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480 Unit 4 Social Institutions
Religious Believers
Religion is common to all societies. Although the majority of Americans are Christian, many other faiths are represented in the United States. This map shows the percentage of the pop- ulation of each state who identify themselves as members of a faith or religion.
Adapted from The State of the U.S.A. Atlas. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Religious Adherents as a Percentage of State Population
≥ 70% 60–69% 50–59% 40–49% < 40% No data
District of Columbia
Interpreting the Map
SS
1. Create a database comparing the number of religious believers in your state with other states in your region.
2. What do you think this map says about the state of religion in the U.S.? Explain.
❖ Experience encompasses certain feelings attached to religious expression. This dimension is the hardest to measure. For example, a religious believer may feel “close” to the deity when praying.
❖ Consequences are the decisions and commitments people make as a result of religious beliefs, rituals, knowledge, or experiences. Consequences may be social, such as opposing or supporting capital punishment, or personal, as when practicing sexual abstinence before marriage or telling the truth regardless of the cost.
Section 3 Assessment
1. In your own words, describe the difference between a cult and a sect.
2. Give one example of each of the five dimensions of religiosity, using
examples not given in the text.
Critical Thinking
3. SummarizingInformation Ofthedimensionsofreligiositydiscussed
in the text, which do you think is most important to denominations today? Give reasons for your answer.