Posted on 03/07/2008 3:15:41 PM PST by forkinsocket
Are there more atheists and agnostics in this country than is commonly supposed? Two studies -- last week's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum and one published two years ago -- suggest so.
The 2006 study from the University of Minnesota does not examine the question of how many non- believers there are but rather makes clear the troubling depth of Americans' distrust of them. Asked whether they would disapprove of a child's wish to marry an atheist, 47.6% of the 2,000 randomly selected people interviewed said yes. When asked the same question about Muslims and African Americans, the respondents' "yes" responses fell to 33.5% and 27.2%, respectively, and the responses dealing with Asian Americans, Latinos and other groups were lower.
When asked which groups did not share their vision of society, 39.5% of those interviewed mentioned atheists -- again, a level of distrust far in excess of that shown to other groups. Sociologist Penny Edgell, the study's lead researcher, called the results "a glaring exception to the rule of increasing tolerance over the last 30 years."
The recent study by the Pew Forum reports on the religious affiliations of Americans. It notes that the percentage of self-declared Protestants, although still a bit over 50%, is shrinking; that Catholics make up just shy of 25% of the population, a figure that would be declining were it not for recent immigrants; and that the number of denominations is rising. The study also notes a significant increase in movement from one religious affiliation to another, with almost half of the 35,000 people who participated in this extensive survey saying that they had switched religions.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
My girlfriend claims to be an atheist but I think she doubts her lack of God.
It’s not the Godless that need be feared, rather those with a God who want everyone else to believe in the same God, no matter the cost in blood or money.
Maybe... just maybe... there are some of out here who see a correspondence with atheist beliefs and the massive genocide and warfare over the past century created by those who profess to reject God.
You’d think after the first 100 million deaths that someone would say, “You know, maybe dismissing God altogether isn’t such a wise move.”
Of course, the adherents of the Allah-based religion seem hellbent on catching up as quickly as possible on behalf of believing people. We’ll just have to see if Islam can out-do the international and national forms of socialism for the highest death rate. As of right now, though, the atheists are clearly ahead.
You better check your stats on that. The Godless regimes of the 20th and 21st centuries lust for blood dwarfs the blood on the hands of religious zealots, as bad as they have been.
The God-believers lust for blood as much as anyone, but their disdain for science means they lack the technology to be efficient.
Really, though, it's kinda stupid to argue for belief in a god on the grounds that fewer people have historically (so you contend) been murdered by believers.
"Choose [Christianity][Islam][Voodoo]!"
"Now with 50% less murder!"
The Muzzies are working hard to catch up, though.
It’s the Godless that needs to be feared — albeit the Muslims might give Stalin and Mao a good couple of rounds.
Believers in God disdain science. Believers in the Christian God invented science.
Granted, the atheists in their deluded minds can't accept that but it's true.
I think if you read the entire poem[The Second Coming] you will see that this “intellectual” totally misunderstood what Yeats was saying.
Yeats point was the same as people here on FR make on a daily basis.
in other Words the Western democracies, church leaders, cultural leaders are full of doubt, self criticism and liberal guilt. While the Jihadists the savages are sure of themselves, free of doubt and fanatical in their beliefs
The same line of Yeats could be used to describe England and Chamberlain when facing Hitler.
It's your position that there was no science before Christianity?
I’m a non believer, but with an open mind. Can’t seem to make the logical leap— just the way I’m wired, I guess. But, honestly, I have respect and tolerance for believers. My daughter goes to a religious private school and has adopted their views and it’s fine with me.
Wish other atheists could be cool too, but the problem with most of those SOB’s is that they have a major axe to grind.
I see a major difference between atheists and anti CHristians.
You’ve confused correspondence with causation.
That communists and fascists killed 100 million may be true. But ... they didn’t kill people BECAUSE of agnosticism or atheism, they killed people BECAUSE of political differences. Where have you read that Stalin or Mao killed their millions BECAUSE those victims were religious ?
Hitler, on the other hand, was a devout Catholic who killed 6 million Jews BECAUSE of religion, and the German Bishop and Popes of the Catholic Church sent him Happy Birthday wishes every year while he did it. 20 million people died fighting him, but maybe we can’t count those deaths because they were not all due to an attempted intervention in his Holy War on Jews. Catholics today attempt to disown Hitler as though he was a “fake” Catholic, but he was raised Catholic and that is where he learned his anti-semitic hatred of Jews, and the Church never disowned him, ex-communicated him, etc. while he was conducting his genocide of the Jews.
The Catholic Church made war on Protestants in the 1600’s, and 7 million Europeans were killed during the “30 Years War” alone, not to mention all the other smaller religious conflicts. How many were killed in the 5 centuries prior, going back to the Crusades, so the Catholic Church could claim control over some religious ruins and relics ?
The Roman Pantheon persecuted Christians, Druids, Celts, and many other religions for centuries. How many millions were killed in those religious disagreements ?
Did the Vikings kill and pillage other peoples’ lands in part because they didn’t worship the Norse gods Odin, Thor, Baldur, Sif, etc. ?
The Protestants invaded the Americas and killed millions of natives because they did not worship the ‘right’ gods. They also fueled an African slave trade because the Bible told them blacks weren’t human. How many Africans were killed by slavers, or their proxies (rival tribes), either in jungles or in the slave markets or on the ships ?
People have been calling other groups “savages” or “barbarians” for thousands of years, and used that as an excuse to kill them. What the term usually came down to was that the other groups had a different religeon. If you didn’t worship the same gods as them, you were uncivilized and your life had no value.
History is a record of religious groups killing one another because of minor differences in HOW to observe their beliefs, even where both groups believed in the same god(s). The 100 million in the 20th century stands out only because it is recent history and because we’ve gotten better at keeping records. As a percentage of the people who lived during the 20th century, that 100 million (0.4%) is smaller than the 6 million the Catholic Church killed during the “30 Years War”. If we actually had an accurate record of everyone the Church killed in Europe for heresy, paganism, withcraft, etc. it would undoubtedly be shocking. And the Church killed BECAUSE OF RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES, unlike the atheists you decry.
I’m not aware of any atheist groups killing other atheist groups due to disagreements about HOW to observe their non-belief.
Please go peddle this crap somewhere else.
Belief in a god or in gods should be a private matter. Those who need to make their belief public and, then, to demand that others believe as they do, seem to be suffering from severe metaphysical ambiguity. In short, they seem to be scared that what they believe could actually be a lot of phony-baloney! lol
There was a lot of confusion a century ago, and a lot more now. Can’t make it work on civilization alone; need religion and civilization both. But not combined like those m-——s.
Well maybe those surveyed were just the religious people.
I would say that while there were smart people and methodological investigations did occur, things were pretty hit and miss until 16th century Europe.
What we call the "scientific revolution" occurred in a Christian society and was invented by sincere, God-fearing Christians.
Frankly, I think the scientific revolution could only have occurred in a Christian society i.e. one in which superstition was condemned and the pursuit of truth trumped rite and ritual, yet with the understanding there was a divine purpose to existence and that the pursuit of truth was sanctioned by the divine.
Regardless, if you want to argue that the ancient Greeks or Chinese practiced "science", the idea that God-fearing people "disdain" science as claimed in the post to which I was responding is silly in the extreme.
And modern science is generally traced to Sir Francis Bacon who said THIS about atheism.
Hitler was a pagan who was into Wagner and Nietzsche to call him a “devout catholic” is ridiculous and patently false. WWII and the holocaust was not fought for religious reasons but in support of his evolutionary idea that the German Race was superior and other ethnic groups were subhuman. Many of the liberal social darwinists and eugenicists from the United States in the 1930’s such as the founder of Planned Parenthood also helped to spawn his ideas. So, at the end of the day your post is based on your hatred of Christians and not on solid facts.
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