thankful survey

New Poll: The Religious Are More Thankful than Non-Believers

thankful survey

For most Americans, Thanksgiving isn’t the only time to be thankful.

Thanksgiving is the time when a majority of Americans should reflect on the things they should be thankful for. It is not the only time, however, they have such a feeling.  A Pew Research Center poll revealed that about 78 percent of Americans feel gratitude every week. To put in perspective, the number of individuals among the respondents who felt the opposite way was less than one-tenth of the group, only six percent.

The Religious Are More Thankful than Non-Believers.[/tweetthis]

The Pew poll revealed that a few groups express more gratitude than others. To give an example, 84 percent of women frequently feel a sense of thankfulness or gratitude. In men, the figure is marginally lower at 72 percent. Almost 90 percent of Evangelical Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons- generally the most religious observant groups- say that they experience thankfulness or gratitude a minimum of one time per week.

It is clear that this sense of gratitude is more in religious people than those who have no beliefs. To give an example, 80 percent of Americans who profess to believe in God or those who say that religion has a major impact in their lives, do experience thankfulness or gratitude per week. About 90 percent of Americans who are regular attendees of religious services, pray regularly and read the scriptures say they bear a robust sense of gratitude.

However, Thanksgiving can be hard if a person has suffered a death in the family or a close friend. Intense pain also occurs when a family gets fractured. Memories related to a happier time and peer pressure due to social media where everyone except the person concerned is enjoying could amplify one's pain. In social media, gratitude takes the form of a trending topic.

In a religious sense, thankfulness is an expensive option of worship. The Christian scriptures tell the tale of Jesus observing the donation of a poor widow who gave two copper coins. He then told he assembled audience that the poor individual has given much more than others as the more economically powerful gave gifts inconsequential to the proportion of their wealth, but she donated the money she had to subsist on.  If the tale is transported to the modern era, it is the gift donated by a daily wage person, an action that deserves more appreciation than is commonly seen.

The action of Thanksgiving in America is a controversy in a number of quarters. These people see the tradition as a reminder of continued suffering faced by Native Americans. These people equate the action with European colonialism and cultural genocide. 

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