new_US says:

Great video and great post! Funny though how Turkey with its religious fanatics (mohamedans) appears to be in Europe. Middle East or Asia would be correct.

Riker17 says:

The statistics are incorrect. Religion is not harmful, as this video would have us believe, but rather quite healthy and I am darn proud to live in a country founded on a religious doctrine. May not be perfect, but it is as close to perfect as any nation can be. Long live America!

Hmeyers says:

I’m an atheist and don’t believe atheism needs “promotion”.

Most of the Old Testament is really a well-written (for the most part) set of Aesop’s Fables.

I do agree that silly behavior is correlated with a low level of education and that a low level of education is correlated with people who take things such as the Bible literally (sheesh!).

For me, atheism is just where I eventually ended up after having a few too many difficulties reconciling religion and what we know about the world and about history, not a “rejection of religion”.

I do think there is a valuable moral core to be found in most religions, it’s an easy way to explain right and wrong for those that need training wheels.

… And some people certainly need to be told what to think.

gregallen says:

Oh, here is the link I found for the 6% or 8% figure: http://tinyurl.com/6hf3wn

SJP says:

http://www.filedropper.com/images/scientology.jpg

efendikaptan says:

#2: Actually you can buy Richard Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ in supermarkets in Turkey, in Turkish. Is there any Arabic country where it was published in Arabic? (Seriously, I don’t know)

Religious fanatics in Turkey are no more or no less in number than any other democracy, and recent governmental attempt at lifting the headscarf ban received the harshest criticism from universities.

bobbo says:

Well, every negative complaint above as far as I can honestly understand it comes from misstating their premises.

Most “statistics” were referenced with the poll that they came from.

Yes, you do have to PAY ATTENTION when the stat is about having “non-belief” vs being an atheist. Different things but growth in either shows a parting of the ways with religion.

Religion/atheism/science like any other human activity will ebb and flow. Right now, we can only hope it is ebbing==but the comment above that it might be polarizing and growing stronger at each ends was consistent with the stats shown in the video.

Fun to see the knee jerk conformity to dogma when no reaction at all was more appropriate==whats a matta you?==not comfortable if people think you and your invisible fairy tale are nuts?

Uncle Ben says:

For the record, Turkey is about to join the EU and is as European as the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, etc (which is to say, close enough….).

Statistics about people’s beliefs are always dodgey ground. There are plenty atheist Jews, atheist Catholics and atheist Protestant who may not actually believe in personal, autonomous God who they pray to in the expectation that they are being listened to, but who believe in the values, social norms, and general ideas that their chosen religion represent. When asked they will state categorically that they are religious, but if you have a good natter with them you discover that their religious doesn’t really include a god so much as a social lineage and tradition that they like….

There are also plenty of people who may think that all churches and church traditions are complete rubbish, and yet themselves remain very religious and committed to their own personal, autonomous god who they pray to in expectation that they are being listened to. These people may well describe themselves as non-religious.

And then there are all those people who change their mind, sometimes frequently. Because that is what people do, and if you don’t change your mind regularly about a lot of things you probably aren’t really thinking much. And then there are all those people who just haven’t put a lot of thought into it, because they just don’t care (probably something like 80% of the world’s population) or have only sorta thought about it.

It is particularly interesting the way Dawkin’s and fundamental-atheism followers seem intent on proving that atheism can be as a much as a bigoted and closed minded ideology as any other by constantly bringing up this link they’ve made between ‘education’, ‘intelligence’ and ‘atheism’ thus inferring that anyone who is religious is either ignorant, stupid or both. It is the mark of a good idea’s descent into dogma when its followers starts to believe that anyone who doesn’t share their idea is stupid, wrong and (ultimately) criminal. Which is pretty much what the Dawkin’s brand of fundamental-atheism does: “all wars start with religion!”, “believes aren’t educated”, “atheists aren’t criminals”

bobbo says:

#16–Uncle Ben==two statements you make are simply wrong, now lets see if I can go back and find them.

1. you say==”and if you don’t change your mind regularly about a lot of things you probably aren’t really thinking much.” THAT simply can’t be true or you are over generalizing or mean something that has the same grammatical structure but in fact is just the opposite????

Or are you talking about children just starting out on their life path?

I won’t belabor the obvious.

2. You say–“It is particularly interesting the way Dawkin’s and fundamental-atheism followers seem intent on proving that atheism can be as a much as a bigoted and closed minded ideology as any other by constantly bringing up this link they’ve made between ‘education’, ‘intelligence’ and ‘atheism’ thus inferring that anyone who is religious is either ignorant, stupid or both.”

Well, here, you make conclusions “in extension” of what the more limited statements actually say.

To say that there is an inverse relationship between education and intelligence with being religious DOES NOT MEAN anyone religious is uneducated or stupid. It means JUST WHAT IT SAYS!!!!!! Correlations==which leave lots of room for much overlap. Silly to make it a polarizing statement as if there would not be measurable differences between groups of people having different views on how to understand the universe????

Further==what is “fundamental-atheism?” Trying the Mistard Mustard approach of trying to make atheism a religion?? Very poor linguistic skills there. Dawkins is simply an atheist who has written a few books and who goes out and gives speechs and confronts his skeptics and nay-sayers. How is that fundamental and how can one be an atheist and not fundamentalist–so to speak??

You are showing some kind of bias in this sloppy thinking. Don’t know what it is, exactly. Maybe you could think about it and post again?

Cursor_ says:

Low Education = silly behaivour?

Hmmmmm.

Well I’ll note that when all you stand upon right now is directly descended from the hard work and plain old horse sense of your grandfather and his father and his father, so on and on.

Education has nothing to do with human willful ignorance. There are MANY educated people that STILL engage in risky and foolish behaivours to themselves, family and society.

Education does not automagically imbue a human with prudence, forthrightness and morals. Nor does it make the acquistion of such qualities any easier than those less educated or perish the thought of religious conviction.

Athiests are no more prudent, forthright nor moral than their religious counterparts.

The Chinese, North Koreans and Cubans prove that on a daily basis.

Religion, atheism or education cannot instill morality. THAT MUST be a choice from the individual. For no matter how many laws are written, religious or secular, if someone says that LAW is not MY Law; then it doesn’t matter what you write.

WE are the FINAL Arbiters. Its is up to us, not society, religion or education to make the choice to be compassionate, forthright, moral and prudent people. We could have the knowledge of all mankind and the piety of all the saints and STILL be a madman hell bent on destruction if we cannot control ourselves and take responsibility for our actions.

Nothing external will ever force what is right to the internal.

Cursor_

julieb says:

I don’t think it’s intelligence, but education. Teach children about alternate religions or the scientific method and a % will reject religion. Always.

Americans thrive and wallow in ignorance. They love to perpetuate misinformation to promote their cause. Saying the US was founded on religion is a perfect example. People who really studied history even a little bit know that is not true, yet religionists keep teaching it to anyone who will listen. And listen they do, because it’s the easy way out.

What gets me is that so many religionists seem proud of their ignorance.

Personality says:

Agnostics will undoubtedly turn to atheists over time.

Boxie says:

@24 – no, most Agnostics will NOT turn into Athiests. One VERY common misconception about Agnosticism is that it’s “similar” to Atheism – …it’s not. No no no no no. Most Agnostics see the smugness and “blind belief” of Atheism as repulsive as it is with religious folk.

A substantial percentage of Agnostics (including me) think that blind belief in ANYTHING, without proof, including the belief that God doesn’t exist, is problematic.

bobbo says:

#26–Boxie==I am repulsed by the smugness of maintaining an ignorant position when the facts are overwhelming. Are you agnostic about Santa Clause too?

In my view, there are two type of agnostics. Idiots that are actually religious but are testing the waters of thinking for themselves and Idiots that are actually atheists who don’t have the balls to be honest with themselves, family, girlfriend or whatever. Gee, what do these two groups have in common?

Mike says:

What I say to the theists: “We both disbelieve in many gods… I just disbelieve in one more god than you do.”