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Nomad559 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-26-06 11:02 PM
Original message
Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists
Below is a list of the top fifty countries containing the largest measured percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God. These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html

:)
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-26-06 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Pretty telling correlation between atheist percentage and degree of
civilization in those stats. I practice a private spirituality but greatly prefer atheists to our crazy fundies.
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swag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 12:04 AM
Response to Original message
2. Thanks.
What an interesting table.
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Crazy Guggenheim Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 12:04 AM
Response to Original message
3. I saw China near the bottom at 38th which kind of shocked me. I would
think it would near the top. Same thing with some of the former Soviet countries. Another interest is Israel with 15 -37%.

:popcorn: :popcorn:
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xmas74 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 12:51 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. They explained toward the bottom why China was not
initially included.

"Note: The Communist nations of China, Cuba and North Korea were not included in this study. These countries may or may not be among the "Top 10 Most Atheist Countries" in the world. Sociologically, Communism is as much a religion as other "traditional" religions such as Islam or Christianity, although it promotes (often forcibly) beliefs which would categorize its adherents as atheists. So in Communist countries, large proportions of people may be properly classified as atheists and also Communists, but they would not be considered secular or "nonreligious" in the sociological sense."
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TheBaldyMan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 06:23 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. Rubbish - communism isn't a religion from any point of view
if that's what that survey is saying then they are just plain wrong. Sociologically speaking communism is an economic philosophy just like capitalism and fascism. By implication you should say that free-market capitalism is the major religion in the USA.
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xmas74 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 09:17 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. I won't argue that, since I feel similar.
I was just pointing out why the researchers stated that they did not include communist nations.
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TheBaldyMan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 12:51 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. I beg your pardon n/t
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wickerwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 05:41 AM
Response to Reply #3
19. Christianity is actually in vogue in China.
There are a lot of campus recruiters going after young impressionable kids who are disillusioned with the powers that be.

Add that to all their Buddhist grannies and I have no trouble believing those numbers.
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Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 12:57 AM
Response to Original message
5. And this should mean specifically WHAT to us?
Redstone
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Stockholm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 03:54 AM
Response to Original message
6. LOL Heathen Sweden
The survey is probably accurate but ... every action has a reaction. I think my generation are by far more conservative than our parents. Wait, gasp, does this means that my children will be hippies?
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YankeyMCC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 08:08 PM
Response to Reply #6
16. Funny...
I was in Sweden a few weeks ago and I learned that part of the taxes there go to the state church.

Of course that was the first place I was where a relative stranger comfortably stated in a full room that he did not believe in god. And just bringing up religion didn't turn the conversation into heated debate as so often happens here in the US.

Even here around Boston I've never seen that.
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hfojvt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 04:12 AM
Response to Original message
7. you left out
hell

it's 100% atheist :evilgrin:

I don't really believe that, but I am reminded of the joke.
Two guys are at a baseball game, sitting behind two nuns. Because of the nun's large hats, they cannot see the game very well. So they start talking loud. One says "I sure hate Catholics. I am gonna goto Denmark, because there are only 60,000 Catholics there". The other one says "I hate Catholics too, but I'm gonna goto Sweden because there are only 15,000 Catholics there."
Then one of the nun's turns around and says "why don't you goto hell, there aren't any Catholics there!"
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rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 07:06 AM
Response to Original message
9. Mongolia is surprising.
Edited on Mon Mar-27-06 07:07 AM by rug
What do the rest of them believe?
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TheBaldyMan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 12:53 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. there are a lot of animists in mongolia,
they still have shamans who bless your truck if you are going on a long trip.
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rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 05:31 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. TY for the info.
I would've thought Buddhist.
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cemaphonic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-30-06 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #13
29. You thought right
CIA factbook says 50% Buddhist. And it was the historically dominant religion in that part of Central Asia as well.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mg.html
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Kat45 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 06:37 PM
Response to Original message
14. I'm surprised the US is just 3-9%
It seems like most people I meet fall into that category. Of course, I live in the lib-er-al, intellectual Boston/Cambridge area.
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Arkana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-27-06 07:36 PM
Response to Original message
15. Dammit, I am so fucking SICK of the stigma we carry.
People assume that because you don't believe in a higher power, you have no moral foundation. It just pisses me off. I remember back in bioethics that I made the mistake of letting it slip when trying to defend a viewpoint. Every Catholic in the room (about 20 of 24 people) gave me the dirtiest look imaginable, and my professor would NOT call on me after that.

Message to head cases: Get. The. FUCK. Over. It.
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Hardrada Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 02:39 AM
Response to Reply #15
17. Yeah, that worthless Victoria Jackson said something
that might have pissed me off were she not such an idiot (this was on the old Bill Maher show) something like if you don't have a moral (Xian) foundation you will fuck chickens or something to that effect. THAT says more about fundies than it does about us non-theists!
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no name no slogan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 05:46 PM
Response to Reply #17
24. Well, I'm an athiest, and I find myself
fscking chickens constantly, so what's the problem? :shrug:
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TheBaldyMan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 03:17 AM
Response to Reply #15
18. I'm surprised by that attitude as well, I was listening to the radio
an Anglican priest was convinced that if we didn't walk in fear of an old man in a frock we would roam the streets murdering, raping and pillaging. I found this equally amusing and offensive. It shows a deeply warped view of people who are at heart social and considerate. We are hardwired to communicate and co-operate, it's far easier to raise someone to be sociable rather than produce a sociopath.

In fact you really have to work at it to get an anti-social person, it takes a lot more conditioning than it takes to raise someone who's socialised.
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NMMNG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 05:50 AM
Response to Reply #15
20. You know how it is
If you don't have some mystical Big Daddy to boss you around and tell you what to do, you can't help but go around doing evil. Nobody can possibly determine right from wrong through the use of their rational faculties. :eyes:
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Arkana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 05:44 PM
Response to Reply #20
23. You have no idea. Well, maybe you do.
I had someone here at school tell me that she figured I'd have no moral qualms about raping a busload of schoolchildren because I don't have "moral guidance." I was literally speechless.
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NMMNG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-29-06 12:12 AM
Response to Reply #23
25. Aye caramba!
People are so ignorant sometimes, and the most frustrating thing is it is chosen ignorance. I've debated so many times with people and frequently been unsuccessful at ramming into their heads the concept that people can use rational perception as moral guidance. One does not require Holy Scriptures, Mystical Beings and/or proclamations from cassocked leaders to know right from wrong. (People forget that it was humans who wrote the darn "Holy Scriptures" in the first place :eyes:.)
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Arkana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-29-06 08:35 PM
Response to Reply #25
27. That's something I think people do not get:
...that the Bible was written by MEN. Not their God. MEN.
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bettyellen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-29-06 12:38 AM
Response to Reply #23
26. that's the kind of thinking that allows pedophiles to hide in plain sight
because god knows a church goer couldn't do something so awful.
idiots, aren't they?
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pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-30-06 04:14 AM
Response to Reply #15
28. A grasp of ethics is better than a "moral foundation"
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
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RedCloud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 10:30 AM
Response to Original message
21. Maybe a correlation between teaching evolution "correctly"
It seems like any chance science gets a foothold on something, the paranoid fundies come out to hate our freedom of speech and America as well.

I don't find opponents of evolution to be well informed on science and even their own religion seems to be accepted without any study. Why not investigate many religions and decide on one? Is that too much to ask?
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LisaLynne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-28-06 10:38 AM
Response to Original message
22. But .. but ... but ... Cuba is full of godless communists!
How can they be so low on the list???
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