Atheist readers of World Peace Herald are up in arms over an article we recently published headlined, "Overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God."
Comments received so far say a) we are unqualified to take an unbiased poll, b) something must have been wrong with the way the question was asked, c) more Jews should have been included in the poll and d) there are plenty of atheists in America; it's just that they are "in the closet" for fear of being persecuted.
The implication by one reader that having more Jews participate in the poll would have produced a result with fewer people believing in God is ludicrous. The idea that atheists are too afraid to identify themselves as such for fear of persecution in today's America is also pretty off the wall.
The poll was not taken by World Peace Herald, but by Princeton Survey Research commissioned by the weekly magazine Newsweek. I don't think either of those institutions has ever had to defend itself against charges of pro-Christian bias.
The question asked was, "Do you believe in God?" Seems like a pretty straight forward question. Well, 91 percent responded "Yes" to that question. Doesn't leave much room for spin, does it?
The poll results should not be surprising to anyone who is familiar with U.S. society. Americans have always placed greater emphasis on the spiritual aspects of human life than people in other countries, especially Western Europe.
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I'd like to respond to this:
"The question asked was, 'Do you believe in God?' Seems like a pretty straight forward question. Well, 91 percent responded 'Yes' to that question. Doesn't leave much room for spin, does it?"
Based upon the article, I can't tell whether the poll has the shortcomings I'm about to mention, but my comments can apply somewhat to the editor's comments.
Failing to distinguish between weak atheism and strong atheism, or between atheism and agnosticism, renders woefully incomplete any poll on religious beliefs in America. Though some people may think that the difference between merely lacking belief in gods and believing there are no gods is slight, in fact, the difference is enormous. Therefore, using answers to the question "Do you believe in God?" is not accurate in gauging the percentage of Americans who "reject belief in god."
Similarly, unless the definition of "God" is specified in the poll (or, better yet, unless concepts are used instead of such contentious words as "God"), then anyone administering a poll using questions containing the undefined word sacrifices a considerable degree of precision and accuracy. Strictly speaking, vagueness does not constitute spin, but it does little to further understanding.
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