Looks like we (secular people = Atheists + agnostics) are between 18% and 27% now, depending on your numbers and definitions. We were a solid 8 when I became an activist 10 years ago.
Religious Views and Beliefs Vary Greatly by Country, According to the Latest Financial Times/Harris PollPeople in the U.S. more likely to believe in God or any kind of Supreme Being than those in five European countriesROCHESTER, N.Y. and LONDON ? December 20, 2006 ? A Financial Times (FT)/Harris Poll conducted among adults in the United States and in five European countries (France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Spain) shows that Americans are more likely than Europeans to believe in any form of God or Supreme Being (73%). Of the European adults surveyed, Italians are the most likely to express this belief (62%) and, in contrast, the French are the least likely (27%).Among those adults who stated they do have religious beliefs, almost two-thirds (62%) of Italians say they have the same religious beliefs as both their parents. In stark contrast, just under two in five (39%) British adults share the same religious beliefs as either of their parents. In the U.S. about half (48%) of adults who stated they have religious beliefs say they share the same as both of their parents.
Check out this article on the ways of the world… and the trends!http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=1131
Just found this over at GifS
Atheist blogs being monitored number 205,925. NoGod checks in at #8.
http://challengereligion.com/community
Dawnisis,
I highly doubt this. It’s too close to being a conspiracy theory. I think the simplest explanation is best here:
1) Religious people are indoctrinated early.
2) They are not properly exposed to alternate ideas.
3) They’re afraid of death.
4) They’re afraid of not fitting in.
5) And we cannot currently explain how life began.
We can fix #2 and #4. #1 will follow later naturally. As for #3, well that’s probably the reason humanity invented religion in the first place, I doubt it will ever go away completely. As for #5, we may never know, the best we can do is explain that jumping to conclusions and arguments from ignorance are logical fallacies.
As for the poll, it’s not completely trustworthy, of course. Hopefully we’ll see more like it in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if the trend was heading in that direction. Atheists have always suffered from a lack of communication amongst themselves, so now that we can all communicate easily, our more logical ideas are much more publicly visible.
I agree with mushinronjya that those who think religions are lying should not be afraid to call themselves Atheists. The word ‘Agnostic’ is used wrongly so often that I’m afraid it no longer means the same thing.
One interesting thing in that poll was that most American’s don’t want religion taught in schools. I think it’s safe to assume that the religious just don’t want the competition. Competition is good, but not for the guy who’s out on the corner spouting nonsensical superstition.
karen-
I assume you are a girl. Trust me, you don’t want me to look at you the way that I do when I look most girls…. my first thought is “Where do I insert myself!?” Well, maybe that’s not the first thought going through my head, but within 5-10 minutes of talking to you, that’s what I’ll be thinking. It doesn’t even matter if you’re a rocket scientist or a bar maid.
Yeah, I’m real messed up here, and I suppose I should maybe see a therapist before I become a the-rapist. The problem is that it’s all biological, it’s accelerated by the internet, and I prefer text messaging people for this purpose. Also, I can’t make eye contact with people for too long because that makes me horny…. these are all signs that we’ve evolved from monkey’s.
Also, this is pretty much every single guy that has access to the internet and doesn’t have a girlfriend. No wonder why the churches are becoming more crowded every year, it’s because of porn addiction and because a therapist generally costs money!
Comment from dawnisis:
Hey, I think we have stumbled onto something. All we have to do is start each thread with that questions and phreedm will not show up!!!!
dawnisis,
Just a hypothesis, but this may actually be an extension of the way in which most European artists portrayed Jesus pre-renaissance and during the renaissance. These images began to appear early in Christianity and have become the defining portrayal of how Jesus physically appeared.
They painted Jesus as they themselves looked, not taking into account the ethnic demographics of the middle east.
Our current commonly shared image of what Jesus looked like, I believe, is based on these great works of art, and not really on any other reason.
quantum
Well then, a male therapist would probably be in order!
As I understand it, recognizing and admitting that you have an addiction is half the battle. If money is a problem, as DVanW points out, there are secular addiction programs out there, though they may be hard to find, depending on where you live.
I wish you luck, as this would be a difficult addiction to overcome, I would think. Like overeating, it is connected to a natural biological urge. An overeater can’t just stop eating, like the alcoholic can stop drinking. And while going cold turkey on porn wouldn’t be life-threatening, it would confuse your biological urges. You would have to find where to draw the line between enough and too much. Not that you’d still be using porn, but you’d still be learning to alter the effects it has had on you, such as seeing every female as an object for your gratification. Unless you are willing to be celibate, including self-service- and that seems rather harsh. I don’t know if self-help groups address these things or not. That’s why I recommend therapy. There are therapists who charge on a sliding scale, so you may be able to find one you can afford.
I will try to remember to ask my therapist what she knows about the subject next time I go, which is Dec. 20.
Quantum
I did a bit of googling, and found a sit that talks about dealing with sexual addiction, including porn, by using Positive Realism. Sounded promising and secular. You might want to check it out.
Go to this page and click on SexualControl.com
http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Sexuality/Sexual_Addiction/
Thank you Karen, you’re the best! American atheists are the best too. All right, therapy seems like a reasonable and rational alternative to the humiliating self-deception one experiences in the church.
On a side note: [I suppose there's no difference between King Solomon having 50 concubines and me watching porns. Probably the reason a guy that gets laid the most is so successful. I think he is right when he says in Proverbs how dangerous that type of lifestyle is though (just giving credit where credit is possibly due).]
Okay, so I probably shouldn’t try to go cold turkey on porn as you say, and I wasn’t planning on doing that anyway. Also, it’s a major relief to know that there is no such thing as hell and heaven, or falling in love with some mythical “Jesus” monster to worry about when solving my real world problems in the here-and-now.
Thanks again!
karen, I don’t have a problem with acronyms.. .if you read my post more clearly, you’ll see what I have a problem with for that, specially, in how people say them in that format.
Actually, Freedom from Religion foundation is “the best”, if you want to get technical.
But AA does play a good part.
DVanWechel,
Pre-Renaissance art depicting religious subjects can be seen here:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/gothic.html
I don’t want to get into a whole art history thing here but it was mainly the Italians who first depicted angels, christ, god etc. as caucasian, if they were painting religion in their on image then all of the “beings” would look italian.
The italian art was heavily influenced by the greeks so perhaps they decided to paint all subjects to resemble the greeks? Hard to say but very interesting.
Nevertheless, the xian church has had centuries to correct their chosen racial depiction of christ angels god etc but they have not. I see inherent racism in depicting supreme beings as white only. Not just jesus but religious figures including adam and eve are artistically portrayed as white by the xian church.
mushinronjya has a dry sense of humor. Went to his website and not sure where he is coming from but he is not an xtian. I don’t believe.
Go Ron Paul, for President, unless Dave runs that is.
hmmm. what would your platform look like, Dave?
quantum_flux,
I don’t really agree with much of that “as is” but, I will leave that for another time if it happens to be presented again.
quantum_flux, admitting that there is something about yourself that you want to change is very brave and you should give yourself credit for that.
The human brain is fully accepting to changing the conditioning that you give to it. As an example, I smoke tobacco. At the present time, I don’t necessarily want to quit, so I keep smoking because my mind has been conditioned to remind me that I should have a smoke. Quite often I go hiking, collecting rocks and looking at nature in general. I really like natural things. I purposefully don’t bring my smokes with me on my hikes because I don’t like to carry the butts with me and I don’t want to leave them either. As a result, and because I have conditioned my brain, I don’t have any desire for a smoke during my hikes which can last many hours longer than my normal tobacco addiction would allow.
What I am trying to point out is that you provide input to your brain and your brain gives you feedback based on the conditioning it has received. If you (can/are) willing to change the conditioning-feedback loop you will also change the behavior.
lol…. Good point [rna2dna]! I guess that’s how I can just give up religion or smoking and drinking very simply by changing my habits. I guess porn can’t be that hard to give up or to cut back on after all, I just need to replace 1 activity with another activity.
But then again, this is porn dammit, and can or should anything replace this sacred activity that relieves stress and calms me down!!? I guess it’s just a matter of cutting back a little and seeing how that goes, I guess I could go power walking more often. Eventually, I will need to make more money so that I can buy a powerboat or a quad, you know, so I can start living the real American dream.
(Hey, good old materialism is something that all major religions are against….christianity really messed me up big time with it’s stupid ideologies and such!! But now I’m on the superhighway to worldly success because I’m now a freethinking atheist.)
quantum_flux,
Well, maybe not easy. Personally I find it interesting and fun to find out how my brain and body reacts to changes in habits.
If you are considering forcing your wishes on someone else, yeah, in my opinion and often in the opinion of the law you and others will be better off if you change that.
You also might consider volunteering for things that will compliment some of your other interests. I sometimes spend hours and days picking up trash for no other reason except that I don’t want nature and animals to have to deal with it.
All I’m doing is throwing ideas out for you to think about. Please don’t discount the suggestions of karen (she’s smart).
Now, wait a minute
, how does non-theist (atheist) equate to materialism in an accumulation of wealth sense? Mitt Romney has just issued a plea that amounts to ‘equality for non theists sucks, I am a christian and that is all that counts, I can be commander of all faiths.’ If you think christians aren’t materialists in the accumulation of wealth sense you probably haven’t had a look at the house that magic-underwear built (that is, Mitt’s house). It is not at all uncommon for christians to be materialists in the accumulation of wealth sense.
I do believe that an atheist can (as opposed to will) have a more honest, richer (more fulfilled as opposed to wealth) experience in life than any christian could dream of having. Its fun to seek and know about reality
. As far a being wealthy goes, more power to ya but, I think its a different thing.
The site that karen linked to, hasn’t been working for me. Maybe overloaded? Is it still working?
http://challengereligion.com/community
rna2dna
I just tried it and it worked.
Try it now.
Thanks karen. Still not working here. I will keep trying later tonight and tomorrow. Maybe the god-idea done it
“I’m tired of other people curtailing to those that want to avoid the word “atheist”.
It’s time to realize that it’s a fucking word, and it means you’re “without belief in a god”. You’re a freakin atheist. No, you’re not “just an agnostic”, no, you’re not a “non-theist”, you’re an atheist, deal with it and accept it.”
I assume you’re angry about this, because in the U.S. you need all the atheists you can get?
I don’t label myself as an atheist, but that might have to do with the fact that I live in the UK.
We don’t have a word for someone who isn’t a murderer or rapist or who doesn’t believe in Unicorns or spirits. I don’t go around calling myself a unicorn-atheist, so I’m sure not going to call myself an ‘atheist’.
quantum_flux
you need a hot and horny grlfriend…that may help with your porn addiction….
also….buy sirius sat radio and listen to Howard Stern….the show is completely honest about everything and you may find some useful theropy in it…..
quantum,
Best of luck to ya. We women do have way more to offer you than our genitals. But you’ll never even get a glimpse of the richness of the book if you’re obsessed with the cover.
By the way, you may want to try and look at your addiction to porn as an addiction to adrenalin. Porn obviously gives you a “rush”. Many experts agree that this is the foundation to many (most) addictions. Maybe you’re really not addicted to the “insertion” but to the rush/high/buzz you get from the very thought of it.
I’m no therapist (well, I’m a Speech Thearpist), but perhaps if you could redefine the underlying factors to the addiction itself, it would be feasible to re-channel you’re need for the adrenaline, or find another (healthier) way to achieve the buzz.
Then you could read the book
Kula
You make a rational and valid point concerning what you may choose to label yourself. But the atheist, humanist or agnostic label is more than a label chosen for yourself alone. Choosing the label is to choose to ally yourself with other nonbelievers.
Personally I am not upset by people that choose to call themselves agnostic. I used to use this label as well. My alliances have not changed because I now choose the atheist label. I think the question “Do gawds exist?” to be a ill-posed question. But there is no widely accepted label for those of us that make this important distinction. So I go with the label atheist because I am most strongly socially and political allied with others that choose this label.
now what is wrong with being pro white.if your white you should be for your race every other race looks after its own.it is nation against nation,race against race,belief system against belief system and person against person this is natural law defy it at your own peril.the ends justify the means so it is okay to use church or atheism to buildup your race/nation.you work with the tools at hand.and no i am not suggesting whites abuse nonwhites.
reason,
Spoken like a real KKK follower. You and alex would fit right in. BTW, there was post over at Atheist Revolution in which the information was brought up that they (kkk) actually do accept atheists. How comfortable you would be!