ABSTRACT
As a transition from psychology and sociology of religion to philosophy, let us look at another recent American demographic study, one concerning different ways of thinking about God.
A 2006 survey by researchers from Baylor University concluded that Americans tended to have one of four different concepts of God: the authoritarian God, the critical God, the distant God, the benevolent God.1 (5 percent said they were atheists.)
The 32 percent who embraced the authoritarian God believe that God has strict rules, is angry at those who violate them and willing to punish those who do so, even through seeming natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. Fifty-one percent of these people attend church weekly, and nearly half believe in the literal truth of the Bible; they also want government to be based on religious values.
