Deniers

In a comment blog brother AlexC claims that "...90% of Americans believe in God." Personally I thought the figure was closer to 97 percent, so I googled the string american belief god poll and learned that the 97% figure comes from a University of Minnesota study that estimated atheists at 3%. Actual surveys put the number around 10%, in line with AC's claim.

The U of M study must be in error though because a recent Gallup poll, as cited by the LA Times Ed page, ranks atheism as the most objectionable of a long list of political negatives. (If 10% of people will admit to atheism, a greater number must secretly harbor the disbelief belief.)

In a Gallup poll last month, 53% of respondents said they would not vote for an otherwise well-qualified atheist — far more than wouldn't vote for a homosexual (43%), a 72-year-old (42%), someone married for the third time (30%), a Mormon (24%) or a woman (11%).

It is such a black mark that the "Secular Coalition for America" used a new word to replace atheist: "nontheist." [Shouldn't it be non-theist?]

"Nontheist," by the way, is the latest secularist term of art for folks "without a god-belief," replacing the traditional terms "atheist" and "agnostic." (The former believes there is no God; the latter isn't sure.) But the American Humanist Assn. — and who's not a humanist? — prefers nontheist because most Americans wrongly think that atheists are anti-theists: people who not only don't believe but also object to others' belief in God(s).

(For the record, I outed myself as atheist when atheism was less un-cool than it apparently is now.)

Philosophy Posted by JohnGalt at March 30, 2007 3:17 PM