STU: Interesting Pew study here, Glenn. Talking about whether -- how people feel towards other religious groups. How do Americans feel about various religious groups?
PAT: We hate them. We hate them all, right?
STU: We hate them all.
GLENN: Now, this is the average American?
STU: Do you feel warmness towards a particular religious group?
PAT: That's an interesting way to put it. Warmness toward them.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Yeah, sometimes they make me pee my pants.
STU: Warm feelings. Or whatever.
GLENN: Okay.
STU: So all of these groups in the last three years have improved their standing among the average American.
GLENN: Okay.
STU: Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, atheists, Muslims.
GLENN: That's amazing. Everybody. Everybody has gone up.
PAT: Wow.
STU: The only exception to this, evangelical Christians, who are flat.
PAT: Hmm.
STU: Among that.
PAT: Interesting.
STU: And it's interesting to see as you break it down by age, it's really fascinating in that the older you are, the more diverse your feelings about these groups. The younger you are, the more they're all packed together.
For example, six people who are 65 and older feel warmly towards mainline Protestants, 75 percent. Jews, 74 percent. Catholics, 71 percent. However, way down at the bottom, Muslims, 44 percent. Atheists, 44 percent. Okay?
GLENN: Uh-huh.
PAT: Okay.
STU: However, with 18 to 29-year-olds, the low is Mormons at 54 percent, but a high of Buddhists at 66 percent. So they're all really tightly packed. Only 12-point swing with young people.
With older people, it's a 31-point swing with all the various --
PAT: Interesting. It's because --
GLENN: I want to ask you about Buddhists.
66 percent -- only 66 percent? Have you ever met a Buddhist that you're like, "I don't like that guy. That guy, what an ass that guy is."
STU: Those darn Buddhists.
GLENN: I mean, who has a bad thing to say about a Buddhist?
STU: You could say this about a lot of these groups, I think.
GLENN: No, but, I mean, there's always -- there's always a stereotypical somebody that you have met.
STU: Sure.
GLENN: I literally -- I don't know if I've ever met a Buddhist. But the Buddhist I have seen -- I guess I have. I met the Dalai Lama. He's a Buddhist, right? So, yes, I have. So I technically have met a Buddhist.
PAT: Yes, you have.
STU: You met the Buddhist.
GLENN: I met the Buddhist. The Buddhist Buddhist.
They're never jerks. I mean, I'm sure there are. But name a jerk in any religion.
STU: Of course.
GLENN: Mormon: Pat.
STU: Right. Of course. Atheist. Heathen: Jeffy.
GLENN: Yeah, Jeffy. They all seem to be on this show. But you can name a jerk. I just can't name a Buddhist jerk.
STU: Well, it's interesting. There's a split. And this is generational, right? I mean, these things happen all the time. And I think also, it's -- when you're 18 years old, you have different thoughts than when you're 65 years old, even if you're the same person, right? But it's -- Mormons are actually favored more by 65-year-olds than Buddhists. They're actually ahead. And 18 to 29-year-olds is the exact reverse, where Buddhists are the top-rated group and Mormons are the lowest rated group.
GLENN: No, that's because of, you know, the image of keeping your --
PAT: Homosexuality.
GLENN: Oh, yeah. Or your image of keeping your woman in a hoop skirt on the prairie, all those, you know --
STU: Yeah.
JEFFY: You don't realize how good that is. Oh, wait.
GLENN: Right.
STU: It's stereotypes, right? I mean, all of this is really stereotypes. I think the same with even Buddhists. I'm sure there are jerk Buddhists. But the stereotype is that they're nice.
GLENN: There got to be. There's got to be.