I challenged people to rank the percentage of the U.S. population who are Jews, Muslims, and atheists.
On 19 Mar 2008 at 8:54, Robin Abrahams wrote: > A problem with this is the overlap between "Jews" and "atheists" since > you can be both--and lots of people are. Too true. Similarly, Christopher Hitchens claims that in Belfast during the Troubles, someone seeking to avoid trouble by saying he was an atheist would be asked, "Protestant or Catholic atheist?" However, without delving into the methodology used in the survey, I can suggest a way out for Jews. Ask the respondent is to answer on the basis of religion, not ethnic group. I believe this would separate the Jews from the Jewish atheists. (I wrote this before Lyris impolitely rejected my post and the subsequent Abrahams/Esterson dust-up on the issue. I guess this puts me on the Esterson side. But see below.) For the survey, the results are in. And Jews lead atheists by a nose (and we're not going to go there, are we?), with Muslims well behind. The actual percentages in descending order are: Jews..........1.7% of the population atheists......1.6% Muslims.....0.6% There are three times as many Jews as Muslims in the US. Surprised? Me too. The source is the respected Pew Institute and the findings are those of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in its "US Religious Landscape Survey" conducted May 8 to Aug. 13, 2007 but just recently released. Go to: http://religions.pewforum.org/ The data here is under "Affiliations" although you have to click on "Unaffiliated" after that to get the atheist percent. Unfortunately, there are problems. The response rate was a dismal 24%, which could well have led to an undercount of Muslims reluctant to identify themselves in the current unfriendly climate twoards them. On the Jew/atheist question, Pew asks: What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such as Greek or Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, something else, or nothing in particular? They could have been still clearer, but the question does specify that the answer is to be on the basis of religion. I'd think a Jewish atheist would respond "atheist" to that one. How about it, David? Would that question give you pause? For further information you might try the Chronicle of Higher Education article which inspired this post: Wolfe, Alan. Pew in the Pews: A survey on American belief overturns some scholars' theories. March 21, 2008. Unfortunately not free and therefore only for the privileged. (i've been pondering which is funnier, "Who's Jews?" or "Who's Jew?" It's a toss-up. The first is a more accurate title; the second is the better pun. What a dilemma.) Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
