Is aggressive neo-atheism widespread in Britain?
British Religion in Research (BRIN) has alerted us to a new YouGov poll conducted for The Sunday Times on 16-17 September. Representative online sample of 1,984 Britons aged 18 and over.
One of the assertions was:
Aggressive neo-atheism is widespread
Results:
Totally Agree = 23%
Totally Disagree = 37%
Neither Agree nor Disagree = 25&
Don’t Know = 16%
More juicy stats over at BRIN and here is a link to the YouGov results in PDF format:
October 5th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
“Neo-atheism”?
I’m trying really hard not to roll my eyes here.
October 5th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
But that survey doesn’t tell us if it is or not, just whether people think it is. The real test would be to compare the two statistics. I often wonder why Christians get so upset by atheism. At least atheists are being honest about their beliefs, and believing in God does not make someone a Christian anyway.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
@Cabal, yes I noticed that.
@Gordon, still really enjoy finding out folks subjective perceptions, still revealing. I think it’s more fundamentalist Christians that are upset with strident atheists.
October 5th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Webmaster. I think you’re being a bit mischievous.
You have added the word “Totally” which does not feature in the original survey (instead graded into 6 categories including don’t knows
) – and which was asked in the context of the Pope’s visit, tacked on to the end of a detailed political questionnaire.
More significant perhaps were
1. The total % of Don’t knows or “Neither agee nor disagree”s accounted for between 1/3 and 1/2 of all responses accross age, gender, region and socio-economic groupings.
2. Those strongly agreeing were in every category in single% figures whilst those strongly disagreeing were in every case in double % figures.
3. The sample size (less than 2,000) means there is a significant margin for error.
My concern is that people might read too much into the headline figures, which is not justified by the detail. Interesting nonetheless. as ever Webmaster. Many thanks finding yet another great nugget!
And I too take issue with the neo-atheist tag. It’s a meaningless tag used in a purely derogatory way.
October 6th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Webmaster: This survey resonates with my preoccupations today. “Aggressive neo-atheists” isn’t a group I ever come across.
What’s been making me think – and making me sad, too – over the past weeks is that I can’t help but notice that all the really unpleasant posters on this blog during the months I’ve taken part have been fundamentalist Christians. The nasty homophobes, the misogynists, the loony literalists… In my experience (and much to my disappointment) many supposed Christians are far more aggressive than atheists, neo or otherwise.
Gets me down. I’ve been thinking that the American novelist, Ann Rice, may have a point. She wrote:
“I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. “
October 6th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
@Sophie….I know….
October 6th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Is this not “christophobia“?
Or maybe just $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ a vampiric aversion to crosses and holy water.
The Vampiric Purity Test
October 6th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
@ Goy: That was a giggle. There’s no way you could answer “don’t know” to a question like ” Are you assisting in the release of the Lord of the Underworld? “
October 6th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
@ Webmaster: So I’m not alone, then?
October 6th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Well this spoke to me today:
http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/10/let-ninety-five-percent-roll-off-your-back/
October 6th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
@Sophie,
I have it on good authority that the Lord of the Underworld and the cohorts such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and Sayyid Hassan Nasrallahhas have already been released.
Did you mention Vlad Tepes?
October 6th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
@ Goy: I understand Vlad’s retired. He’s now running a stake house.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
I thought it was the Turkish shish kebab business he indulged in.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
@ Webmaster: Loved that piece. So good. So relevant. It does me much more good to contemplate areas where I fall short rather than banging on about other people’s errors.
This blog, being a debating arena, generates debate. That’s a given and if you’re going to take part you can’t agree with everyone. But sometimes it’s hard to see much to admire in some fundamentalist positions, let alone find common ground.