This joint effort was born over lunch in Utica, New York. We only mention this because in the 19th century, Utica was the eastern border and Rochester the western border of the famous “burned-over district,” a hotbed of religious revivalism and social reform in the United States. It only seemed natural for the University of Rochester and Zogby International to merge their capabilities and vigorously pursue something unprecedented in the world that pertains to religion.

This is indeed an important project. Everyone claims to “know” religion, but the truth is that we humans know relatively little about it—our own and, especially, that of others. Scholars of religion often base their knowledge on texts and artifacts, and religion “on the ground,” so to speak, is sometimes obscured or overlooked. On television, and particularly over the internet, people encounter the variety of the world’s religions as never before. But it is difficult empirically to grasp that diversity in a unified and coherent context, to see how religions converge with and diverge from one another in the realms of ideas, practices, ethics, and values.

This seminal study is thus an effort to begin to fill in this lacuna. There are several caveats that go along with understanding the work we have produced. First, we began with a study of 11 religious groups in 7 countries (and in the United States, we distinguished “Born Again” Protestants from “Mainstream” Protestants). Thus, there are many nations and religions yet to be studied. Second, there is necessarily a finite number of questions that can be asked in any survey. Many proposed questions did not make the first cut; and, characteristically, many more questions have emerged from this initial effort. This study is a probe rather than a comprehensive survey; it is designed to develop preliminary results and define questions for further study. Third, we polled countries very different from the United States and Canada, where thousands of individuals can be reached by telephone. In short, we had to focus on more convenient areas within some difficult countries to conduct face-to-face interviews. Our interviewers were arrested and detained in Russia. While it is fair to question methodologies, a certain degree of common sense must be used.

In this first probe of a range of the world’s religions, we have accumulated a massive amount of data. We, and others, will be mining the results of this inaugural effort for many years to come. And some exciting themes have emerged that are new and noteworthy.

• As a personal goal, religion is far more important to people than politics.
• Religious leaders are not necessarily the most important source of religious teaching.
• Most groups polled acknowledge the possibility of multiple paths to religious truth and the equality of practitioners of other religions. South Korean Christians and Saudis are the exceptions; American Catholics and Mainstream Protestants are the most flexible.
• The majority of the communities surveyed do not associate religion with trouble and unrest or with violence in their own country. Israeli Jews and Indian Hindus are most likely to see a relationship between unrest and religion, but even their position is still a minority view in those groups.

Religion remains a significant force in the lives of most people, but its role varies across cultures. Religion is one of the few activities that separates humans from our mammal cousins. It offers us a source of strength in times of trouble, a broader purpose to our lives on earth, an ethical framework to guide our lives. Perhaps even more, religion offers us a set of goals against which people measure, assess, and grasp the meaning of their daily lives.

Above all, religion defines much of what and who we are. These days, we too often focus on religion as a source of what separates us from each other, when often religion can define our commonality. Students of religion have always been struck by the frequent overlapping symbols, historical myths, and ethical codes that the world's great religions share. Religion can build bridges among people as much as it can create chasms.

That last point is a persistent theme in this first of our surveys: we are indeed many and diverse, but we also are one. Cultures and religions differ, sometimes deeply, but perhaps they need not inevitably clash. The eminent historian Theodore Zelden reminds us in his Hidden History of Humankind that all who populate this planet are culturally the sons and daughters of all who have preceded us. Because humans have roamed the world, traded in goods and ideas, and enjoyed the arts, we are all the finished products of a patchwork of all cultures that have ever existed.

Steve Olsen’s Mapping Human History ends with a magnificent story, first told in Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha:

“Finally Govinda (a childhood friend) asks Siddhartha how he has achieved such peace in his life. Siddhartha replies, ‘Kiss me on the forehead, Govinda.’ Govinda is surprised by the request, but out of respect for his friend he complies. When he touches Siddhartha’s forehead with his lips, he has a wondrous vision. He no longer saw the face of his friend Siddhartha. Instead he saw other faces, many faces, a long series, a continuous stream of faces—hundreds, thousands, which all came and disappeared and yet all seemed to be there at the same time, which all continually changed and renewed themselves, and which were all yet Siddhartha… He saw the face of a newly born child, red and full of wrinkles, ready to cry. He saw the face of a murderer… He saw the naked bodies of men and women in the transports of passionate love… Each one was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that is transitory. Yet none of them died; they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face; only time stood between one face and another... Throughout human history, groups have wondered how they are related to one another. The study of genetics has now revealed that we are all linked: the Bushmen hunting antelope, the mixed-race people of South Africa, the African Americans descended from slaves, the Samaritans on their mountain stronghold, the Jewish populations scattered around the world, the Han Chinese a billion strong, the descendants of European settlers who colonized the New World, the Native Hawaiians who look to a cherished past. We are members of a singly human family, the products of genetic necessity and chance, borne ceaselessly into an unknown future.”

There is much in our global religion background that bonds us together. Politics, nationalism, demagoguery, greed, fanaticism – these are the forces that tear us asunder. We hope that this first survey will not only be useful to scholars yearning for hard data but also will provide helpful information for those who wish to create common ground with our neighbors worldwide.

William Scott Green,
Professor of Religion,
Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Judaic Studies,
Dean of the College
University of Rochester

John Zogby, President/CEO
Zogby International
October 2003