Poll: More atheists, agnostics entering Harvard than Christians

The Deacons Bench ^ | September 11, 2015 | Deacon Greg Kandra

[NYer]

A remarkable turn for a school named for a minister, via The Washington Post:  

 A Harvard Crimson poll of the university’s class of 2019 provides a glimpse into the beliefs and practices of incoming freshman, including sex, politics and drug use. Some of the interesting findings included the religious breakdown, especially when compared to other millennials in the U.S.

Harvard’s combined number of atheists and agnostics among its incoming class exceeds the number of Catholics and Protestants, as Pew Research Center’s Conrad Hackett noted. The number appears to be a striking contrast with the rest of the U.S. millennial population, those from ages 18 to 34.

Pew’s survey suggested a decline in Christianity in the U.S., especially among millennials, though Harvard’s freshman still don’t appear to reflect the rest of millennials in the U.S.

Among the general population in the U.S., 52 percent of millennials identify as Protestant or Catholic, according to Pew, compared to 34.1 percent of Harvard’s incoming class. And 13 percent of millennial Americans identify as atheist or agnostic, compared with 37.9 percent of Harvard freshmen who said they were atheist or agnostic.

Part of the reason why American Christianity is on the decline is due to the number of people who don’t self-identify with a religion anymore. Pew also asks survey respondents if they are unaffiliated with faith, and 36 percent of them describe themselves as not affiliated with religion.

Read more.

[NYer]

The rest of the picture is equally bleak ..

FROM HARVARD'S REPORT

Politics and Religion

Though his national polling numbers are stagnant, President Barack Obama can count on at least one group’s support: Harvard’s Class of 2019. Compared to last year’s class, this year’s batch of freshmen holds a much more favorable view of the president; year to year, the favorability rating among surveyed freshmen jumped from 58 percent to 69 percent. Here’s how the class breaks down politically and religiously:

• Almost two thirds of surveyed freshmen identified as somewhat or very liberal; only 12 percent of the class said they were at least somewhat conservative.
• About 28 percent of respondents who attended a private parochial school prior to attending Harvard identified as either somewhat or very conservative. Eleven percent of respondents who attended public non-charter and 11 percent of respondents who attended private non-denominational identified as such.
• After the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled in favor of establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage this June, 86 percent of freshmen support same-sex marriage, up from 83 percent in last year’s survey. Six percent of respondents oppose same-sex marriage. Respondents from the Northeast were the most likely to support same-sex marriage.
• Roughly 55 percent of respondents supported the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature and controversial healthcare law.
• One half of respondents are in favor of legalizing marijuana, while 43 percent are in favor of a nationwide $15 minimum wage.
• When asked whether they believed Harvard should divest from fossil fuels, as some students have recently advocated, 37 percent of respondents said “yes” and 18 percent said “no,” but 45 percent were unsure.
• About 21 percent of the class is agnostic, while 17 percent are atheists. Atheists were most likely to describe themselves as very liberal, while Catholics were most likely to describe themselves as very conservative.
• Roughly 17 percent of respondents identified as Catholic, 17 percent as Protestant, 10 percent as Jewish, 3 percent as Hindu, 3 percent as Muslim, and half a percent as Mormon. Twelve percent of respondents chose “other.”
• Forty-one percent of surveyed freshmen said they are “not confident at all” that the police treat white people and black people equally. About 37 percent were “not so confident,” while only 3 percent reported feeling “very confident.”

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Catholic ping!

[albie]

There’s a shocker.

[Mastador1]

Poll: More atheists, agnostics entering Harvard than Christians

But then again there are more Christians entering the kingdom of Heaven than Atheists and Agnostics, I think it's important to know your priorities.

[Bob434]

yep because Christians are finally waking up to the fact that that school is a pig sty of liberalism these days

[FlingWingFlyer]

Probably looking for evidence that there is no God and hoping that they can find such evidence.

[Bob434]

and there’s more Christians eating at Chic Filet too than atheists and agnostics- almost equally as important as Heaven (I kid- but it is good chicken from what I understand()

[AdaGray]

This is a surprise?

[2banana]

And 18 year old kids lie alot especially if it may seem uncool to admit the truth

[Original Lurker]

Boston Massachusetts = Sodom by the sea.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

What’s your definition of “Christian”?

Pelosi is a Catholic, and our White Hut resident considers himself “Christian”.

The real definition of a follower of Christ is very narrow & conservative. In other words, according to the world, we’re bigots!

[BillT]

Harvard started as a Christian school, stopped being one
a long time ago!.

[PoloSec]

I would not be surprised if soon the Bible would be banned from the Harvard libraries, that is if it has not been done so already.

[jsanders2001]

What’s the devil’s profession? A lawyer. Harvard educates them. No surprise at all.

[daniel1212]

The rest of the picture is equally bleak ..

Here’s how the class breaks down politically and religiously:

• Almost two thirds of surveyed freshmen identified as somewhat or very liberal; only 12 percent of the class said they were at least somewhat conservative.
• About 28 percent of respondents who attended a private parochial school prior to attending Harvard identified as either somewhat or very conservative. Eleven percent of respondents who attended public non-charter and 11 percent of respondents who attended private non-denominational identified as such.
• After the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled in favor of establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage this June, 86 percent of freshmen support same-sex marriage, up from 83 percent in last year’s survey. Six percent of respondents oppose same-sex marriage. Respondents from the Northeast were the most likely to support same-sex marriage.
• Roughly 55 percent of respondents supported the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature and controversial healthcare law.
• One half of respondents are in favor of legalizing marijuana, while 43 percent are in favor of a nationwide $15 minimum wage.
• When asked whether they believed Harvard should divest from fossil fuels, as some students have recently advocated, 37 percent of respondents said “yes” and 18 percent said “no,” but 45 percent were unsure.
• About 21 percent of the class is agnostic, while 17 percent are atheists. Atheists were most likely to describe themselves as very liberal, while Catholics were most likely to describe themselves as very conservative.
• Roughly 17 percent of respondents identified as Catholic, 17 percent as Protestant, 10 percent as Jewish, 3 percent as Hindu, 3 percent as Muslim, and half a percent as Mormon. Twelve percent of respondents chose “other.”
• Forty-one percent of surveyed freshmen said they are “not confident at all” that the police treat white people and black people equally. About 37 percent were “not so confident,” while only 3 percent reported feeling “very confident.”

  In stark contrast to what HARVARD LAWS OF 1642 required

  Also of interest:

  Students who reported being “extremely religious” were much less likely to have had sexual intercourse. The more religious a student reported being, the less likely they were to have ever had sex. [http://features.thecrimson.com/2015/freshman-survey/lifestyle-narrative/]

  Similar to data from previous years, 74 percent and 86 percent of respondents have never tried marijuana or tobacco, respectively.

[escapefromboston]

I wonder how many Atheists and agnostics are actually jews ethnically.

[Varda]

Harvard and the Ivys in general discriminate against white male Christians in admissions or did in the years I studied their student populations. Sounds like this is still going on.

I studied admissions before spending on college applications. It was pretty clear that Harvard's student populations after 1995 were skewed towards Jews (beyond what pure merit should show), minorities and women. To compare and contrast Cal Tech (drawing from the same population of upper 3% SAT scorers) had a higher percentage of possible white male Christians.

This is a private school, as far as I'm concerned they can admit who they want. However, they definitely violate their admissions statements. Parents with white male Christian children are sending them hundreds of thousands of dollars in admissions fees without much chance of being admitted.

For me and my kid, I declined to donate.

[Albion Wilde]

There’s a shocker.

I know, right? When one of mine said he was disappointed had not been accepted to Harvard, I said, "Oh, praise Jesus!" and rather shocked him. Now he is a grown man and now he understands.

[evilC]

Jews are grossly over represented (even allowing for their generally high academic achievement) and Whites grotesquely under represented. In fact Jews (2 percent of population) may equal Whites (70 percent) in absolute numbers.

The liberal, atheistic, agnostic student body represents the very Jewish nature of that body. It does not represent America or even the millennial generation. Sadly, and most ominously, it does represent the future elite.

From a very long Ron Unz piece at American Conservative

In fact, Harvard reported that 45.0 percent of its undergraduates in 2011 were white Americans, but since Jews were 25 percent of the student body, the enrollment of non-Jewish whites might have been as low as 20 percent, though the true figure was probably somewhat higher.51 The Jewish levels for Yale and Columbia were also around 25 percent, while white Gentiles were 22 percent at the former and just 15 percent at the latter. The remainder of the Ivy League followed this same general pattern.

From Ross Douthat in the NY Times

But cultural biases seem to be at work as well. Nieli highlights one of the study’s more remarkable findings: while most extracurricular activities increase your odds of admission to an elite school, holding a leadership role or winning awards in organizations like high school R.O.T.C., 4-H clubs and Future Farmers of America actually works against your chances. Consciously or unconsciously, the gatekeepers of elite education seem to incline against candidates who seem too stereotypically rural or right-wing or “Red America.”

Whites especially rural (and more likely religious and/or conservative) are actively discriminated against. So, given that the freshmen are chosen to be as unlike the heartland as possible these results are not surprising.

[Mark17]

But then again there are more Christians entering the kingdom of Heaven than Atheists and Agnostics,

LOL, good point. I would venture to guess, there won't be ANY atheists and agnostics in Heaven. Here's a catchy thing for you also. There won't be any atheists and agnostics in Hell either. The reason being, by the time they wake up in Hell, they won't be atheists and agnostics anymore. They will all know who God is, but they will still be in deep kimchi. 😂