America may have way more atheists than previously thought

[True Dough]

Well, god damn! (So to speak.)


"The authors of the study, published earlier this year, adopted a novel way to measure atheist identity. Instead of asking about belief in God directly, they provided a list of seemingly innocuous statements and then asked: “How many of these statements are true of you?” Respondents in a control group were given a list of nine statements, such as “I own a dog” and “I am a vegetarian.” The test group received all the same statements plus one that read, “I do not believe in God.” The totals from the test group were then compared to those from the control group, allowing researchers to estimate the number of people who identify as atheists without requiring any of the respondents to directly state that they don’t believe in God.1 The study concludes that roughly one-quarter (26 percent) of Americans likely do not believe in God.2
While this result is fairly stunning and not consistent with any published survey results, there is good reason to suspect that more direct measures significantly underestimate the number of atheists.

The American religious tapestry is continually being re-stitched as new religious groups slowly gain acceptance. Atheists have been on the fringe for quite some time. They remain one of the country’s most disliked “religious” groups: Only 30 percent of Americans have a “warm” view of atheists.3 Research has also shown that even as America has grown increasingly accepting of religious diversity, atheists have been the exception.

Americans express a considerable degree of intolerance toward atheists. More than half of Americans believe atheists should not be allowed to put up public displays that celebrate their beliefs (for example, a banner highlighting Americans’ freedom from religion under the Bill of Rights). More than one-third believe atheists should be banned from becoming president, and similar numbers believe they should be denied the opportunity to teach in public schools or the right to hold a rally."


https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/way-more-americans-may-be-atheists-than-we-thought/

[True Dough]

1. My formatting isn't working!

I attempted to "excerpt" the citation from the article in the OP but it didn't work. Then I tried to "block quote" it. That didn't work either.

I may have pissed off the almighty! Mea culpa!

[progree]

2. Following Wednesday's hack, HTML formatting in posts has been turned off temporarily

As you probably know, bold-facing is done using DU's version of HTML code: {b} ... {/b} (but where the curly braces are replaced by square brackets), and similarly for italics, underlining, excerpt, blockquote, and lots of others.

[True Dough]

3. Ah! I missed that

Thanks for informing me. It's not a sign of damnation for me after all, at least not yet, anyway.

[rug]

4. How much courage does it take to answer an anonymous poll honestly?

[True Dough]

6. Who said atheists have to be courageous?

We have the right to be wimpy too!

[rug]

8. I bow to the evidence.

[trotsky]

5. Interesting.

Some believers are so insecure that they need to reassure themselves that atheists are a "tiny minority" so they can write them off. Pretty sure they won't like this news, and will simply reject it.

[MineralMan]

7. I think that the vast majority of people are not interested

in other people's religious beliefs or lack of same. I can count on my fingers the number of people who have ever asked me about that. if asked, I simply say that I'm an atheist and leave it at that.

Some people, of course are very concerned about the beliefs of others. But, that's a small minority of people, I think. I'm perfectly content to leave people to their own beliefs, unless those beliefs impinge on my life in some way or interfere with others' lives in negative ways.

It's all a matter of small or no concern for most people.

[True Dough]

9. In person, I absolutely agree with you

Social mores, at least among the more civilized of us, mean we don't poke and prod about others' religious beliefs.

However, anonymously on a discussion forum like this, we can be a little more open, provocative. Explore the issues, express our misgivings. Offer criticisms.

In shouldn't be done in pejorative fashion. There may be some biting humor or some strongly stated points, but there's no real benefit to attempting to shame or besmirch others because of their religious beliefs or lack thereof -- unless those beliefs are being distorted to justify violence, such as in radical Islam.