Continuing to work on our group project has brought a few things to light for me about the differences with people and religion. My groups book was Sacred Stories and Spiritual Tribes. The whole book was about the different religions different people have and the different demographics of the people that were surveyed. So many different people can be in a different “tribe” within a church. Nancy Ammerman talks about the definition of tribe is a group of people with the same interests. An example of this would be when professor Spickard brought up megachurches. Everyone is there for the pastor, but the church is so big its hard to connect with people. People then find more people with similar interests making them a tribe within the church.

Also, the term theistic and extra theistic kept coming to our attention. The definition of theistic is relating to or characterized by belief in the existence of a god or gods. Extra theistic people have more of an outside look on things compared to theistic people. The most interesting thing that I found out was the relationship with pets. People who considered themselves extra theistic would more likely be a pet owner compared to someone theistic. Also asking for prayer over smaller things compared to theistic people. Being a theistic person would lead to more meaningless prayer as well. An example would be praying around the dinner table. Families do it every night because it is routine, making it less meaningful then someone praying over someone who is very sick.