So you think Mormons are poorly thought of and put upon...

A 1999 Gallup poll asked Americans if they would vote for an otherwise qualified Presidential candidate who belonged to certain ethnic or religous groups. Here are the results:

For Whom Would Americans Vote?
(Gallup, 1999)

Woman : 95%
Roman Catholic : 94%
Baptist : 94%
Black : 92%
Jew : 92%
Mormon : 79%
Homosexual : 59%
Atheist : 49%

There are 29 million Americans who describe themselves as nonreligious, secular, atheist, or agnostic, outnumbering Jews tenfold, and all other religions except Christianity by an even larger margin.

Chew on that for a moment.

Now: are Americans justified in their fear of atheists? Do atheists commit more crimes? Here are the statistics on US federal prison inmates, from the Federal Bureau of Prisons:

All Judeo-Christian religions: 62594 inmates, 83.761% of population
(This includes Protestants, Catholics, Jews, etc.)
Atheists: 156 inmates, 0.209% of population

Click here for full results.

How about that! Atheists compose roughly 10% of the population, but only 0.21% of the prison inmates.

Here's an interesting academic paper. It shows that for major industrialized countries, increased belief in God is linked to:

-Higher death rate for infants and children under 5
-Lower life expectancy
-Higher abortion rate
-Higher teen pregnancy rate

There is also some positive correlation between belief in God, higher homicide rate, and higher STD infection rates, but the USA is so much higher than everyone else that it's hard to see the rest of the graph.

You can check the charts at the end yourself:
Link to Creighton study

This should make it abundantly clear that religion, not atheism, is associated with crime and societal problems.

No, correlation is not causation. We can't say for certain that religion actually causes child mortality and lower life expectancy. But it's clear that the opposite is not true, no matter how many religious Americans shout and point fingers.

You will notice that none of these studies even wants to TOUCH the only true and & terrible religion of Conan the Barbarian, we would so totally rape and murder those damn statiticians if they tried to represent us with silly graphs.

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Originally Posted by Spats

Homosexual : 59%
Atheist : 49%

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That's gay!

Would a black gay catholic woman score better or worse than an athiest?

why did you start another mormon thread?

In light of the recent discussions, I thought of this exact same thing today, and I would like to add my own observation...

And although there are many religious skiers, in all, a larger number of skiers seem to be athiests than you find in the general population. I find that the morals and ethics of godless skiers to be at the top tier of society.

Only 10% claim to be non-religious? Wow.

I was likewise surprised when I heard that Christians comprise the world's largest religion - isn't it like nearly 50% of the world or something?

Hey you want something REALLY like a flame-war-bait you should post the stats that coorelate IQ to religious beliefs. Then, watch the bombs fly.

more like a third - and that includes the "only for baptisms and weddings crowd" :)

Any poll that starts with "Americans were asked..." is going to make anyone with an IQ of over 80 cringe.

As for the religious affiliation of inmates, 90% of the inmates who claim to believe in a particular religion do so to in order to make their excuse that 'God made me do it' more believable during the appeals process.

Another interesting article on the topic, this says the atheist population is about 3% in the US, though.
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/255008.htm

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Originally Posted by Ireallyliketoski

As for the religious affiliation of inmates, 90% of the inmates who claim to believe in a particular religion do so to in order to make their excuse that 'God made me do it' more believable during the appeals process.

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Why not? It worked for Bush.

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Originally Posted by Spats

Atheist : 49%

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Hey, Bush won with that!

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"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
- President Bush (Sr.)

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How to Spot Atheists and Report Them to the FBI

Fuckin Infidels.

...interesting. Would we know if a candidate was an atheist? Would outing someone's atheism be a smear tactic? ...because I don't think it would be a huge deal if a candidate didn't talk about their religious affiliation.

I think the woman stat is inaccurate. I've heard lots of people talk about not voting for Hillary and I get the feeling that many don't like her because she's a strong and powerful woman (even though they may not say it).

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Originally Posted by David Witherspoon

Trivial. Low IQ and prison attendance are correlated. Combining the stats above with those here, we find that Christians are ~100x more likely to be imprisoned than atheists. It follows that ...

... but why presume transitive correlations between very different populations when you can just read it here.

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Hmmm, pretty weak study here. After reading the results from the 31 studies cited in this link, I only see 6 that actually support the conclusion. 6 studies presented evidence counter to the conclusion, and the rest presented either vague conclusions or showed no correlation whatsoever. You find one study that 'proves' one thing, you can usually find another one that 'proves' the opposite. Statistics don't lie, but statisticians do.

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Originally Posted by frozenwater

You will notice that none of these studies even wants to TOUCH the only true and & terrible religion of Conan the Barbarian, we would so totally rape and murder those damn statiticians if they tried to represent us with silly graphs.

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"Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you will remember, if we were good men, or bad. Why we fought, or how we died. No, all that matters is, that two stood against many. That's what's important. Valour pleases you Crom, so grant me one request, grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then the hell with you!"

Maybe it would help if you made friends with other religions/races... like my wife and I:
http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/

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This should make it abundantly clear that religion, not atheism, is associated with crime and societal problems.

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NOne of what you posted makes anything "abundantly clear". The fact is people suck... Jews, mormons, black, chinese, white, gay and yes athiests are all capable of doing bad things to people and commit crimes. Your statistics are skewed because "athiests" make up a smaller portion of the population and therefore a smaller proportion of jerks in this world. Why can't you accept there are good and bad people in all faiths, beliefs, races whatever and stop hating.

The real question is.......

Who the fuck cares....................I guess the fact that I live in Sandy and not Sugarhouse makes me not care.;)

UHM, there's a little flaw in their poll; homesexual and woman is neither an ethnicity nor a religion.:rolleyes:

correlation does not imply causality.

These threads are subtle trolls for the bored. I guess that includes me.

Can't we all just be nudists?

Have you ever tried to ski naked? Not fun, not fun, Although I did see STOY pull a huge backflip at the big air contest at beaver mountain once completly naked. The look on MArge Seeholzer's face was priceless.

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Originally Posted by frozenwater

You will notice that none of these studies even wants to TOUCH the only true and & terrible religion of Conan the Barbarian, we would so totally rape and murder those damn statiticians if they tried to represent us with silly graphs.

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Is there a Church of Chuck Norris?

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Originally Posted by frozenwater

You will notice that none of these studies even wants to TOUCH the only true and & terrible religion of Conan the Barbarian, we would so totally rape and murder those damn statiticians if they tried to represent us with silly graphs.

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Hail Crom!!!

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/crom.htm

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Originally Posted by Arty50

Hail Crom!!!

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/crom.htm

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Does that mean you have to vote for Arnold?

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Originally Posted by runethechamp

Does that mean you have to vote for Arnold?

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Crom abandoned Arnold when he made Junior.

For the record, Islam is the most prevalent religion in the world - not Christianity

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Originally Posted by frozenwater

You will notice that none of these studies even wants to TOUCH the only true and & terrible religion of Conan the Barbarian, we would so totally rape and murder those damn statiticians if they tried to represent us with silly graphs.

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Word........... Bitches................

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Originally Posted by Arty50

Crom abandoned Arnold when he made Junior.

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That might be a bad movie, but it has a good shot of Arnold's calves in it, and they are scary.

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Originally Posted by mojorisin

For the record, Islam is the most prevalent religion in the world - not Christianity

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No doubt that with current trends, it will be some day. Not yet though.

Some more fuel for the fire:

In a recent article, UCLA Law Prof Eugene Volokh (and a libertarian right-winger) has documented numerous instances where atheist and agnostic parents lose out in child custody disputes because of judicial bias against their religious views.
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In line with Splat's first point, "University of Minnesota sociologists Penny Edgell, Joseph Gerties and Douglas Hartmann conducted a survey of American public opinion on attitudes towards different groups and found that prejudice against atheists topped the scale. For example, almost 40% of respondents characterized atheists as a group that "does not at all agree with my vision of American society." Note that the question did not ask whether the respondent disagrees with atheists on some issues (which would be a perfectly understandable and noninvidious view), but asks if they are a group that does not at all share his views.

The figures for other groups on this question (with rounding to whole numbers):

Muslims: 26%

Homosexuals: 23

Conservative Christians: 14

Recent immigrants: 13

Jews: 8

Scholars have long recognized that a key indication of tolerance for a group is willingness to accept intermarriage with its members. Here too, intolerance for atheists leads the pack. Below are the percentages of respondents stating, with respect to particular groups, that "I would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group" (rounded to whole numbers):

Atheists: 48

Muslims: 34

African-Americans: 27

Asian-Americans: 19

Hispanic-Americans: 19

Jews: 12

Conservative Christians: 7"
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For more discussion, analysis, and supposed acceptable justifications for the inter-marriage figure, go to the following links:

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2...tml#1144075320

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2...tml#1144100458

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2...tml#1144112305

God, save me from your followers. Are there any openings for immigration in any countries other than jesusland?

I'm trying to make two points:

1) Yes, Mormons are viewed poorly and put upon by the rest of the US, relative to other forms of Christianity. But relative to atheists, they're sitting with the cool kids in the lunchroom.

Quick test: there is at least one openly gay member of Congress (http://www.house.gov/frank/), and several openly Mormon members. How many openly atheist members of Congress are there?

2) This amazingly broad-based suspicion of atheists doesn't appear to have any basis in fact. If anything, there is a correlation in the opposite direction that needs explaining.

I don't have this explanation.

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Originally Posted by juicy

correlation does not imply causality.

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I agree, and said exactly that at the end of my post. Nor do any of these statistics mean anything when speaking of any individual -- that's the definition of prejudice. I count people of multiple faiths among my friends.

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Originally Posted by shmerham

I think the woman stat is inaccurate. I've heard lots of people talk about not voting for Hillary

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You won't find any specific person that 95% of America would vote for. Hilary is an object of strong hatred for the right wing. How many liberals would vote for Condi Rice?

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Originally Posted by funkendrenchman

UHM, there's a little flaw in their poll; homesexual and woman is neither an ethnicity nor a religion

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That's my wording and my fault, not the poll's. You are correct.

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Originally Posted by funkendrenchman

UHM, there's a little flaw in their poll; homesexual and woman is neither an ethnicity nor a religion.:rolleyes:

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Now who's being naive.... :nonono2: