Rampant cluelessness
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that 21% of atheists believe in God. According to the Washington Post:
A belief in God or a higher spirit is pervasive. Even Americans who describe themselves as atheist or agnostic have a robust sense of a higher power: Twenty-one percent of those who describe themselves as atheists expressed a belief in God or a universal spirit, and more than half of those who call themselves agnostic expressed a similar conviction.
What’s really going on here? Pew is interviewing people who aren’t very smart. These are people who don’t understand the questions but answer anyway, or who label themselves without understanding what the labels mean. People who aren’t qualified to have opinions on whether it’s raining, much less the Big Questions.
Remember, their votes count just as much as yours..
June 25th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Whenever I’m asked, usually in a plaintive tone, “But don’t you believe in a higher power”? (the point probably being that if I don’t, I’m just an arrogant jerk, and if I do, I must believe in God), I always answer, “Sure I do, electricity.”