Greta Christina

Does anyone else think it’s interesting that “Jehovah’s Witness” is listed separately from “Christian”?

I wonder why? And why not, say, Mormon?
Miko

Does anyone else think it’s interesting that “Jehovah’s Witness” is listed separately from “Christian”?

As I read this, one of the Google Ads is about Christian vs. Catholic, so it’s apparently not all that uncommon. In any event, if they’re splitting atheist, agnostic, and “no religion” into three answer choices, splitting Christian into two isn’t that bad.
Darfasti

Okay, there’s one option that says “Atheism” and one that says “I’m not spiritual, I have no religion.”

Huh? How is that not the exact same damn thing? What idiot came up with that poll?
anne jackson

it just bothers me he ended that question with a preposition.
Maria

As I read this, one of the Google Ads is about Christian vs. Catholic, so it’s apparently not all that uncommon. In any event, if they’re splitting atheist, agnostic, and “no religion” into three answer choices, splitting Christian into two isn’t that bad.

I agree. it goes to show that there are different degrees of belief and non-belief. no religion doesn’t always mean atheist.

Okay, there’s one option that says “Atheism” and one that says “I’m not spiritual, I have no religion.”

Huh? How is that not the exact same damn thing? What idiot came up with that poll?

what it said was ” I am spiritual, but of no religion” that makes total sense and I’m glad they have it. this is a very fast growing group, many of which don’t consider themselves atheists or even agnostics.
Darfasti

Oh, well, then I’m obviously blind. I shall now go and embarrass my self further elsewhere.

Good day.
Mriana

Done. It seems we have a long ways to go looking at the poll results thus far. There are over 900 X-ians and over 200 atheists with over 200 saying they are non-religious. It’s a shame the two can’t be combined.
Maria

Oh, well, then I’m obviously blind. I shall now go and embarrass my self further elsewhere.

Good day.

LOL, don’t feel bad, it happens to everyone 🙂
J.S.Brown

That’s tough for me. I consider myself to be an (strong) agnostic (weak) atheist. Since the poll seems to be about belief rather than knowledge, I went with “atheist.”
Richard Wade

It does seem odd to list JW’s separately but no other sub groups of Christianity. Still, as of tonight atheists on their own show a strong second place head and shoulders ahead of third place, “spiritual but of no religion.”

“And comin’ around the curve into the home stretch is Jesus Junkie, leading Godless Wonder by two lengths, ahead of Vague Feeling by a length. Godless Wonder is closing on Jesus Junkie, but they’re runnin’ out of track. An’ it’s Jesus Junkie the winner, with Godless Wonder placing and Vague Feeling the show.”
Claire

I was once asked by a co-worker if Catholics were christians. The worst part of it was, the woman asking me was raised as a Catholic. Hmmm….
Lee the female

I’m happy to skew.
Mriana

I have heard one person raised Catholic say that they aren’t Christian. That Catholic and X-ian were two different things. I’m not sure how. They both follow the same doctrines from what I can tell, but then again, I’ve spent most of my life in the Anglican Communion, which is virtually the same as Catholic- only Protestant. Like Lutheran, the Church of England is a direct off shoot of Catholicism during the Reformation. So, IMHO, Catholics are from the original X-ian church. I really don’t get it.
Craig

Woohoo, we’re up to 23%! (& I only voted 5 times!)
🙂
PrimateIR

“Vote early and vote often.” ~ Al Capone
Vincent

I was raised Catholic and believed myself to be Christian.
However, the protestant majority around me (in Oklahoma City) did not consider Catholics to be Christians.
For example, in highschool I was not welcome in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes because they didn’t consider me Christian.

I’ve never heard of a Catholic him(her)self claiming not to be Christian though.
ash

hahahaha – just checked the poll;
christian 36%
atheism 45%
how long before they pull it?
Polly

I’ve never heard of a Catholic him(her)self claiming not to be Christian though.

Weird, I’ve heard the distinction made too many times to count, and virtually every time by Catholics. It used to irritate me and I would always point out that Catholicism is a branch of Xianity, just like Protestantism, and Orthodox. I never could figure out where the idea came from that Catholic wasn’t Xian. I doubt it’s the Catholic church saying things like that. I think maybe Catholic was seen to mean Protestant or “born-again” in some communities.
In the Protestant Armenian church I go to (once in a while) many of the members are Orthodox and have a hard time with the term, “saved.” Some of them will say, “No, I’m NOT saved.”(in Armenian) I get a kick out of that. To them, I think, it means “Protestant.”
Jake

The best part is the caption at the bottom of the results page:

“This is not a scientific poll”

Well, duh!
olvlzl, no ism, no ist

A Catholic is a Christian except to a fundamentalist, then they’re the whores of Satan.

I’m wondering where the Muggletonians are.
mollishka

71% !!!!!
Mriana

😆 This is too funny. Over 11000 votes for Atheism and X-ianity is now down to 15% with far fewer votes. I had no idea that atheists out numbered X-ians.
Maria

I was raised Catholic and believed myself to be Christian.
However, the protestant majority around me (in Oklahoma City) did not consider Catholics to be Christians.
For example, in highschool I was not welcome in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes because they didn’t consider me Christian.

I’ve never heard of a Catholic him(her)self claiming not to be Christian though.

I too was raised Catholic and had similar experiences. Maybe the woman thought she wasn’t Catholic b/c so many other “Christians” had told her so.

In the Protestant Armenian church I go to (once in a while) many of the members are Orthodox and have a hard time with the term, “saved.” Some of them will say, “No, I’m NOT saved.”(in Armenian) I get a kick out of that. To them, I think, it means “Protestant.”

I went to a Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church and saw a lot of this as well. The terms “saved” and “personal relationship with Jesus” wasn’t very popular there.

That’s tough for me. I consider myself to be an (strong) agnostic (weak) atheist. Since the poll seems to be about belief rather than knowledge, I went with “atheist.”

It was tought for me too. However, I’m an Agnostic Deist, so I went with “spiritual but not religious”. I felt it was the most honest answer. Sorry not to help “skew” your poll, but it seems as though you don’t need my help to do that.
Maria

Btw, someone recently told me that Larry King had become a conservative Christian? Is this true? Does anyone know? I thought he was Jewish? Is he any kind of Christian now? Just curious.
valhar2000

As PZ Myers said:

They say you can’t herd cats; if you point the pride at a slow, stupid, old gazelle, though, you can get them all to take a bite.

Which seems to be exactly what has happened.
Richard Wade

I don’t understand the intended purpose of King’s survey. The absurd results certainly attest to it not being “scientific.” Maybe he wants to know the religions of those who visit his website, but since people can vote many times, the whole thing is meaningless.
PrimateIR

I don’t understand the intended purpose of King’s survey.

The intention is to measure which group has largest percentage of people drawn to opinion polls…..oh damn!
Laura M.

To skew is kewl !
Atheists are at 71% with nearly 16, 500 votes.
Rock the vote 😎
Bill Gnade

First, I think it should be noted that any atheist voting “for” atheism is tacitly admitting to something, namely, that atheism is a religion. But every atheist I know denounces the idea that atheism is one whit religious. Interesting.

Second, I note that the poll question is utterly absurd: “Which religion do you associate with?” Huh? As written, the question is merely asking of relation, not identity. It is not inquiring as to what religion I adhere; it is asking which one I associate with, which is far a different query. Surely I am a Christian, but I often associate with atheists, or even neo-pagans. So, in all good conscience, I could click the atheism button, or that vague “spiritual but of no religion” button, all day long.

This poll is so absurd, it exhales nihilism.

BG
Dirty Creature

Well, since it would be almost impossible for someone to be dumb enough to think the skewed results would actually fool anyone, I have to assume you want the results skewed just for fun. So it seems to me that what you have proven is that atheists enjoy lying more than the religious.

Well, except for Moslems, who consider lying to infidels to be a kind of religious duty. Then again, even they don’t claim to enjoy it.

Thanks for the info, anyway; Can’t imagine it would surprise anyone.
Wayne Butler

A Christian is anyone who has been baptized. It can be performed by a priest, a layman, a heathen, a Metropolitan, a Pope or your local rabbi. If you mean it you are a Christian.
tom fife

Mormons are Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not. Look it up.
Damnyanqui

I’ve seen the “Catholic” v. “Christian” thing come up quite a bit and it really seems pretty funny. I think most Catholics would say that of course they’re Christians.
…the Catholic Church having been founded by… well… Christ, and the rest of them having been founded by… well… someone else.
Richard Wade

Wayne Butler,

A Christian is anyone who has been baptized. It can be performed by a priest, a layman, a heathen, a Metropolitan, a Pope or your local rabbi. If you mean it you are a Christian.

I agree with you that if they mean it, how can anyone else claim to know better and say they’re not? Christians calling other Christians “not real Christians” is bizarre to me. Whenever someone says they are a Christian, I tend to believe them. Whenever someone who says they are a Christian claims that someone else who says they are a Christian is indeed not really a Christian, I tend to think there must be petty jealosy, bickering, turf battles and bigotry going on.

Not that I mind all that going on.

What the heck is a Metropolitan? I’ve heard that as an adjective, but not a noun. Do you mean someone who lives in a big city? Can a Suburban (aka a suburbanite) also perform baptism? How about a Ruralarian?
Jordan Potter

A Metropolitan is an Archbishop, a bishop with the right to consecrate the other bishops in his province.

And although Mormons call themselves Christian, their theology is about as Christian as Jehovah’s Witness theology. In broader sense of the term “Christian,” one might call them that, but in a more precise sense they would not be, since they do not adhere to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan and Chalcedonian creeds.
WadeStar

I find it funny that so many people are upset that the would break out the Jehovah’s Witnesses from Christians. As someone already pointed out, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not Christians so the breakout was correct. Why would someone complain about this before even taking the trouble to look it up.

(I think the crux of the matter is that they do not believe Christ is God and, as a counter example, the Mormans (as truly bizarre as their religion might be) do consider Christ to be God, so Mormans rightly are considered Christian.)

Along the same line, I also find it odd that people are annoyed that some Catholics don’t consider themselves Christians. It seems reasonable to include them as Christians but, then again, it is also reasonable for a Catholic to consider themself NOT a Christian.

At one point, followers of Christ were all Catholic. During the Reformation many sects, who still believed Christ was God, broke off and calling them ‘Christain’, to distinguish them from Catholic, makes sense. It makes sense for a Catholic to distinguish themself from being Christian by insisting they are correctly called Catholic.

However, the odd part is that other would be annoyed when they make this distinction.
hoverFrog

Mormons are Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not. Look it up.

I did. That reliable source of information that is never, ever wrong tells me the following:

Jehovah’s Witnesses are an international religion that rejects much of modern mainstream Christianity in favour of what they believe is a restored form of first-century Christianity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah's_Witnesses

I also have a couple of friends (one raised in that religion and one who converted) who are Jehovah’s Witnesses (and defy their church by still speaking to me) who consider themselves to be followers of the teachings of Christ. While they reject much of the teachings of the modern church they are still Christians. With so many denominations, sects and cults coming out of the same book it’s hard to keep track. 😉
Jordan Potter

With so many denominations, sects and cults coming out of the same book it’s hard to keep track.

Actually, denominations, sects and cults don’t come out of books, they come out of previous religions, denominations, sects and cults.

the Mormons (as truly bizarre as their religion might be) do consider Christ to be God, so Mormons rightly are considered Christian.)

However, they do not believe in the Trinity, and they believe Jesus is the son of God the Father in a literal, biological sense (in Mormon theology, the Father is corporeal and has a human form, and literally married Mary and engaged in sexual relations with her), so they rightly are considered to be non-Christians — at least in the stricter, historical and theological sense.

It is, of course, quite mistaken to call atheism a “religion,” since “religion” is essentially about forging and maintaining a relationship between God (or gods) and man, whereas atheists believe there are no gods (or don’t believe there are gods) with whom man can have a relationship.
Mriana

I don’t know, I find JWs to be cult-like too.
Frank2941

Where was it determined that a “cult-like” (whatever that is) religion canot be Christian?
jesus

sheesh people, get a life would ya. sitting around all day trying to skew polls? certainly there are better things more worthy of your time here?

regards,
Tad

Wow, how many proved how stupid they are by voting in a poll classifying atheism as a “religion.” Or is this really some Freudian concession that atheism has such a predictably rigid belief system without a “god” that it really is religion-enuf?
Stalin

Comrades,

We suggest atheist peoples consider winning tactics used in Hungarian (1945) vote to become communist:

Loading up school children on vehicle.

Taking them to all towns across mother country.

Having them vote in election.

Repeat until winning of vote. Then shoot anyone that is not liking system they are voted for.

Of course since commissar Gor has inventing web, this can be done more easy by clicking vote with spider script! Voting are like farting — the more you are doing it the better you are feeling!

See! Godless people can having morality! (Because they are defining what is moral, as it should be!)