What is the point? Not much, really - as social surveys go, most of them are intended A. to help somebody to sell something B. to satisfy ‘scientific’ curiosity. As I’m not selling anything, this must be the latter case – I would like to learn whom LoTR (and other works too, but mainly LoTR) appeals to.
The poll is private, as the information I’m after is. Only numbers and percentage will be seen, no names. You are not requested to post information you provide for the survey unless you wish so – but do so, of course, if you feel inclined to. But confessional debates are strictly prohibited – you are not supposed to battle over ‘whose faith is the True one’ – restrict to issues like whether Tolkien’s work has more or less meaning for you because of your faith etc.
The idea closely follows up proposal as given
here (To Administration – Proposal), which, in itself, was born in the course of the discussion in
Does LotR Have Cross-cultural Appeal? thread. The idea of making special sub-forum for the essay was not supported, but my curiosity is still nagging me. I hope I won’t share the fate of certain member of feline family for this feeling of mine and post the survey into Barrow-Downs sub-forum (as it concerns BD members more than Tolkien’s work per se). It is understood that the survey won’t be very objective (not one public research is), as it will be carried out only with English speaking Internet users, and greater bulk of readers worldwide may have read the books in their native tongues. But let us assume that we are after English speaking Internet users, than survey may be viewed as more accurate than not – as I assume, the confessional representative ratio on message boards must be more or less similar.
Unfortunately, poll questions’ number is limited to ten, so I have to resort to ten as above, leaving out finer definitions like Shia’ or Sunni’ Islam and very whole religions like Sikhism, Jainism or Shintoism (as I list religions with greater level of population). However, I allow for Christian origins of Tolkien’s work, therefore Christian confessions are given in [greater] detail, while all others only in general. I assume as a given that greater majority of Tolkien readers will be Christian, so I’m interested in their division between confessions as well as in sheer percentage as compared to other religions. Atheism is not religion, of course, but consistent Atheism resembles one very much. I propose, therefore, that members who view themselves as merely secular/irreligious people or are agnostics, or adhere to theosophy, list themselves in option ‘other’ rather than in Atheism, but that is not mandatory prescription – be free in your choice.
My apologies for not being able to provide finer definitions for Orthodox Christianity (it includes, therefore, Eastern Orthodox Church and all the multitude of Oriental Churches, Armenian and Copt and Abyssinian included) and Protestantism (so it includes every confession after the Reformation
and Anglican Church too, despite differences there are and my doubts whether it would have been better to include Anglicans within Catholicism. However, if Anglicans feel my classification is incorrect, they are free to list themselves into another option. They are not free to debate confessional issues in the thread, though
– see above). However, I voted against my primal idea of making separate poll for Christian confessions – two similar threads would have been confusing, or so I thought.
The poll will be open for indefinite length of time, allowing for appearance of new and return of now missing old members.
Please take time to vote on supplementary polls:
Civilizations
Age Groups
Gender
How did you learn about Tolkien?
The Book You Started with
Race
First Read
Mothertongue (part 1)
Mothertongue (part 2)
Free Cheese
Race (Slavs and other Vikings, Varangians, and Sarmatians)
Mothertongue (Indo-European Languages)
Mothertongue (Part 4 - Europe)
Field of Study
Field of Activity