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        riddles >> general problem-solving / chatting / whatever >> Church for men!
        
(Message started by: amichail on Jul 25th, 2007, 6:13pm)
Title: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 25th, 2007, 6:13pm
See:

http://www.jaxnews.com/news/2007/as-nation-0408-0-7d07v1713.htm
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by ThudanBlunder on Jul 30th, 2007, 3:00pm
And why is that interesting?
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 30th, 2007, 3:02pm

on 07/30/07 at 15:00:41, ThudanBlunder wrote:
And why is that interesting?

At the very least, it's interesting that men tend to find church boring while women do not.
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by towr on Jul 30th, 2007, 3:17pm

on 07/30/07 at 15:02:38, amichail wrote:
At the very least, it's interesting that men tend to find church boring while women do not.
Is that even the case?
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 30th, 2007, 3:19pm

on 07/30/07 at 15:17:51, towr wrote:
Is that even the case?

Apparently so for Christianity.
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by towr on Jul 30th, 2007, 3:37pm

on 07/30/07 at 15:19:00, amichail wrote:
Apparently so for Christianity.
I disagree that that's the most likely cause for the difference in attendance. Just because more women go to church doesn't mean they're any less bored.
More likely they are less likely to grab onto boredom as an excuse not to do something they think is important. Or perhaps they feel some form of social calling. But I very much doubt they find the sermon any more enrapturing than the men.
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 30th, 2007, 4:11pm

on 07/30/07 at 15:37:12, towr wrote:
I disagree that that's the most likely cause for the difference in attendance. Just because more women go to church doesn't mean they're any less bored.
More likely they are less likely to grab onto boredom as an excuse not to do something they think is important. Or perhaps they feel some form of social calling. But I very much doubt they find the sermon any more enrapturing than the men.

It's not like that with other religions though.  So what's different about Christianity?
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by towr on Jul 31st, 2007, 12:12am

on 07/30/07 at 16:11:12, amichail wrote:
It's not like that with other religions though. So what's different about Christianity?
It's the dominant religion in the west, where you are looking.  For minorities sticking together is of greater social importance, and religion is one thing they have in common to identify with.
Besides that the only religions you can compare it with are Judaism and Islam; if you take in contrast e.g. Hinduism, that is much more ritual and less preachy (I don't think they even have weekly mass gatherings anyway; you just bring an offering when it suits you and go to the festivals).
So if you want to make a good comparison, you need to look at countries where comparable religions are dominant. Now in most Islamic countries it would be a very bad idea not to show up at mosque without very good reason; and in many cases a woman wouldn't be allowed to go even there without a male family member. Turkey might be an exception, I know that at least the younger generation is increasingly skipping on attendance (and probably the boys more than the girls).
For Judaism, we only have Israel where it's the dominant religion. And I wouldn't be much surprised if the attendance at synagogues show similar patterns as church attendance here, but I have absolutely no statistics on it; do you?
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 31st, 2007, 7:49am

on 07/31/07 at 00:12:52, towr wrote:
For Judaism, we only have Israel where it's the dominant religion. And I wouldn't be much surprised if the attendance at synagogues show similar patterns as church attendance here, but I have absolutely no statistics on it; do you?

It looks like Judaism might have a similar problem:

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/9172/edition_id/174/format/html/displaystory.html
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by towr on Jul 31st, 2007, 8:08am
It would be interesting to also see the difference at various ages.

To quote from that last article:

Quote:
He notes that "men are increasingly distancing themselves from congregations," and that on any given festival morning, 90 percent of the worshippers in his own synagogue are women over the age of 60.

So it seems, like the men, the younger women are also increasingly less drawn to synagogue. And it might be interesting to see if that can e.g. be linked to increasing social equality between men and women, which is expressed more strongly in the younger generations.
And to complement this, it would be interesting to see if it's also mostly the older women here to keep going to church and whether the younger women are fleeing along with the men.

Another thought is that men tend to live less long than women, this might make up some of the difference (in absolute numbers) between the older men and the older women in attendance. I suppose that should be fairly easy to check by interviewing a representative group of men and women of various ages.
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 31st, 2007, 8:58am

on 07/31/07 at 08:08:15, towr wrote:
Another thought is that men tend to live less long than women, this might make up some of the difference (in absolute numbers) between the older men and the older women in attendance.

I think the issue here is that older people go to church/synagogue to prepare themselves for death.  If that's the case, then men should start attending church/synagogue regularly at a younger age than women because they don't live as long.
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by towr on Jul 31st, 2007, 9:07am

on 07/31/07 at 08:58:49, amichail wrote:
I think the issue here is that older people go to church/synagogue to prepare themselves for death.  If that's the case, then men should start attending church/synagogue regularly at a younger age than women because they don't live as long.
I really don't think they would think like that.
If anything men would start going later, because they feel old later; despite dying younger.
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by amichail on Jul 31st, 2007, 9:25am

on 07/31/07 at 09:07:53, towr wrote:
I really don't think they would think like that.
If anything men would start going later, because they feel old later; despite dying younger.

What evidence is there that men feel old later?
Title: Re: Church for men!
Post by towr on Jul 31st, 2007, 9:34am

on 07/31/07 at 09:25:12, amichail wrote:
What evidence is there that men feel old later?
Less cosmetic products for men to combat aging; the popular image in the media that women go insane when reached thirty thinking they're over the hill; things like that mostly.
I suppose it does warrant some actual research, though. (If there isn't any).


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