Well, He’s not quite dead, but soon … soon …
“Religion in Canada today is not a particularly divisive subject and tolerance levels for different beliefs are high,” said Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson. “This is evident in the fact that one in four people feel comfortable saying they do not believe in a god.”
The poll found 72 per cent of respondents said they believed in a god, while 23 per cent said they did not believe in any god. Six per cent did not offer an opinion.
Polls have told a different story in the United States.
“Canada’s secularism stands in clearer distinction, when compared to the cultural and political influences of religion in the United States,” said Anderson. “In one Harris Interactive study in the United States, conducted in 2007, the number who said they were non-believers was only eight per cent.”
Keith Howard, a United church minister and executive director of the church’s Emerging Spirit program, said the results of the new survey do not represent a dramatic change from previous polls about Canadians’ beliefs.
“We are past the time of people trashing God,” he said. “They are now trying to find a safe place where they can nurture that spirituality.”
He said a poll done for the church last year indicated Canada is a nation of believers, not belongers.
Howard said his sense is that people who believe in a god increasingly imagine a nebulous but powerful force for good, rather than the traditional concept of a deity.
Indeed, he likened the concept to that of the Force in the Star Wars movies.
I love that last part. God is like the force, Yoda is John the Baptist, Luke of course is Jesus, and Judas is Lando Calrissian.
More good news in the poll – faith belongs to the old. When it comes to young people, there’s something like a Flynn Effect at play as the number of atheists, nontheists and agnostics, rises to 36%.
Exit Question: If there are so many of us atheists, why do sit quietly by while things like this happen?
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Filed under: Uncategorized , Atheism, Canada, Politics, Religion
50% of Americans do not believe in evolution! Now that is scarey!
What does “scarey” mean?
that’s quite dissapointing… :( although I only read the subject ;)
Grace Mark
What is scarey is that 50% of Americans are inclined to accept what is told to them on faith alone and are willing to reject
solid evidence to the contrary.
There is no basic contradiction between Evolution and Christianity. People who believe in God through Christian Theology could easily accept that God created Man by means of Evolution. Indeed the complexity of live argues for a Creator as opposed to it all happening by chance alone.
The insistance of Fundamentalists that scriptures written before it was even known that atoms and germs existed has created a mind set that allowed fantasies like the reasons for the Iraq invasion to be sold to Americans.
If Americans must cling to their religion, it is not impossible that they do it more intelligently.
easily
HOW DARE THEY! THE NERVE!
“God is dead” Neitsche
“Neitsche is dead ” God
“HOW DARE THEY! THE NERVE!”
Who said that?
Robert
I googled “How dare thay! The nerve! and found nothing.
The “non-believers” among polititians in the USA is probably zero.
Personally, as someone with a science background (I trained to be both a Naval officer and a physician) I would find it difficult to be an atheist. Given the complexity of life aqnd the physical world, I find it difficult to imagine that it all happned by chance and there had to be a Creator.
I do not claim to have the specific knowledge about God that adherants to organized religion have.
Myth was a way of organizing knowledge and explaining the world. Myth evolved into science. Much of the bible is pure myth. Jesus came up with some pretty good social science.
Neitsche said that the last Christian died on the cross. The Church
has corrupted Jesus teaching starting with St. Paul. Jesus would be pissed if he saw what has been done in his name.
I am surprised that those Bible thumpers who put GW Bush in office did not get lightening bolts up their asses. Maybe God is punishing Americans by giving us GW Bush (not to be confused with GHW Bush who was a competent President)