Why does the proportion of atheists vary so much?

lunakilo · Feb 10, 2011

I stumbled onto this wiki article on the demographics of atheism:Atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It surprised me that there appear to be such a large difference between fx my own country Denmark (80%) to USA (4%).

Do you think this article shows a more or less correct picture of reality?
And if so why do you think it is like this?

Revoltingest · Feb 10, 2011

80%! I'd hate to be a puppy in Denmark.

lunakilo · Feb 10, 2011

Revoltingest said:
80%! I'd hate to be a puppy in Denmark.

I would hate to be a puppy anywhere.

What does that have to do with the question?

Revoltingest · Feb 10, 2011

lunakilo said:
I would hate to be a puppy anywhere.
What does that have to do with the question?

Atheists are known for eating puppies.

9-10ths_Penguin · Feb 10, 2011

lunakilo said:
I stumbled onto this wiki article on the demographics of atheism:Atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It surprised me that there appear to be such a large difference between fx my own country Denmark (80%) to USA (4%).

Do you think this article shows a more or less correct picture of reality?
And if so why do you think it is like this?

It's probably close to accurate. The figure that's thrown around often is that 15% of the US has no religious affiliation, but that includes more than atheists.

Off the top of my head, I can think of a few reasons for the difference:

- no state church, so historically, newer, "hipper" religious movements haven't been repressed.

- probably related to that last point, we're still in the after-effects of the Second Great Awakening, which was mainly an American phenomenon.

- during the Cold War, the United States positioned itself as the "godly" side against the "godless" communists. Effectively, atheism was considered strongly unpatriotic for most of the last century.

lunakilo · Feb 10, 2011

Revoltingest said:
Atheists are known for eating puppies.

Oh, I thought that was the chinese

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat#China_mainland

Terrywoodenpic · Feb 10, 2011

thw difference is probably due to very different social and educational pressures.

Even American sports persons seem to be under some pressure to demonstrate their particular faith when they do well. This seems to have spread to a few other nations now. In others it is rare indeed.

If one believes the Christian faith, Jesus would seems to have taught public demonstrations like this are worthless.

Songbird · Feb 10, 2011

Revoltingest said:
Atheists are known for eating puppies.

And for not being in foxholes.

LuisDantas · Feb 10, 2011

lunakilo said:
Do you think this article shows a more or less correct picture of reality?
And if so why do you think it is like this?

More or less, yes. But it means very little.

Most countries have a significant stigma against Atheists, and therefore many people that would otherwise present themselves as such become nominally religious just because it avoids ill feelings in the family or workplace. Quite a few are in fact Atheists, or would be if they had an appropriate environment to question and express themselves on the matter.

Then again, belief in God also means very little in and of itself. To claim that one "believes in God" may mean lots of things, from a vague desire that there is some sort of purpose inherent to existence itself to a firm conviction that there is a God with a personal relationship with oneself by way of a specific religion - and there are many other possibilities outside of that spectrum as well, not all of them even sane.

astarath · Feb 10, 2011

Horribly skewed. There are many people that claim they are Christian however have never even entered a church. They don't know Christ. They are secular but because their parents were Christian they claim Christianity.

Caladan · Feb 10, 2011

Studies say that up to 37% of the Israeli public are atheist. fascinating fact in itself considering the paranoia of Jewish beliefs as voiced by another member who ran into a single rabbi, and now believes he figured out the woes of international politics.

Also ironic. considering that the major parties in Israel are secular parties. the ones who lead the country. the only drawback that in their quest for a functioning coalition they make concessions with the smaller religious coalitions who are more concerned about preserving religious or tradition based political interests and policies.

freethinker44 · Feb 10, 2011

Revoltingest said:
Atheists are known for eating puppies.

Wait, I thought it was babies.

All this time I was supposed to be eating puppies? Looks like I have some apology's to write.

Skwim · Feb 10, 2011

astarath said:
Horribly skewed. There are many people that claim they are Christian however have never even entered a church. They don't know Christ. They are secular but because their parents were Christian they claim Christianity.

How nice that you get to decide who is and who isn't a Christian. Do you get a lot of request to ferret out non-Christians from the pack?

Valjean · Feb 10, 2011

Religiosity is sometimes inversely proportional to security and prosperity.

Sunstone · Feb 10, 2011

lunakilo said:
I stumbled onto this wiki article on the demographics of atheism:Atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It surprised me that there appear to be such a large difference between fx my own country Denmark (80%) to USA (4%).

Do you think this article shows a more or less correct picture of reality?
And if so why do you think it is like this?

There was a fairly recent study that concluded, as Sey mentioned, religiosity is highest in countries that have relatively less economic security than other countries. Individuals in the US, compared to individuals in many European nations, have less economic security -- hence, according to the study, individuals in the US tend to be more religious.

Kilgore Trout · Feb 10, 2011

I assume much of the disparity is due to variance in definitions and data collection.

9-10ths_Penguin · Feb 10, 2011

Kilgore Trout said:
I assume much of the disparity is in vaiance of definitions and data collection.

Good point.

Here in Canada, our census data records "non-practicing" members of a denomination as members. Because of this, the 2001 national census shows 0.12% of the population as either atheist or agnostic. OTOH, other surveys put the number of non-theists around 20%.

Atheists and agnostics, stand up and be counted in the 2011 Census! Currently, most of us are not. | Center for Inquiry

bobhikes · Feb 10, 2011

I question what the poll actually means.

If its 50/50 or 60/40 or 80/20 does it change anything. The only result that would actually change anything is 100% and that would be scary because it would mean there was only one human left alive after some major disaster.:help:

Wannabe Yogi · Feb 10, 2011

lunakilo said:
I stumbled onto this wiki article on the demographics of atheism:Atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It surprised me that there appear to be such a large difference between fx my own country Denmark (80%) to USA (4%).

Do you think this article shows a more or less correct picture of reality?
And if so why do you think it is like this?

Also there is a problem in defining Atheism. Some Buddhists are Atheists yet they might be categorized as Buddhists and not Atheists. The numbers change by how the poll is taken.

From my point of view you Scandinavians are very civilized. This would tend to produce more Atheists.

Penumbra · Feb 10, 2011

lunakilo said:
I stumbled onto this wiki article on the demographics of atheism:Atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It surprised me that there appear to be such a large difference between fx my own country Denmark (80%) to USA (4%).

Do you think this article shows a more or less correct picture of reality?
And if so why do you think it is like this?

I'm sure there are a lot of reasons rather than just one. I could include things like culture, education, economic stability, and so forth.

In that particular article, there was a picture that showed the level of atheism and agnosticism among countries.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Atheists_Agnostics_Zuckerman_en.svg

It seems that there is some correlation between countries that have higher proportions of atheists and agnostics, and countries that have good educational systems and are rather financially stable. On that picture, northern Europe and parts of Asia like Japan were the most atheist/agnostic, followed by places like Canada, Australia, and the rest of Europe.

In addition, countries that were communist seem to still have a high proportion of atheists and agnostics, including China (which still has communist aspects) and countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

Why does the proportion of atheists vary so much?

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