Adventures In Atheism: Interesting Statistics

[jstutz2003]

Who are these 10% of "Scientists" who don't believe in evolution? I don't think you can call yourself a scientist if you don't believe in something that is so obvious.

[teenspirit1]

They are just numbers.

I think that pro-religion looking numbers (cited by theists, of course) are made up by some evil liar theist sources and pro-atheism looking numbers (always cited by secular sources unless it is a bunch of theists who want religious propaganda) are from stable sources.

A theist (damn evil liar) will think the exact opposite! They think atheists are the evil liars, atheists will make up statistics to destroy religion and atheism is the source of all evil.

[Pop80752]

I'd love to hear more statistics.

You're right that once we learn more, we tend to reject the Bible. It defies all logic.

[11111110]

Actually, religiousity in an individual rises as education increases. 1/3 of American scientists claim to attend a weekly religious service, which makes them better churchgoers than the average non-college educated citizen.

[LezloShig]

Theres no U in Religiosity 11111110 and your statistic is real weak. just because 1/3 American Scientists go to a weekly service doesnt mean anything. Scientists are not the only smart group of people in the world. And your job in life doesn't show how smart you are.

[11111110]

Of course. But its something to keep in mind everytime an atheist asserts that the fact that the majority of scientists are not religious is a sign that religion is for the ignorant.

[mattfox06]

he's probably not talking about american scientists

[corfe83]

Could you quote your source?

Quote from a "Nature" (a prestigious science journal) survey (1998):

The survey involved 517 members of the National Academy of Sciences; half replied. When queried about belief in "personal god,":

- only 7% responded in the affirmative

- while 72.2% expressed "personal disbelief"

- and 20.8% expressed "doubt or agnosticism"

That's 72.2% atheist, 20.8% agnostic, and only 7% religious (and not all of those are necessarily Christian or churchgoers).

[seathanaich]

What rubbish. Higher intelligence always corelates with lower religiosity. Higher education always corelates with lower religiosity. Not only does anecdotal observation show this, but also every study conducted on the matter over the past 100 years.

Also, stop being so ignorant about the rest of the world. The industrialised world consists of most of Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. The US is merely a few decades behind in terms of religious decline.

[french0atheist]

to 11111110:

Absolutely incorrect. Scientists who are christians are better chritians. However, 75% Of the overall population is religious, and only 40% to 50% of scientists are religious. Only 15% of the members of the academy of science believe in god. Out of 43 studies on that exact subject 39 showed that religiosity decreases as intelligence and level of education increase.

[sumguijim]

Yes, there are Stats (I saw somewhere) which indicate that more Undereducated individuals than Highly Educated ones believe in Gods. God beliefs are best suited to the Unknowing Ghetto, and the feeble minded!

[stokers]

Do you like buffy?

[seathanaich]

Sarah Michelle Gellar just happens to be among the disproportionately high percentage of entertainers and artists who are listed as "atheist" on celebrity web sites.

[windy5883]

Dude, I can't hear what you're saying. Speak into the microphone. Also, it would be much easier to understand your point in written form, since you're trying to tell me a bunch of statistics. And thirdly, note your references if you want to be taken seriously.

[lordsovereign]

it is SECULAR societies [NOT religious ones] that enjoy incomparable levels and quality of education, health care, safety, employment, democracy, freedom of speach/ movement/ association, independent media, technology, culturally diverse art and food, etc. would you theists not agree that this is the case for most of the hundreds of millions of people living in western europe ? cont...

[lordsovereign]

...cont. don't you theists agree that they seem to be doing just fine with their societies, where religion has been largely relegated to an embarassing joke ? don't tell me, you're going to come back with, "oh ofcorse they SEEM to be having a whale of a time, but deep down in their souls there's an emptiness that only jesus can fill". right ? lol.

[js725535]

According to the statistics I've read from some site, might have been "religioustolerance" or something, in the United States, 95% of all scientists, including those in fields completely unrelated to evolution, like computer science, believe in evolution, while 99.9% of those in Earth & life sciences believe in evolution.

[SaintVengeance]

Good vid.

[Luchik33]

slaggbros..real scientific statistics is hard to use for one side or another..evaluating Ho, Ha, using Z/Tcrit or stat, Phi, Regression analysis, Chi squares, etc. There is definite negative correlation (withdrawing other factors from consideration) between higher education and religious views.

[slaggbros]

99% of statistics can be used to support both sides of an argument because statistics are ... statistics. Loose fuzzy approximations of large populations can't shed light on something as complicated as individual belief systems that vary from person to person. Arguments based on pure coincidence are wooly and appeal to lazy thinkers because they provide a quick and easy 'proof.' 75% of people drink more than 3 cups of tea a day. Spooky - tea drinking = god bothering?

[Gisburne2000]

Both of the above comments make good points, but if this really is the case, then it indicates that religion isn't doing a whole lot of good for these people is it? If religious people lead 'good lives', then regardless of social class they should be 'better' people. Statistics suggest that religion isn't helping people to cope with poverty - if the rich are getting the charges dropped, then money works much better than religion. Not sure that I made that point well, but there it is!

[otakursed]

Nice and succinct. And if we're to address class differences, note that the wealthy usually have the funds necessary to keep themselves OUT of prison. White collar crime's not that sparse, they just disappear when brought to bear.

[keepaskingwhy]

good point.

[mrmortonblogs]

There's some interesting statistics here, but one thing to remember is that religion is quite predominant in the lower-class of society, as religion is the great salve to ease their problems. Sadly, these are also the people most likely to enter the prison system if they get into trouble, since they lack the funds to hire proper legal counsel. So while the statistics seem to point to the fact that atheists might be more law abiding, I think it points more to a social issue.