Why I cannot stand sociologists

OK, so in truth I think very highly of a large number of sociologists: Jeff Paige, Emile Durkheim, Jorge Durand, etc. It is just a particular type of sociologist I cannot stand. Namely, the survey-wielding quantitative type.

Today, the New York Times is reporting on the Pope's trip to Brazil, the most populous Catholic country in the world. In the past two decades, however, Brazil has gone from being about 90% Catholic to only about two-thirds Catholic, with Pentecostal movements taking up a large part of the slack. If only I had some compact way of understanding this. Something that requires only about 100 words. Yo Sociology! Little help:

“Brazil has become a country with a lot of religious mobility, a mosaic,” said Silvia Fernandes, a sociologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who worked on the survey, which had been conducted at the request of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops. “A disposition to change and experiment and to question doctrine has been growing for 30 years now, and
Pentecostalism has been the biggest beneficiary because it is a more emotional religion.”

Of course! Brazilians in the past two decades have suddenly woken up from their slumber. Naturally, this makes them a more emotional lot (after all, Brazilians are naturally a passionate people; we've all seen Carnival!). And, of course, emotional people -- lacking rationality -- are magnetically attracted to charismatic movements. I mean just look at these people in what is either a Pentecostal or a charsimatic Catholic mass:

What I love about this picture is the look on the face of the younger woman on the right of the picture. Someone got dragged out o fbed on a Sunday to go to Church.