[Oceao]

potsherds;150585 said:

Conversely, in America, where there's something wrong with you if you are an atheist, many people will lie and say they are Christian when they're really fence-sitting agnostics.

Depends on where in America. Around where I live its almost the opposite of that.

[Oceao]

Atlantis! Join me here and we shall rule the seas! It is an aquatic utopian land where people live in coral houses and prisoners are executed via shark.

...or Boston

[rlfcl]

Monk;150545 said:

I'm surprised by the number of Atheists that site gave...I thought the percentage was lower than that.

And the numbers there (at least the top ones, I didn't notice for the others) are similar or the same as at wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia....t_day_adherents

that section included atheists, agnostics, theists, etc.

[Tif the Barber Boy]

Guess I will log myself in as a Muslim: that religious identity is central to my cultural upbringing, informs my beliefs, and I participate in its rituals and ceremonies and traditions.

[Satan]

Atheist and Satanist.

[Shinrei]

In the old days (of a year ago), there'd be at least 6 people who had shown their spam worship colors by now.

[Wiggles]

me, Snakey, BAD, Kettlies, uh... my second account and Snake?

[Tiste Simeon]

I'll let you guess which one I put down...

[Darkwatch]

Other, specificaly: I'll find out when I die.

[Menandore]

Tiste Simeon;150941 said:

I'll let you guess which one I put down...

Pagan right?

[Shinrei]

I'd be curious to see if our poll numbers above would reflect general fantasy reading audiences. It's good to see that we have Christians here who don't believe Erikson and Harry Potter are the path to satan.

[Darkwatch]

I do believe there is a difference between a fundementalist and a normal believer.

[rlfcl]

my fundie uncle has the amazing ability to disapprove of harry potter for it's positive portrayal of "witchcraft", yet place the lord of the rings trilogy among his favourite movies.

[Satan]

Shinrei no Shintai;150989 said:

I'd be curious to see if our poll numbers above would reflect general fantasy reading audiences. It's good to see that we have Christians here who don't believe Erikson and Harry Potter are the path to satan.

A lady from my university (University of Tromsoe) wrote a master paper on what kind of christians thought the Harry Potter books were a work of the Devil. I think she concluded with that most people have a detached relationships to the books and mainly view them as a source of entertainment. Only those who were brought up in a very strict Christian home (e.g. no TV, radio, books other than the bible, etc.) were opposed to reading Harry Potter. This was a study done in Northern Norway, by the way, so I don't know how representative this would be for the rest of the world.

[Tif the Barber Boy]

rlfcl;150999 said:

my fundie uncle has the amazing ability to disapprove of harry potter for it's positive portrayal of "witchcraft", yet place the lord of the rings trilogy among his favourite movies.

rlfcl, isn't it ovbious? Witchking = Harry Potter a few years on, having traded in his broom for a Nazgul and wearing a helm to disguise his scar and nerdy glasses! :eek:

I seem to remember reading about objections to Pokemon for being a satanic plot to corrupt children because the Pokemon trading cards had "pagan" symbols on them. Beat that for paranoia!

[caladanbrood]

Shinrei, the percentage of christians who believe things like that are very low, especially outside the US. They're just depressingly vocal about it.

[D Man]

Ok, since we have a tolerably large statistacal sample now (50 poeple is hardly ideal, but its not getting much bigger and the trends there arent going to change) lets do something with it, eh?

Here we have a cross section of the fantasy-reading, internet using section of the public: We're from different countries, theres a few different first languages in here, there may be a bias to being male geekiness of fantasy and forum posting, but there are quite a few women here, so I dont think its too significant, or consequential. What do we have in common? Its safe to say we're all well educated, above average intelligence, at least modestly affluent or from modestly affluent families (though by global standards we're all pretty rich just for being sat infront of a PC: we have it good mate!) and from developed countries.

Here are the global stats: http://en.wikipedia....eligious_groups

We are, as of posting,

46% Atheist
16% Agnostic
23% Christian
10% Other
Plus misc

Globally:

33% Christian
21% Islam
14% Hindu
16% Not religous (including both atheist and agnostic: the total of these two on this board is 61%)
Plus misc

Please excuse me if you're part of "Misc": no slight is intended whatsoever, but you have insignificant statistical relevance

The implications are pretty obvious: all things being equal, education reduces the chances of one being religious significantly. If you can contradict it reasonably I'll be happy to hear it.

Also,

[Edited]
[Proven nice and wrong, take no notice!] since the only significant religion present here is christianity, and we're all decadent book-reading, PC owning/using types, its fairly clear that christianity is the richest religion (this may be verified, but I cant be bothered), and therefore the most powerfull (also pretty obvious) which, I would contend, is far more responsible for its proliferation than any truth to it. [/Proven nice and wrong, take no notice!]. There is still likely a lot of truth to the conneciton between the greater media command and frequent-flier status of christianity being it being the biggest religion in the world, but its not shown by this. A discusion for another time!
[/Edited]

In addition it means that if youre going to be religious then youre almost certainly going to be the dominant one of where youre from, which begs the question: what more is there too any religion than a set of mythologies and customs that are taught to children and carried into adult life?

[Cause]

Rather than richest I would say christianity over hindu and islam is more likely to attend an englixh website about an english book. That 14% hindu and 20% muslim is mostly not going to speak the language.

[D Man]

Good point!!