Irrelegion in America
Matthew Ygelsias has a post highlighting one study showing a trend toward more people responding “other” or “none” (not clear what the break down is) when asked about their religious beliefs.
December 27, 2007
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Interesting study, but one has to be a bit careful how to read its conclusions, graphs, etc.
The class “Other” doesn’t necessarily mean non-believers (atheists, agnostics, etc). As a matter of fact, it doesn’t necessarily even mean irreligious.
The class “Other” one could assume that contains all Muslims, Hindus, etc, which are mainly religious. Keep in mind also that, sadly enough, Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the US today, and Hindus are also quite a few.
Now, one thing that is correct to conclude from the study, though, is that it is clear that the Christians are losing numbers, which is good. What is paradoxical, though, is that now that their numbers decreased, now we have more Christians running for president!
Finally, quantitative results are good to have when comparing religious people and non-believers, but qualitative results are also important, perhaps more important. That’s why, i will cite again
the following study, contacted in the US:
http://www.amazon.com/Atheists-Groundbreaking-Study-Americas-Nonbelievers/dp/1591024137/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201031668&sr=1-2
which shows who, religious people or atheists, are more likely to have less racial and ethnic prejudice, hostility toward homosexuals, etc.
Michael
Comment by aristidou75 — January 23, 2008 @ 4:01 pm