In my opinion, our people, anywhere in the world, are very religious, not due to being mostly Catholic, or even due to being mostly Christian, but simply due to being Filipino. A few days ago—timed for Ash Wednesday—SWS issued an Instagram report, “Fourth Quarter 2022 Social Weather Survey: 7 out of 10 adult Filipino Catholics pray at least once daily,” www.sws.org.ph, 2/20/23. But a supplementary table, posted on 2/22/23, also shows that daily praying is done by 93 percent of Iglesia ni Cristos (INC) and 75 percent of other Christians (neither Catholic nor INC).A second table of 2/22/23 shows that 58 percent of Filipino Muslims pray the Salah every day, and 38 percent pray it “sometimes.” The Salah is meant to be prayed five times a day, by the way.
A third table of 2/22/23 shows that attendance at religious services is done at least weekly by 38 percent of Catholics, 80 percent of INCs, 60 percent of other Christians, and 71 percent of Muslims. In the Philippines, non-Catholics are more consistent in fulfilling their religious obligations than Catholics are.Filipinos are very firm believers in God. Seventy-eight percent of adult Filipinos say they know that God exists and have no doubts about it, as of 2018, the latest time that the International Social Survey Program (www.issp.org) did its periodic survey on religion. (SWS is the Philippine member of ISSP; it has done all the annual cross-country surveys since 1991.)
For comparison, those with no-doubts-about-God are 31 percent in “Catholic” Spain and 54 percent in the “Protestant” United States, our former colonizers. They are 36 percent in “Buddhist” Thailand, and 3 percent in “Buddhist-Shinto” Japan.
The percentages who say, “While I have doubts, I feel that I do believe in God,” are 10 in the Philippines (PH), 21 in Spain (ES, for España), 19 in the US, 9 in Japan (JP), and 10 in Thailand (TH).
The numbers for those saying, “I find myself believing in God sometimes, but not at others,” are: PH 4, ES 9, US 3, JP 9, and TH 10.
The numbers saying, “I don’t believe in a personal God, but in a Higher Power,” are: PH 4, ES 12, US 12, JP 20, and TH 4. This “power” seems akin to the “Force” in the film “Star Wars.”The numbers for agnostics, who say, “I don’t know whether there is a God, and there’s no way to find out,” are: PH 3, ES 11, US 6, JP 26, and TH 17.
The numbers for outright atheists, who say, “I don’t believe in God,” are: PH 0.6, ES 17, US 5, JP 11, and TH 24. The Philippines is the least atheistic among the 35 ISSP countries. The most atheistic is the Czech Republic (35 percent).We learn about ourselves by observing other peoples. Though the Philippines stands out in the ISSP dataset, other countries with equally strong belief in God are Georgia, which is mainly Orthodox Christian, and Turkey, which is mainly Muslim.
Filipinos are generally similar in moral values. There are also ISSP surveys on attitudes toward touchy matters like extramarital relations, abortion, and divorce. These surveys all show large majority disapproval among Filipinos. On such topics, the Philippines also stands out, but this time on the conservative side.
Furthermore, we Filipinos have remarkably similar moral attitudes, regardless of religion, whether Muslim or Christian, and regardless of the kind of Christianity we profess. Our attitudes are rather conservative compared to other Christian countries, and especially compared to “Catholic” Spain.
Long ago, on a chance meeting with the eminent Jesuit psychologist, Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ (1922-2015), I told him of the above findings, and said I would simply call our attitudes “Filipino,” rather than attribute them to any religion or moral code. Immediately, he responded: “Actually, we Filipinos are animist.”Father Bu pointed out that Filipino Catholicism is a mere veneer, only 500 years old, while all of Christianity itself is only 2,000 years old. Compare this to the many millennia of animism accumulated, and constantly reinforced, in Filipino DNA. Animism is compatible with Christianity, Islam, and many other religions.
(Reference: Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ, “Phenomena and Their Interpretation: Landmark Essays 1957-1989,” Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992.)
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Contact: mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph.