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Gallup - 10% Americans Do Not Believe in God

Cheerful Charlie

Cheerful Charlie

Contributor
Joined
Nov 10, 2005
Messages
9,357
Location
Houston, Texas
Basic Beliefs
Strong Atheist
http://www.gallup.com/poll/193271/a...utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication


Americans' Belief in God Using Different Question Wording
[TABLE="class: mobile"]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TH]Yes[/TH]
[TH]No[/TH]
[TH]No opinion[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TH]%[/TH]
[TH]%[/TH]
[TH]%[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]Do you believe in God?[/TH]
[TD]89[/TD]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?[/TH]
[TD]89[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: source, colspan: 100"]Gallup, June 14-23, 2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

--------------------


For each of the following items I am going to read you, please tell me whether it is something you believe in, something you're not sure about or something you don't believe in: God.
[TABLE="class: mobile"]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TH]%[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TH] [/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]Believe in[/TH]
[TD]79[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]Not sure about[/TH]
[TD]10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]Don't believe in[/TH]
[TD]11[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: source, colspan: 100"]Gallup, May 4-8, 2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

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We're slowly gaining on them.
 
Oddly enough, a comparable survey found that God didn't believe in about 30% of Americans. He especially found the claims of the existence of Montanans to be less then convincing.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Oddly enough, a comparable survey found that God didn't believe in about 30% of Americans. He especially found the claims of the existence of Montanans to be less then convincing.
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How exactly would one go about taking a poll of a single non-existing entity? That would be a neat trick.
 
Underseer said:
Tom Sawyer said:
Oddly enough, a comparable survey found that God didn't believe in about 30% of Americans. He especially found the claims of the existence of Montanans to be less then convincing.
Click to expand...

How exactly would one go about taking a poll of a single non-existing entity? That would be a neat trick.
Click to expand...

Well, he's at least three people and that's not even including the Hindu aspects of his nature.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Underseer said:
How exactly would one go about taking a poll of a single non-existing entity? That would be a neat trick.
Click to expand...

Well, he's at least three people and that's not even including the Hindu aspects of his nature.
Click to expand...

Basically for Hindus these are just names - different names for one and the same person - ergo - God Rama is Krishna is Jesus is Allah is the Buddha is Durga and so on

FYI we don't have millions of Gods - ie if i met you at a party and was introduced, can i say that i know you? of course not - God is more than a Name - that is the idea. We are not Name Worshippers

Another way to look at it - you say Chair - what is the spanish word for it? or the Korean? Different words but you are talking about the same thing - "Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahuda Vadanti" - The Truth(notice the word Truth is used and not God) is One, but the Sages call it by various names - and that is how Hinduism came to be known as a Tolerant faith - not abuse you because you don't belong to the "right" religion or pray to the "right" God

Finally, Hinduism is a Teacher faith - a Teacher encourages Her students to hold and discuss different points of view - hence the "many" Gods, the acceptance of other religions and even the non-religious. Atheists are welcomed in Hinduism - it doesn't matter that you don't believe or believe - what matters are your Karmas(Actions) - FYI - Karma is not a metaphysical payback system - the word Kama means Action or work. Basically if you work hard, you will succeed - that's all Karma is saying

Christianity/Islam are Master/Slave religions - Master will reward us, we must please him, get down on our knees and beg for his mercy and then we get Heaven. Those that don't will be punished by Master(Hell) and so we must hate them, Master will be pleased
Very primitive and backward ideas - amazing what cheap and easy promises of the good life can accomplish
 
I agree. It's a Mystery how He's able to pull thus off and I join you in kneeling in awe before Him for this wonderous ability.
 
Well it's pretty cool, to say the least, that every tenth person I see on average does not think gods are real. That was beyond imaginable in my youth.

I don't know what it was half a century ago in the days post Madalyn Murray O'Hair, but it seemed like one in ten million.
 
I'll file this under 'needless statistic'. As long as we are free to believe as we choose in this country, it is good. Sadly, we need to fight for this level of protection still.
 
We know how many say they believe in god. Now how many behave as if they believe?
 
Sarpedon said:
We know how many say they believe in god. Now how many behave as if they believe?
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We should be thankful they don't behave as if they believe. I would rather they didn't bring back slavery and start executing people for picking up sticks on the wrong day or for eating shellfish.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
Seems kind of low. I figured we were hitting the near 15% mark these days. Oh well.
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You can get different answers depending on how you ask the questions.

For example, the % of people who say they don't believe in god is higher than the % of people who say they are atheists. People are stupid.
 
Underseer said:
Colonel Sanders said:
Seems kind of low. I figured we were hitting the near 15% mark these days. Oh well.
Click to expand...

You can get different answers depending on how you ask the questions.

For example, the % of people who say they don't believe in god is higher than the % of people who say they are atheists. People are stupid.
Click to expand...
There's still a taboo but it's lessening. I'm proof of that, no longer give calling myself atheist a second thought.

I never say, "I'm an atheist." It's weird but people seem more accepting describing yourself as atheist as opposed to calling yourself one.

When someone describes themselves as Christian, it's fun to then ask them if they're a good Christian or a bad Christian. They might even make the connection with the Wizard of Oz.
 
Religiosity-Graph1-1170x780.png


Religiosity in the United States is in the midst of what might be called ‘The Great Decline.’ Previous declines in religion pale in comparison. Over the past fifteen years, the drop in religiosity has been [...]
Click to expand...
From: http://religionnews.com/2014/01/27/great-decline-religion-united-states-one-graph/
 
Perspicuo said:
Religiosity-Graph1-1170x780.png


Religiosity in the United States is in the midst of what might be called ‘The Great Decline.’ Previous declines in religion pale in comparison. Over the past fifteen years, the drop in religiosity has been [...]
Click to expand...
From: http://religionnews.com/2014/01/27/great-decline-religion-united-states-one-graph/
Click to expand...

With no vertical scale, this is meaningless. But I see from the article that:

The top of the graph is two standard deviations above the average; the bottom is three standard deviations below the mean.

By 'the average' do they mean the mean? This looks like something prepared by the indifferent for the innumerate.
 
jonJ said:
Perspicuo said:
Religiosity-Graph1-1170x780.png



From: http://religionnews.com/2014/01/27/great-decline-religion-united-states-one-graph/
Click to expand...

With no vertical scale, this is meaningless. But I see from the article that:

The top of the graph is two standard deviations above the average; the bottom is three standard deviations below the mean.

By 'the average' do they mean the mean? This looks like something prepared by the indifferent for the innumerate.
Click to expand...

It bugged me too, but they did explain it. You even quoted the relevant section. For anyone else interested, the whole paragraph:

Geek note: Because the index is a combination of different measures with different scales, the index produced by the algorithm does not have a specific scale. In this graph, the average level for the time period is indicated. The top of the graph is two standard deviations above the average; the bottom is three standard deviations below the mean. Differences between two points can be compared with differences between two other points, e.g., the difference between the 1960s and 1980s is a decline of about 1.5 standard deviations, but the difference between the late 1990s and 2012 is nearly three standard deviations.
Click to expand...
 
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