by bavman 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Europeans have evolved more than the rest of us living in the "New World" (ie. Australia, NZ, USA etc).
Thye have had so much more time to evolve past the religion stage. It has nothing to do with intelligence, education, genes etc.
It just takes time.
Pope
Europeans have evolved more than the rest of us living in the "New World" (ie. Australia, NZ, USA etc).
Thye have had so much more time to evolve past the religion stage. It has nothing to do with intelligence, education, genes etc.
It just takes time.
Pope
A simple, yet very astute post. I think you nailed it, Pope.
j
...and then when they realize that 100% of the world are "atheists" already, they may start revising questions on surveys. or maybe just start asking real questions for a change. but i guess it helps for the surveyers to be on the same page as the general populace. LOL
tetra
I mean, take Germany for instance. There in summer it is legal to sunbake nude in the public parks. So you can grab some lunch and go sit in the park and see your work colleagues stipped naked and sunbaking (hopefully the female ones).
If that's not evolution at work I don't know what is...
They're more educated?
They've dealt with the ill effects of religion for much longer and had wars on their own soil prompted by it?
Yes nvr - these are the likeliest answers. I think a lot of people have said Christian but they don't actually practise - never go to church and never ever think about god. I'd be more interested in seeing stats showing who actively practises their faith in any way - other than getting drunk at Christmas...
Thanks Crumpet.
other than getting drunk at Christmas
If that's what it takes to be Christian...........sign me up!
Steve Bruce has written a good article on the 2001 high "Christian" rate in Britain.
(with D. Voas ) 'The 2001 Census and Christian Identification in Britain', Journal of Contemporary Religion, 19 (1) (2004) : 23-8.
Basically people ticked the Christian box not because they believe in Christianity or are even spiritual, but to distinguish themselves from Muslims and Hindus down the road; like an ethnic tag rather than a religious one.
I agree the question is why there are so few atheists in the USA, not the other way around.
Slim
BTW, Steve Bruce makes another interesting point Re: atheism.
He argues that atheism is paradoxically largely a phenomenon of religious societies. After all it only makes sense to define yourself strongly as "atheist" within a culture in which religion is taken seriously by your peers. If religion has largely lost social significance then there is little need to define oneself specifically as atheistic. So atheism in an increasingly secular society is likely to increase to a certain point, after which it loses relevance (in some sense due to its implicit success) and then recedes.
That is why it is wrong to judge the secularity of a society by how many self-proclaimed atheists there are. A more fruitful analysis asks what people do rather than how they respond to rather artificial survey questions. If you want to know how religious a society is ask how many go to church, how many read religious material, observe various religious sexual regulations (or at least hope to be seen to do so), have religious weddings, watch religious programmes, and so on.
Actions tell us what motivates people. Responses to surveys just tell us what people on the spur of the moment think the questioner wants to hear or what makes them look best.
Slim
Don't believe in God
or
Atheist
Any difference?
Here's a that try to address that:
http://mwillett.org/atheism/atheist-God.htm
"There is no God (god(s)"
or
"I don't believe in God"
Do the 2 statements immediately above mean the same thing?
http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/faculty/zuckerman/atheism.html
Why kind of atheist are you?
Because Europeans have more brains. IM JOKING! I am joking.
But somebody made a good point about Europeans having to deal with the ill effects of religion for a lot longer.
