Allen, Sadly (in my opinion) the religion (or more accurately perhaps, the religiosity) of a candidate is a huge issue here in the States. I still get emails from my nutty relatives about how Obama is really a Muslim. Has anyone else received the ridiculous 'Yes, We Noticed" spam email?
No political candidate would dare say that he/she is an atheist or even an agnostic. (Well, you've got to be *sure *of everything, and not just go with "I dunno.") It's hard to determine whether it's the middle-of-the-roaders who are afraid of the political clout of the religious far right or whether religion really is that important to the general public It would probably be an exercise in futility to imagine what would happen if the study I mentioned were to really get legs. Beth Benoit On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Allen Esterson < [email protected]> wrote: > Beth Benoit writes on belief in a deity: > >Another interesting thought, proposed by Christopher Hitchens in > >his newest book, *Arguably: Essays*, is that people are more likely > >to say they're atheists now because there's more access to different > >points of view and information (via the internet) than there was > before. > >I imagine it must have been a lonely business being an atheist in the > >"old days." > > >I'm much more aware of many people being comfortable saying they're > >atheists or agnostics. I don't think this was true in earlier > decades, at > >least not in my experience. > > Writing from the other side of the pond, I've always been bemused by > the differences between the United States and northern Europe on this > issue. Two of the three leaders of the main political Parties in the UK > are atheist/agnostic, but this simply wasn't an issue in the general > election in 2010. It is inconceivable that this would be the case in > the States. > > On the article in question > http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-ofp-shenhav.pdf > one thing that is not covered is the huge difference between those who > believe in a deity as the original creator of the universe and nothing > more, and those who believe in a deity who/which is concerned with > individual human lives. I would say that the former are a lot closer to > agnostics than to the latter. > > Allen Esterson > Former lecturer, Science Department > Southwark College, London > [email protected] > http://www.esterson.org > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > [tips] intuition = belief in a higher being > Beth Benoit > Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:16:05 -0700 > A new paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology > http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-ofp-shenhav.pdf proposes > that > those who think intuitively (" For the purposes of this study, > intuition is > thought of as the tendency to rely on first instincts and to reach > decisions > quickly and then stick by them.") are more likely to say they believe > in the > existence of God than those who have a reflective style of thinking > "(Reflection, on the other hand, is a slower process that involves > questioning initial instincts and looking at a wider range of > alternatives.") > > Another interesting thought, proposed by Christopher Hitchens in his > newest > book, *Arguably: Essays*, is that people are more likely to say they're > atheists now because there's more access to different points of view and > information (via the internet) than there was before. I imagine it must > have been a lonely business being an atheist in the "old days." > > I'm much more aware of many people being comfortable saying they're > atheists > or agnostics. I don't think this was true in earlier decades, at least > not > in my experience. > > Beth Benoit > Granite State College > Plymouth State University > New Hampshire > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13105.b9b37cdd198e940b73969ea6ba7aaf72&n=T&l=tips&o=12839 > or send a blank email to > leave-12839-13105.b9b37cdd198e940b73969ea6ba7aa...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=12840 or send a blank email to leave-12840-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
