Though, I am kinda disturbed that almost a quarter consider atheism a religion. It shows a strong lack of knowledge on the subject.
Mriana
You think they will throw it out and make the lame accusation of Satan making people vote that way? 😆 I really think the non-religous are more rational than the majority of Christians. Not all Christians are irrational, but the majority seem to be. Thing is Christianity Today won’t like the results of this poll and find something lame to say about it.
Nance Confer
Right. They will say that being rational is not all that important or even that it is a bad thing. That faith is the way. Etc.
I’m not taking “rational” as a compliment in this situation. 🙂
This comment may be a bit long. I’m reading Varieties of Unbelief by Martin E Marty. It’s from 1964. I wanted to get a feel for changes in atheism in recent history. Here is a section from the book, which is relevant to the above poll:
For those inside the community of belief, reasons to be curious [about changing ways of believing, with the introduction of the “Death of God” movement] are even more apparent. Those who number themselves among the believers claim to be staking their destiny on the survival of the Christian faith. As custodians of its repute in their generation, they are concerned with any crisis that comes to it. The presence of unbelief can be a puzzle, a witness, or a threat to them. It is a puzzle because they cannot fully conceive how others would fail to see in it a clue to the meaning of life. They find it to be a witness, for the biblical record prophesies that the faith with always be countered by opposition. It remains a threat because it becomes a cultural and spiritual problem which can affect the believing community. When they see it as a threat, believers are tempted to react by withdrawal or by noisy opposition. Not all forms of unbelief are immediately recognized as such; disbelief and unbelief can masquerade under the forms of apparent belief.
The point of this book is to describe varieties of unbelief, of which atheism is a variety, but so are people who just don’t care for the future of faith, or apatheists.
Martin E. Marty is still alive, and provides an interesting, objective, perspective of historical unbelief in America in the 1960s.
I’ve posted against real opinion polling a number of times and these phony polls a few times too. This is amusing but you know it isn’t worth the photons I’m seeing it in, don’t you?
Eliza
The poll is still open for voting – “the only rational outlook” is up even more, from 41% in Hemant’s post above, from yesterday, to 60% this afternoon.
The poll is still open for voting – “the only rational outlook” is up even more, from 41% in Hemant’s post above, from yesterday, to 60% this afternoon.
Damn what a difference a day makes, it’s up to 74% today lol.. Instead of posting about it this time figued i would just comment on it 🙂
Johnny
It’s up to 85% now!
Miko
Up to 88% now… That’s just amazing.
But I’m a bit disturbed that 88% would vote for that on a Christian site that could only muster 62% in favor of allowing divorce in cases of domestic violence.
But I’m a bit disturbed that 88% would vote for that on a Christian site
Quite frankly, I think they’re being punished for conducting a phony poll. These things are just begging to be spammed. Why don’t you guys put the quadratic formular up for a vote, the results would mean as much.
Miko
What’d’ya know, the poll disappeared.
Mriana
And now the domestic abuse one is the most recent post. Now why did they go and lie like that? For those of us who know, that looks bad on them.
Miko
Ah well, before it vanishes forever, here were the final numbers cached by Google:
Christianity Today Poll
Atheism is …
A major threat to Christianity
1%
The only rational outlook
97%
Just another religion
1%
Mostly irrelevant today
0%
Other
1%
Total Votes: 83436
Mriana
Well, you’d think they would have realized that they were asking a biased question. People will come out in droves to defend themselves and/or their friends against such biased and opinionated questions. IMHO, the question runs a close second to Imus’s statements and is an attempt by X-ianity Today to perpetuate Farwell’s philosophy or something close to it. They really should not have been surprised by the results.
Do these people look themselves in the mirror in the morning just like we do?
Or is Christianity Today more interested in Pravda-like intellectual purity?
I’m serious. Who pulls articles? Erasing articles you once ran is an assault against truth.
Correct them if they are in error. Run retractions surely… but outright erasure?
Richard Wade
I just wrote an innocent, merely curious sounding email to the editors:
You featured an online poll about atheism the other day that was producing some interesting results. Then it suddenly disappeared. Where is it? Do you keep archives of your polls? Will you be writing any commentary or summary of your polls?
Richard: be sure to let us know if you get a response. 🙂
Richard Wade
Miko, I left my non-threatening email address and I got my own message back because I clicked the “return your email?” box, but beyond that I doubt I’ll get anything other than an e-rubber stamp response. We’ll see. I’ll let you know.
Try it yourself just for fun. The more the merrier. If they got 83,436 responses to the poll, imagine if they got the same number of letters asking what happened to it. 🙂
Jenophont
That was funny, at least the poll demonstrates that the apostleship is not only a religious fact.
About that “is the only rational outlook”, actually the only honest view of the world is the agnosticism (nonest because since we don’t have a definitive proof they don’t choose any side), the others: either religion believes or atheistic believes are that, just interpretations of the datas, at least the agnostics don’t yell that they are the ONLY right ones (by the way, I’m not agnostic).
Har de har har. Cho’s five point “definition” of a religion would also have to include the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Communist Party, the Nazi Party, the American Medical Association, the Royal Society, the American Bar Association, all 753 different kinds of 12-step programs, the Masons, the Lyons Club, The Good Sam Club, The Boy Scouts, The Girl Scouts, Jenny Craig, the Pittsburgh 1957 Chevy Fan Club, The National Association of Paris Hilton-chasing Paparazzi, The Loyal Order of Elvis is Still Alive Believers, American Idol,…………..and on……………..and on……………and on……………
Ash
Richard – true, but it also labelled itself as AKA THE WORST PAGE IN THE UNIVERSE. i’m thinking there’s a statement we can take on faith…
Mriana
Jenophont, I think in some respects, agnostism has some advantages. While being freethinkers, they are willing to read both sides of the argument and think for themselves. Then again, reading both sides can make one swing to atheism too- or appear as though one maybe at least. It also depends on the individual.
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