NationStates

Skappola wrote:

Othelos wrote:I'm not 100% sure, but I think that they're kind of like evangelical-lite. Or something.

No, Charismatic Christianity is a movement which is a part of nearly every Christian Organization, including Catholicism. The idea is to mix the Rituals & Beliefs of your religion with the dancing, singing, and participation of Pentacostalism.

Skappola wrote:

Othelos wrote:I'm not 100% sure, but I think that they're kind of like evangelical-lite. Or something.

No, Charismatic Christianity is a movement which is a part of nearly every Christian Organization, including Catholicism. The idea is to mix the Rituals & Beliefs of your religion with the dancing, singing, and participation of Pentacostalism.

Skappola wrote:

Halstus wrote:
Well Nationstates does have other participants besides those from western areas.

It's also worth mentioning that there's a higher influx of immigrants in countries like UK/US/Australia, where NS has firm grounding.

Furthermore, there's often freedom of religion to at least SOME degree in these areas. It's not like there's a mandate in any of these areas that one MUST be Christian, Jewish, or an atheist.

It can seem that way though. I have to knock myself out of surprise when I see someone of European descent who isn't one of the three. Bad habits die hard, unfortunately.

Yes, but if the "other" category was due to immigration and/or nonwestern members, then you would also see a larger Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu sect, which is not present in this poll. Granted, the number of Buddhists is very, very slightly larger, but it's small enough that it's almost statistically insignificant.

The only nonwestern religions that I can think of which would be present in "Other", other than the ones I've mentioned earlier, would be Confucionism and Shintoism. Shintoism, however, could easily fall under traditional (And many Shinto practicioners also practice many aspects of Buddhism). That leaves Confucionism, which would likely come with a large number of Buddhists due to intermixing between people of the two faiths.

The other religions I mentioned earlier all exist in areas with large numbers of either Muslims or Hindus, which are mostly absent from the polls, except for Unitarian Universalism. I know that not many people practice Unitarian Universalism on these forums, which leads me to believe that the "Other" category is likely made up of Western Neo-Pagan belief systems (Note that I'm using that as an umbrella term, since it best describes these religions) and more vague spiritualist belief systems. I come to this conclusion after seeing the large number of participants on threads such as those which celebrate the solstice and other pagan discussion threads.

I find this interesting, because there has to be a reason why so many people on the forums follow these creeds. The Liberal Social attitudes play into this somewhat, but normally that leads to a mostly nonreligious community. That there is such a large spiritualist and/or neo-pagan community on here is interesting.

Skappola wrote:

Othelos wrote:I'm not 100% sure, but I think that they're kind of like evangelical-lite. Or something.

No, Charismatic Christianity is a movement which is a part of nearly every Christian Organization, including Catholicism. The idea is to mix the Rituals & Beliefs of your religion with the dancing, singing, and participation of Pentacostalism.

Asterdan wrote:

Skappola wrote:No, Charismatic Christianity is a movement which is a part of nearly every Christian Organization, including Catholicism. The idea is to mix the Rituals & Beliefs of your religion with the dancing, singing, and participation of Pentacostalism.

We sing hymns, but we definitely don't dance xD

Halstus wrote:

Skappola wrote:Yes, but if the "other" category was due to immigration and/or nonwestern members, then you would also see a larger Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu sect, which is not present in this poll. Granted, the number of Buddhists is very, very slightly larger, but it's small enough that it's almost statistically insignificant.

The only nonwestern religions that I can think of which would be present in "Other", other than the ones I've mentioned earlier, would be Confucionism and Shintoism. Shintoism, however, could easily fall under traditional (And many Shinto practicioners also practice many aspects of Buddhism). That leaves Confucionism, which would likely come with a large number of Buddhists due to intermixing between people of the two faiths.

The other religions I mentioned earlier all exist in areas with large numbers of either Muslims or Hindus, which are mostly absent from the polls, except for Unitarian Universalism. I know that not many people practice Unitarian Universalism on these forums, which leads me to believe that the "Other" category is likely made up of Western Neo-Pagan belief systems (Note that I'm using that as an umbrella term, since it best describes these religions) and more vague spiritualist belief systems. I come to this conclusion after seeing the large number of participants on threads such as those which celebrate the solstice and other pagan discussion threads.

I find this interesting, because there has to be a reason why so many people on the forums follow these creeds. The Liberal Social attitudes play into this somewhat, but normally that leads to a mostly nonreligious community. That there is such a large spiritualist and/or neo-pagan community on here is interesting.

That puts a dent in my first two theories then.

The main reason why we might be seeing such a large spiritualist/neo-pagan community could just again fall to the freedom of religion thing. Nationstates seems to attract people who are interested in the mechanics of law, government, and politics. [In the long run, AND accounting only for people who play seriously on NS/II/maybe GE&T forums].

These are people who have probably been exposed to more ideas on a social context. Being exposed to different religions is one good example of being exposed more broad social context.

Skappola wrote:

Halstus wrote:
That puts a dent in my first two theories then.

The main reason why we might be seeing such a large spiritualist/neo-pagan community could just again fall to the freedom of religion thing. Nationstates seems to attract people who are interested in the mechanics of law, government, and politics. [In the long run, AND accounting only for people who play seriously on NS/II/maybe GE&T forums].

These are people who have probably been exposed to more ideas on a social context. Being exposed to different religions is one good example of being exposed more broad social context.

Perhaps so! The Open, experienced, and varied social views of those that visit this site could definitely lead to an increasingly large number of Spiritualist and Nontraditional religious patrons. Part of it may be due to the particular interest in Eastern Philosophy/Religion which many have here, which often emphasize the sort of Spiritualism which can be seen here.

Distruzio wrote:

Skappola wrote:No, Charismatic Christianity is a movement which is a part of nearly every Christian Organization, including Catholicism. The idea is to mix the Rituals & Beliefs of your religion with the dancing, singing, and participation of Pentacostalism.

Not to mention the ridiculous gyration and slackjabbering for Christ that happens.

At the core, charismaticism is naught but a ridiculous belief that Jesus would think it pretty damned awesome if we all claps, jumped, and blabbered incoherent nonsense at one another in His name.

<suppresses shudder>