you describe.
There is an interesting article that shows demographic differences between those whose spirituality takes the form of self-identification as religious and those who claim to be spiritual without being religious (in the latter category Joanna, Dennis, and Chris may fall, as they don't seem to believe in any particular religion and they probably would not be considered religious by those who belong to actually-existing religions).
"The 'spiritual' people, in contrast to the 'religious' people, were of higher socioeconomic status" (Leila Shahabi, Lynda H. Powell, Marc A. Musick, Kenneth I. Pargament, Carl E. Thoresen, David Williams, Lynn Underwood, Marcia A. Ory, "Correlates of Self-Perceptions of Spirituality in American Adults," Annals of Behavioral Medicine 24.1, <http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1207/S15324796ABM2401_07?cookieSet=1>, 2002, p. 60). More specifically, "[r]elative to this referent [of the spiritual and religious group], the spiritual-only group had an 80% lower odds of being minority, a 46% lower odds of being from the South, and a 52% lower odds of being married. In addition, the spiritual-only group was younger and better educated. These demographic differences were less extreme when the religious-only group was compared to the referent and more extreme when the neither spiritual nor religious group was compared to the referent. The only exception to this was the educational level of the neither spiritual nor religious group, which was lower than the referent and considerably lower than the spiritual-only group" (Leila Shahabi, Lynda H. Powell, Marc A. Musick, Kenneth I. Pargament, Carl E. Thoresen, David Williams, Lynn Underwood, Marcia A. Ory, "Correlates of Self-Perceptions of Spirituality in American Adults," Annals of Behavioral Medicine 24.1, <http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1207/S15324796ABM2401_07?cookieSet=1>, 2002, p. 64). -- Yoshie
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