Event finds student body considers love most essential in a life of spirit
Mark Helpsmeet
Issue date: 9/24/09 Section: Letters
y's Campus Community Connection event, inviting UW-Eau Claire students to vote on the question, "What is essential to a life of spirit?" The seven options were peace, ritual, redemption, love, simplicity, creeds and prayer/meditation.
Everybody got four marbles to place among the seven labeled tubes. The big winner was love, with 45 percent of all votes, with peace coming in second at 24 percent. Redemption was third with 12 percent. Simplicity got 9 percent, followed closely by prayer/meditation at 8 percent, while creeds and ritual got about 1 percent each for sixth and seventh place.
252 people voted at the CCC event, and though faults could surely be found in the scientific design of the poll, the results are probably a good approximation of the attitudes and beliefs of the student body. Clearly there are some major differences between the common priorities of religion in the United States - things like creeds, ritual and prayer/meditation - and the spiritual values of students.
This is in no way a criticism of university attitudes. In fact, this informal poll was conducted by members of the Eau Claire Friends Meeting (Quakers), where we did the same poll in our group with significantly similar results.
For Quakers, the final rankings, in descending order, were love (45 percent), prayer/meditation (24 percent), simplicity (22 percent), peace (21 percent), redemption (3 percent), ritual (0 percent) and creeds (0 percent). The top and bottom rankings were the same, though perhaps Quakers had less passion in their love ranking than the vibrant Eau Claire student body. Thanks to all the students who participated, and to the campus for inviting the community in for a get-to-know-you event.
Everybody got four marbles to place among the seven labeled tubes. The big winner was love, with 45 percent of all votes, with peace coming in second at 24 percent. Redemption was third with 12 percent. Simplicity got 9 percent, followed closely by prayer/meditation at 8 percent, while creeds and ritual got about 1 percent each for sixth and seventh place.
252 people voted at the CCC event, and though faults could surely be found in the scientific design of the poll, the results are probably a good approximation of the attitudes and beliefs of the student body. Clearly there are some major differences between the common priorities of religion in the United States - things like creeds, ritual and prayer/meditation - and the spiritual values of students.
This is in no way a criticism of university attitudes. In fact, this informal poll was conducted by members of the Eau Claire Friends Meeting (Quakers), where we did the same poll in our group with significantly similar results.
For Quakers, the final rankings, in descending order, were love (45 percent), prayer/meditation (24 percent), simplicity (22 percent), peace (21 percent), redemption (3 percent), ritual (0 percent) and creeds (0 percent). The top and bottom rankings were the same, though perhaps Quakers had less passion in their love ranking than the vibrant Eau Claire student body. Thanks to all the students who participated, and to the campus for inviting the community in for a get-to-know-you event.
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