Three in five (58 percent) Canadians have read or otherwise engaged with the Bible recently or at some point as an adult, finds a new online survey, adding that while most Canadians (60 percent) have a positive view of the major sacred texts, many are not engaged with those texts.
Cardus, a non-partisan Christian think tank, commissioned Angus Reid to
poll over 4,000 Canadians on their faith. The respondents, from the Angus Reid Forum group, included 1,948 self-identified Christians, 211 Muslims, 202 Jews, 88 individuals from other faiths, and 1,567 persons with no religious identity.
The poll defined engagement as having read or interacted with the sacred text in the last 12 months or past few years, but not more than five years ago.
Among all respondents, 39 percent said the religious texts “offer good suggestions” on living a happy life” and 21 percent said they are “ageless in their truth and [have] relevance to modern life,” as opposed to 26 percent who said they’re “outdated and irrelevant” and 13 percent who said they’re “harmful to our modern Canadian society.”
Meanwhile, among respondents without any religious identity, 30 percent said the sacred texts are harmful and 40 percent said they’re irrelevant. Just 9 percent said they’re still relevant, with the remaining 26 percent saying they offer good suggestions.
Janet Epp Buckingham, adjunct professor at Trinity Western University, said she thinks these are the study’s most significant findings and stem from a lack of knowledge or understanding of the historical role religion played.
“There are a lot of people in Canadian society [who] don’t know very much about the contribution that religion makes in society, and they have some probably stereotypical views for religion and religious people,” Buckingham told The Epoch Times.
Those engaged with a sacred text were more likely to report donating money (68 percent) and volunteering (48 percent) in recent months than those not engaged (53 percent, 33 percent respectively), the survey found.
Scripture and Law
Buckingham adds that, “people are no longer aware of the roots of our laws and legal systems, and so they take those laws for granted, [thinking] that that represents Canadian values as opposed to having historic roots in our religious heritage.”When asked if scriptural teachings “should help define our laws and how we live together in society,” 52 percent of respondents said “no,” 34 percent said “as a broad guide, but not specifics,” and 14 percent said “very much so.” Even 44 percent of Christians said “no.”
Douglas Farrow, McGill University professor of ethics and theology, said the recent arrest of a woman in the UK for silently praying outside an abortion clinic illustrates how rights recede when the scriptures aren’t esteemed.
“It’s very remarkable that we have emerged so quickly into a culture [in] which one can be arrested for praying silently to the God of the Bible, even though that culture’s whole roots—its common law roots, its international law roots—on almost every level are to be found in the Bible,” Farrow said.
David Haskell, associate professor of religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, noted that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins by stating, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.”
“When you look at the laws that codify liberty, freedom, equality, their genesis ... is found in the Christian scriptures in particular,” he said.
“If someone says that they want to divorce scripture from law, it’s at their peril, because the reason we got to where we are today is because of scripture, and Christian scripture in particular.”
Sacred Texts in Schools
When asked if “children in public schools should be exposed to the Christian Bible as part of the standard curriculum,” only 35 percent of respondents said yes and only 44 percent of the self-identified Christians said yes.Buckingham said she has been “very disappointed” that educators are not to discuss religion in public school classrooms. She said her children “routinely” heard in their classes in a religiously diverse region of Ottawa that Canadians were religious a century ago but not today. Meanwhile, when children from various faiths miss an occasional day of school for a religious observance, the other students often wouldn’t understand what it was about.
“Rather than have an inclusive curriculum about religion, ministers of education have instead opted for ‘no, no, no, it’s too divisive and we have to exclude it.’ ... [So] kids in school don’t know what fellow students believe,” she said.
Haskell, however, doubts public educators would teach religion even-handedly.
“It’s just as likely to lead people to despise religion as it is to appreciate it, because we really don’t know what the perspective or slant will be,” he said.
Most Canadians Have Positive View of Sacred Texts: Survey
Friends Read Free
Three in five (58 percent) Canadians have read or otherwise engaged with the Bible recently or at some point as an adult, finds a new online survey, adding that while most Canadians (60 percent) have a positive view of the major sacred texts, many are not engaged with those texts.
The poll defined engagement as having read or interacted with the sacred text in the last 12 months or past few years, but not more than five years ago.
Among all respondents, 39 percent said the religious texts “offer good suggestions” on living a happy life” and 21 percent said they are “ageless in their truth and [have] relevance to modern life,” as opposed to 26 percent who said they’re “outdated and irrelevant” and 13 percent who said they’re “harmful to our modern Canadian society.”
Meanwhile, among respondents without any religious identity, 30 percent said the sacred texts are harmful and 40 percent said they’re irrelevant. Just 9 percent said they’re still relevant, with the remaining 26 percent saying they offer good suggestions.
Janet Epp Buckingham, adjunct professor at Trinity Western University, said she thinks these are the study’s most significant findings and stem from a lack of knowledge or understanding of the historical role religion played.
Those engaged with a sacred text were more likely to report donating money (68 percent) and volunteering (48 percent) in recent months than those not engaged (53 percent, 33 percent respectively), the survey found.
Scripture and Law
Buckingham adds that, “people are no longer aware of the roots of our laws and legal systems, and so they take those laws for granted, [thinking] that that represents Canadian values as opposed to having historic roots in our religious heritage.”When asked if scriptural teachings “should help define our laws and how we live together in society,” 52 percent of respondents said “no,” 34 percent said “as a broad guide, but not specifics,” and 14 percent said “very much so.” Even 44 percent of Christians said “no.”
Douglas Farrow, McGill University professor of ethics and theology, said the recent arrest of a woman in the UK for silently praying outside an abortion clinic illustrates how rights recede when the scriptures aren’t esteemed.
“It’s very remarkable that we have emerged so quickly into a culture [in] which one can be arrested for praying silently to the God of the Bible, even though that culture’s whole roots—its common law roots, its international law roots—on almost every level are to be found in the Bible,” Farrow said.
David Haskell, associate professor of religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, noted that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins by stating, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.”
“When you look at the laws that codify liberty, freedom, equality, their genesis ... is found in the Christian scriptures in particular,” he said.
Sacred Texts in Schools
When asked if “children in public schools should be exposed to the Christian Bible as part of the standard curriculum,” only 35 percent of respondents said yes and only 44 percent of the self-identified Christians said yes.Buckingham said she has been “very disappointed” that educators are not to discuss religion in public school classrooms. She said her children “routinely” heard in their classes in a religiously diverse region of Ottawa that Canadians were religious a century ago but not today. Meanwhile, when children from various faiths miss an occasional day of school for a religious observance, the other students often wouldn’t understand what it was about.
“Rather than have an inclusive curriculum about religion, ministers of education have instead opted for ‘no, no, no, it’s too divisive and we have to exclude it.’ ... [So] kids in school don’t know what fellow students believe,” she said.
Haskell, however, doubts public educators would teach religion even-handedly.
“It’s just as likely to lead people to despise religion as it is to appreciate it, because we really don’t know what the perspective or slant will be,” he said.
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