Maranell’s Religious Attitudes Scales (RAS)

I don't believe churchgoing will do anyone any harm.

I believe in the church and its teachings because I have been accustomed to them since I was a child.

The church is important as it helps in deciding one's role in the community.

I believe that membership in a good church increases one's self-respect.

The history of the church qualifies it as a lasting institution of which one would want to be a part.

I believe that membership in a good church increases one's usefulness to society.

The church affords an atmosphere favorable to the furthering of the ideals of the good life.

Church members are especially good people to associate with.

Church attendance helps me to rid myself of any guilt feelings for not living up to the proposed ideals of the church.

Church is a good place for one to win social approval.

When one fails to live up to certain ideals of the good life, he finds a way to make restitution for these failures through the church.

Few important members of our society maintain any degree of religious affiliation.

The ritual of worship is a very important part of religion.

One of the most important aspects of religion is the religious service itself.

The precision and orderliness with which religious ceremonies are performed is important to me.

The more a religious service is ritualized the more it has meaning for me.

Religion is most real to me during my attendance at public church or religious services.

I think that the placement and treatment of the various articles of worship is very important in a worship service.

When I recall my experiences with religion I most readily remember the impressive formal rites and rituals.

I like to think that people all over are going through nearly the same ritual in their religious worship.

A religious service must be beautiful to be really meaningful to me.

It is important to me that a religious service be standardized.

I do not think that the sequence of prayers, songs, etc., is very important in religious services.

Prayers in religious services are better if they are formalized-as litanies, that is, with responses.

The paternal and benevolent attitude of the church is quite distasteful to me.

The church is helping me to develop the social attitudes of understanding, sympathy, and cooperation.

I believe the church is absolutely needed to overcome the tendency to individualism and selfishness, for it seeks to practice the golden rule.

We should be concerned with our own private welfare and stop trying to help others by butting into their private lives.

I am interested in the church because of its work for moral and social reform in which I desire to share.

Unselfish love is the prerequisite for any real knowledge of religion.

Tender concern for others is a means of finding joy in one's religion.

Religion causes one to love his enemies.

Brotherly love was the heart of the teaching of Jesus.

"Do-gooders" usually do much more harm than good.

I believe that the church is attempting to correlate science and religion for the good of humanity.

Our world is in need of a more positive emphasis on life.

The Bible is completely and everlastingly true.

The Bible is the Word of God.

The Bible is His message to me as His son or daughter.

The Bible is the book upon which I should try to base my living.

The Bible is too illogical.

The Bible is an instrument which brings me closer to God.

The Bible is only a group of myths.

The Bible is one of the best history books ever written.

The Bible should not be taken seriously.

The Bible contains the teaching given by God to His disciples and other peoples.

Any scholar can see that the Bible just isn't true.

The Bible is a book in which the moral values of the world in general can be found.

God is always watching over us.

I do not feel that a belief in God is necessary.

God is my Father.

God is a divine spirit guiding my life.

There is no proof for the existence of God.

God is not a certainty.

God is hard to visualize as really existing.

God is all-powerful and all-knowing.

God is an all-pervading spirit.

God's voice keeps me on the straight and narrow path.

I personally feel that the notion of God is inappropriate in this world of science.

God is nothing.

In the end justice will prevail.

Great causes must be supported.

Brotherhood, freedom, and equality are workable concepts for man.

The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear.

Men will never learn to live peacefully with one another.

If individuals would act in accord with their consciences, the world would be a lot better off.

An individual without principles is an individual without honor.

We must behave as if men were completely honest.

Identification with a 'cause' is an important part of life.

It is better to compromise with existing evils than to go out on limb in attacking them.

When you come right down to it, it's human nature never to do anything without an eye to one's own advantage.

The people who get ahead in the world are individuals who are willing to compromise with their principles.

One should never step on or walk across a grave.

To be perfectly honest, I am bothered by a black cat crossing my path.