Who Is Dumber???

This just appeared a few minutes ago on abcnews.com:

"in this ABC News/Washington Post poll...Broad majorities across demographic groups don't think the hurricanes are a deliberate act of God. But one in three evangelical Protestants think they are, compared with 13 percent of non-evangelical Protestants, 15 percent of Catholics and 17 percent of non-religious people."

Informal poll:

Who is dumber - (1) The poll statisticians, (2) ABC News and the Washington Post for taking these poll results seriously as and reporting them as hard news, (3) the 17 percent of non-religious people who blamed a God they claim not to believe in?

--Philip Coates

(Edited by Philip Coates
on 10/02, 11:28pm)

Post 1

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 3:00am

I prefer to see the glass as half full:

Two in three evangelical Protestants think they are not.
as do
87% of non-evangelical Protestants
85% percent of Catholics
and 83% percent of non-religious people.

I agree, though, that about 85% of all people across broad demographics probably find ABC News dumber than they are.

Post 2

Monday, October 3, 2005 - 10:35pm

"Deliberate act of God"? As opposed to an accidental act of God? If you believe in God, in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense, isn't every phenomenon a "deliberate act of God"? Unless you factor in man's free will. Or interference from fallen angels . . . .

I'll have to go with "(1) The Poll statisticians" for asking such a loaded question and opening up a very big theological can of worms.

BTW "non-religious" doesn't necessarily mean they don't believe in God. Still, it's telling how many "non-religious" people believe in some malevolent superbeing wrecking havoc on the world. Perhaps the real ignorance of the 17 percenters is that they don't worship a God that they do fear, rather than the other way around.

Post 3

Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - 9:07am

> "non-religious" doesn't necessarily mean they don't believe in God

The body of the story suggested the reporter was using this phrase as synonymous with "does not believe in God". We'd have to see the actual poll to see how the question was worded. Certainly "non-religious" the overwhelming majority of the time in reporting, polls, etc. means "atheist". The word itself is seldom used publicly because it is perceived to be shocking; people just say, well I'm not religious.

Phil

PS, even if you say you are agnostic, meaning you don't know, it is just as irrational and dumb to simultaneously blame God for something. So my vote is clearly for number three on the utter dumbness scale.

Post 4

Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - 8:28pm