Uh, bro. The number of atheists is going down.
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No, the number of atheists (along with practically every other belief) is increasing. Supposedly the percentage of atheists is decreasing, but that may have as much to do with the loosening of restrictions on religion in places like China as anything else.
I've heard that Pentecostal Christianity is rising, but also that Islam is increasing the most. Never heard anything about atheists declining..
Besides, if there's one thing that you have in common with homosexuals, it's that one in ten people can prove to be a large, loud minority.
@A Friend: In Western Europe, yes, and maybe in the US as well, but I don't think worldwide. Former Communist countries like China are getting *more* religious as restrictions on religion are relaxed; and China outnumbers the US, Canadian, Australian, and Western European populations combined.
Latin America, despite industrializing and growing in population, and in some countries' case becoming a First World economy, seems to be staying deeply religious. I think it's a cultural background matter as much as one of wealth or the time period. (British and American society have been marked by periods of puritanism and religious fervor interspersed with periods of skepticism and moral liberality; I don't think this has been so extreme in Latin America.)
1. So that explains all the atheist blogs and best-selling atheist books and atheist advertisements!
2. So what if it were true? Even if there were only one atheist in the world, s/he still deserves to live her life in freedom.
"Typical jerk from this site cussing at people over the internet.
WTF is wrong with you people? Didn't your parents teach you respect?"
Do fuck off, there's a good chap.
Well, fundies have 'Faith' in an invisible sky-wizard, so they assume they don't need to prove anything else they claim.
And I can never respect anyone who calls someone else 'Bro'. 'Valley-Speak' is a crime against the Queen's English.
Well the data gleaned from the last census says this:
Total 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.0Unaffiliated 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.1 3 Atheist, agnostic, and nothing in particular.
So "atheists" were 16.1% in 2007 when this was published. In 2001 that number was only 13.2% so clearly the number of atheists is increaseing and not decreaseing. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/population/religion.html
P.S. Scary how many Protestants there are ain't it? :(
LOL, we need a new pie chart for the updated stats...
image
I'm sure someone can do a better job...but that is my quick stab at it... :D
@ausador:
That graph is misleading, Christians may be 78.7% of the population, but they're only 12.3% of the total national IQ.
That's why they feel persecuted. They're a mental minority (in oh so many ways).
Noooo.... this is why I don't like to talk politics in WoW. I've probably met some really good players who are friendly, polite, and helpful in parties but total morons in real life. This makes me sad.
This may be true, so many people in this world just want to be told what to believe in, and there's so many people out there willing to tell them. I'm even starting to meet fundie Wiccans and Buddhists. Although these seem to have taken Christianity and put different words to it.
His name is "Fragger," he's an Undead Rogue, and he's specced 2/2 into Blade Twisting AND Throwing Specialization WITHOUT speccing into Riposte.
He's clearly a PvPer. This explains his lack of smarts.
I think he's actually right about this, but not for the reasons he thinks. Atheists realize that it's a pretty dumb thing to have a dozen kids, seeing as how the time and money constraints would place a great toll on one's stress levels. Religionists, on the other hand, especially xtians and Muslims, reproduce by the truckload, and think this is a gift of god, when in actuality it's just plain ignorant.
I wonder how they determine these statistics? I was born, baptized, and confirmed a Catholic but I gave up on religion over thirty years ago. I suspect, however, that I'm still on the books as a Catholic as far as the church is concerned.
Anyone checking Gallups can see that self-defined atheists and agnostics used to be 5% of the population in 1950, and are now 15%. Christians used to be 90% in 1950 and are now 77.5%. If the trends continue at the same pace, the first group should outnumber the second by the end of this century.
In heavily irreligious countries - notably France, Sweden and the Czech Republic, atheists and agnostics are about 30-35% of the population. The UK has only slightly lower levels.
There's also the factor of those who answer honestly or those polls that ask the followup questions.
At that basis they've come up with 16%. As Dawkins and Hitchens have both suggested as a jump not in Atheism but a jump in those willing to call themselves Atheists.
With follow up questions in actual belief in God, the Bible or some Biblical events, polls often show a large percentage who aren't full on believers of Christianity or church affiliated. They're Agnostics then but are counted as Christian by their answering the main questions as being so.
I'm thinking, and involved questionairres bear this out, that even America is probably 40% Atheist but their respect for or fear of religion is at 80%. Canada's had such numbers on several polls.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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