A few weeks ago an article in a local newspaper had this to say ...New survey reveals which religions New Zealanders trust most - and least - after Christchurch shootings
We used a five-point scale for responses - complete trust, lots of trust, some trust, little trust and no trust at all. We converted ordinal data (e.g. first, second, etc) into cardinal data (one, two, etc) by assuming equal intervals between categories to give a mean trust score.
We found that the most trusted religious group in New Zealand is a small non-Christian group: Buddhists.
Hmm I wonder if the results would be the same in other Western countries if a similar research survey was conducted...
Comments
Not in the area I live in. Here in the Bible-belt region of the US, if you even hint at being a non-believer (of a higher power/god), you are not trusted and looked at as having no moral compass.
I remember the first Buddhist forum I signed up to ( well actually it was the first forum I had ever joined...which is now closed down), there was a member who also lived in the bible belt, he was so fearful of the people in his apartment block finding out that he was practicing Zen, he would travel to the other side of the city to visit the Zen centre...He couldn't discuss the Dharma with anybody in his neighbourhood...
It's sad that in this day and age Westerners should have to hide their spiritual leaning for fear of being ostracized by the community in which they live...
I trust the enlightened. Not all are Buddhist or even religious ...
I do not trust my little self.
I think buddhists are generally pretty trustworthy... any one who has taken the precepts can be relied upon not to kill, steal, be untruthful, which is a pretty good start.
I wouldn't trust you lot as far as I could throw you...
Yes one would think so, but precepts are broken, even by those who have been practicing for years ...
I guess it's a case of...does one really trust one/the self to do the right thing...
...especially when one knows that the self has gotten 'itself' into strife time and time again...
Maybe @lobster has a point...
It’s an interesting one....i have grown up surrounded by atheists (both non-fundamental and fundamental) and, while I think they would trust a Christian, they just believe they are of a lower intelligence.
According to the survey Atheists are the fourth most trust by Kiwis
Buddhists
Jews
Hindus
Atheists/Agnostics
Protestants
Muslims
Catholics
Evangelicals
Wow Jews are 2nd? I live on the wrong side of the pond
I was curious about this question in the US. I found something on general feelings towards differing religious groups.
https://www.pewforum.org/2017/02/15/americans-express-increasingly-warm-feelings-toward-religious-groups/
The article breaks it all down in finer detail and among 18-29 year olds Buddhists got the highest rating.