Interesting statistics.

I find it of particular interest to look at the poll which I put on the left hand side of my blog. It was a simple question of belief in a god or gods. What I find quite interesting about it is the fact that the percentages of people who said yes or no are almost identical to several studies I have looked at.
Approximately 15-20 percent of people in America do not associate with any particular religion and either do not believe that there is a god, or they do not know. An overwhelming number of participants in this study professed to being Christian. Of course Christian in this instance is used as a blanket term to include the many differing sects. There was a small remainder who were of other faiths, within a few percent.

Bring this up because it is something that theists bring up quite often. It is a clear logical fallacy known as an appeal to popularity. There are several situations I'm sure we have all come across at some point that deal with this in some way. Maybe as a teenager some of us wanted to go to a party, or participate in some activity, and our parents said no. Inevitably it seems the response is "But everyone else is going!" and the rebuttal I'm sure we all heard, "if all of them jumped off of a bridge....".
We know that just because there are lots of people who believe that we never went to the moon does not make it true. It is the same with religion. The idea that just because lots of people read and accept the bible makes it somehow more credible is just as crazy.
On a smaller scale we can still see this, "my parents believe it, and i trust them, so it is probably true.". This is very similar to 80% of a population believing, but is different on an emotional level. It may be difficult for some to have different beliefs than their parents because of some of the potential emotional consequences. That still does not make it true.

My only advice then is to look at it for yourself and think critically of even what I say. It is up to you to discover what you really believe is true. Not a populace, not an authority, just you.

ATHENS