It was all over the place last week. More people than ever have no religion. By the way the Pew Survey was portrayed in the news one could be forgiven that we will soon be overrun by atheists like zombies in the walking dead.
Except, not.
There is a slight of hand going on with these survey results. Among those no religion people counted in the survey you have the Bill Maher types and then some other people. Wanna know who was counted in the survey as being no different than Bill Maher? How ’bout someone who believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior and believes in the ten commandments. Yup, that person counted as “no religion” in the survey just like Bill Maher.
The media is distorting the survey by an odd use of the word “religion” — a use facilitated by Pew lumping people of faith who don’t belong to a church with atheists.
According to the dictionary, the first definition of the word “religion” is:
[A] set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
However, the media is using the word “religion” to mean a specific worldly organization. For example, a Christian who believes that Jesus is God and that we should follow the Ten Commandments but who is not affiliated with any church is grouped with atheists and agnostics in the Pew survey; they are all referred to as “nones.”
This is a clear attempt to distort the results of the survey; by lumping religious people who aren’t associated with a specific church with atheists, Pew makes it appear that atheists are a significant demographic in America, when in reality they are a statistically insignificant minority.
To wit: according to Pew, 68% of the “nones” believe in God, which is essentially the entire group that has been growing according to Pew. It takes a liberal to declare that people who believe in God but who don’t affiliate themselves with a particular church are becoming less religious.
The amount of people who are actual atheists? 2.4%. Or what you would call the “margin of error.” Which is what I will call atheists from now on, the margin of error. So whether atheists are in or out of the combox, they are merely statistically insignificant noise. I kinda suspected.
When you place so much stake in Darwinian evolution, it must kinda stink to find out that you are merely nature’s rounding error, huh? Merely a recessive gene to be purged by us babymakers. I do feel sorta sorry for them. Maybe before they are purged from the gene pool completely I will do something to remember them. I know, I will name one of my many children after them. I always wanted to name a baby dumbass, but my wife wouldn’t let me.
