How Many Atheists in America?
Thursday December 2, 2004
Atheists appear to be a growing segment of the population - but how big of a segment? Decent figures seem hard to come by, perhaps because admitting atheism is as much of a social taboo as admitting homosexuality. Add in confusion about the definition of atheism and a very difficult situation is created.
Harris Interactive gives these figures on atheists in America:
A plurality (42%) of all adults (but only 37% of men) thinks God is male, but only 1% thinks God is female. Almost half of all adults believe that God is neither male nor female (38%) or that God is both (11%).
If you add up the numbers, that works out to 92% responding on the gender of god. This suggests 8% who must not believe in any sort of god with any gender.
Barna has this to say:
85% of Americans self-identify as Christians. (2002)
7% of US adults classify as evangelicals (2004) (see Evangelical category for more information)
38% of US adults classify as born again, but not evangelical. (2004)
37% are self-described Christians but are neither evangelical nor born again
Atheists and agnostics comprise 12% of adults nationwide. (2004)
11% of the US population identify with a faith other than Christianity (2004)
This was down in the year before the Harris poll and has a higher percentage of atheists. Why? Did one survey have a lower quality? Did a whole bunch of atheists convert during the interval?
Some accurate figures about the number of atheists, agnostics, and general doubters of religion would be very helpful...
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Comments
What method were uses for these figures. When we see plus or minus three percent or so, we know that it is a sample. No one ever asked me. What about agnostics? In reality, there are more people than numbers could identify because it is seen as a stigma to not have a religion. Most “religious” people who believe in sky pixies are part time believers who only go to church once or twice a year. Too bad the aliens don’t land so that we could convert those churches into homeless shelters and the cemetery land could be used. Religion keeps people passive as Nietsche said. They feel the need to believe in something when there is no benefit in believing or killing others who do’t believe what you do.
Why do believers put so much stock in numbers of believers? So what if the majority are believers in God? Isn’t it ironic that they believe the majority or “masses” murdered the man they believe in? Yet, they use the “majority” of believers today as a reason for everyone to believe in a god. How do we know the men who wrote the various books of the bible were even sane? Did you ever read such gore, such filth, such fantasy, such “hocus-pocus” and the masses believe this stuff? Yes, that’s why we’ll always have religious wars and bloodshed. Shakespeare said it best: “WHAT FOOLS WE MORTALS BE.”
Why is the internet infiltrated with pseudo intellectual atheists if they are a very small minority?
I guess I will start with kidkj2000.You refer to the useless of religion many times. lots of studies have shown that people who have strong faith and engage in spiritual activities regularly are happier, have lower blood pressure,have stronger immune systems, and even live longer. Religion and faith are just a part of being healthy. Run , eat right and define your purpose.
ATHEISTS STINK!!!!!!!!!!ohhhhhhn yeah!!!! IF YOU WANT MY OPINION….. GO FOR CHRISTIANITY
ok mr thomas kelly first off u kinda offended some people. i mean have u read the bible? DUDE!!! YOU GOT IT WRONG!!! He gave himself to be killed so that u might have the chance to actually go to heaven one day!!! Read the good parts if it bothers you sooo much. See what he has done for you!! It is truely amazing. Maybe I just get it and you dont, but at least try to. I mean how likely is it that we just apeared here! Heres what you are doing….you are snubbing someone who loves you and died for you! I agree the the bible is hard to understand, but thats why we pray! We ask GOD (yes its a capitol G) to help us understand!!! Was that good explaining?????
In response to “Unweirdly’s comment about how Christianity supposedly leads to numerous health benefits-how do you know that this is not just a placebo effect? In response to “Lauren Renne”-we did not “just appear here”. Maybe it is time to brush up on your science. This is the problem with so many religious fanatics; they do not use deductive reasoning and they have not gained a significant amount of knowledge about the other side of their arguments, which amounts to comments like “we did not just appear here”. Also, how can you possibly be so firm in any beliefs without first learning about the alternatives in order to see if another view makes more sense to you instead? statistics can be very misleading, second of all, I am an Atheist who sees statistics like this all the time, but yet, for so many of these statistics, I have never personally been asked my religious preference for data like this. I am highly skeptical every time I see statistics like this.
A study released in June by the Barna Group, a religious polling firm, found that about 5 million adults in the United States call themselves atheists. The number rises to about 20 million — about one in every 11 Americans — if people who say they have no religious faith or are agnostic (they doubt the existence of a God or a supreme deity) are included.
‘Not-religious’ does not equate to ‘atheist’. Plenty of people identify as ’spiritual, not religious.’ Free form sprirituality is very much in vogue. Organized religion is weakening. Just look at the best seller list with all those books describign a meta-physical concept of GOd.
Let’s clarify the definition of atheist so we have accurate counting.
kidkj2000;
Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao were atheists and they weren’t the least bit passive.
“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi.
The reason I am agnostic is because the Bible contradicts, it promotes violence and misogyny. Most wars have been fought over religion and most religious are hypocrites.