Note the conciliatory report, and the staunch and stiff reaction of the dogmatists…
I want to say that the results are encouraging, but how much stock can you put in a survey that shows that 21% of the atheists believe in God? One seriously doubts the construction of questions in a survey with results like that.
I don’t know felix, people’s conception of atheism varies. Under that umbrella you have materialists who deny any supernatural powers, deists, “universal spirit” believers, etc. Also, some people are stupid and flippant when answering polls. It’s not necessarily the poll taker’s fault. I bet there is a percentage of atheist materialist naturalists who believe in God. Some people just aren’t very concerned with consistency.
Felix,
Part of the report noted that, and it was suggested that further detailed study is warranted. Another comment made is that the results are probably skewed because people really have little grasp of what their answers imply.
To me, the report confirms that religion is slowly giving way to a more scientific world view where religion doesn’t play as well. Now that is good if it helps bring people together, or bad if you are the literalist attempting to defend dogma.
I don’t put much stock in the specifics because I too question how many people really understand the questions or their own answers. It is the general and overall drift that I find interesting.
The strident fundamentalism of the montheistic religions have been in people’s faces pretty heavy duty the last decade, and the drift away from hard line religion may be the result of all the negatives seen in religious extremism.
Aporia,
The report didn’t shed much light on the atheist questions and answers. Many self-described atheiests are really hard agnostics. I have found few (including myself) capable of declaring a creator as impossible. Functioning as if there is no god, isn’t the same as denying the remote possibility. I suspect there was a bit of confusion on the part of the people who constructed the questions as well as the respondants.
An omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent entity; with full capability of altering any/all tenses of physical reality, is beyond a myth … it’s a mathematical impossibility and a cognitive distortion.
What classification of atheist is that? (Don’t be a wisebutt either tent!!! 
)
That is only true if you look past humans. A being only has to appear to humans as “An omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent entity; with full capability of altering any/all tenses of physical reality” to be a god. It does not mean that superior being that has a vested interest in this world does not exist. It does not meant that it literally is “An omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent entity; with full capability of altering any/all tenses of physical reality”
Mas,
You are such a limited creature! Hobbled by the sensate, locked in three dimensions, confined to a pathetic repetoire of symbols, you peep through a tiny hole in your box, look out on the universe and declare, “It is thus!” 
Only a theist grasps at such will o’wisps. Is there something you forgot to tell me? 
A recent conversion perhaps? [-o< 
No. We do not remain suspended in the infinite possibilites, and we act on what we can know in the best cognition we can muster. But it does not remove the possibilities no matter how remote. We have pried the green door open a bit, but we don’t know all behind it, and our limited abilities suggest we may never be allowed more than a brief glimpse here and there, now and then.
Consider the plight of the people conducting the survey. Do you believe in God? A simple question, right? There are only as many answers as there are people +1. What is agnostic>atheist has just as many answers, which is why any such survey has to be taken with a grain of salt.
The most encouraging thing is that it appears that people are beginning to question the dogma of their respective religions. Only in questions is there potential…
One dogma’s bite is another dogma’s lick
Box? I don’t have no stinking box; I have a cup, which is emptied daily. Serious doubts as to whether or not the Universe will cough up the divine furball of complete knowledge just at my beckoning … then again … ?
Grain of salt, yes. Whether or not one believes in God is any easy question, I would think. Defining God, on the other hand, not quite so easy perhaps.
I wonder though. Is it actually questioning the dogmatic foundations of their respective religion(s), or is it feeling the bite of the overarching sociopathy with which belief is coming to be assaulted with, daily; spearheaded, (of course), by the liberal media and an ever growing contingent of anti-moralists. Most of whom use the crusade against belief as an excuse to be degenerate and unethical … ?
Ain’t touching it, ain’t touching it.
57% of Americans give answers the questioner wants to hear, news at 11.
57% of Americans believe what politicians say too and often vote the biggest liar into office… Its got to be the dogma water.
Mas,
I suspect that the problem is that religion or other, more and more people are finding that the convenient answers aren’t fitting up well with their obdurate reality. We seem to be moving into a time of skepticism driven by the lack of answers to problems we face. Or perhaps another way to say it: Who ISN"T lying to me? This isn’t to say that people in general are any better educated or any more rational. The sheep are slowly becoming restive. They may not know what is wrong, they just know that SOMETHING is wrong.
The loss of belief isn’t so much the work of anti-moralists but the result of shallow belief in the first place. The variables that chip away at belief are many, and dislodging the shallow-rooted isn’t a difficult task. I have never trusted the claims that we are a society that believes in God, despite all the surveys that say we do. Lip service isn’t committment, and in troubled times, it becomes obvious that most of the folks wade in the shallow end of the religion swimming pool.
But here’s my take on it:
We have moved deep into the consumerist quagmire of “what’s in it for me” and “keeping up with the Jones’”.
The social breakdown where belief is assaulted lies not only in anti-intellectualism driven by group think sheep; but it also lies in the fact that it’s easier to say “I gotsta gets mines” than to show any character. If you remove the necessity of the Watcher, and there is no longer any punishment for misdeeds … the sheep will begin to wander.
I think what this shows is that in the great new American tradition, (new in the context of the past quarter century), that our sloth and apathy of technological advancement was actually fueled by just sheer personal laziness; which beats the hell out of responsibility and accountability on a personal level.
Tell me that isn’t our society. 
Mas,
I’ll agree that we are moving back into the 80’s with the “what’s in it for me?” perspective, The last decade has generated a mountain of cynicism about who we are and where we are going.
But I see a tiny ray of sunshine…I think we would agree that currently, religion, politics, consumerism, and all the other isms are failing us. But watching how people are responding to the presidential race has encouraged me. People are desparate, not for specific policy positions, but for someone to give them hope. I don’t care which party or candidate you prefer, the need is for change. That suggests to me that there IS character still out there. No matter how confused, buried in caca it might be, there is still something there that is asking for things to be better than they are. Does any of this translate to religion and/or spirituality? I think so, but it is a bit early to tell, and I’m neither bright enough or too stupid to suggest any particular direction, but the winds of change are blowing…
I’m sorry tent, I just don’t agree.
I smell fear coming from the sheep, not spiritual searching or advancement. I think what is happening here is that the herd is feeling the squeeze of the over-inflated credit based economy veering towards bankruptcy.
The squeeze is on, and when sheep see fire, the stampede … usually off the cliff.
Hope? Not unless education, (both personal individual and socially structured), takes a front seat; unlike any time in the past 25 years.
I know you are a lot more optimistic in the human perspective than I am, but don’t misread competitive abject stupidity for social hope and want of advancement.
It’s fear. Where there’s fear, that’s where the attacks come from, at least in my experience.
Well, I’m not sure I’d characterize it as fear, but it is definitely a sense of looking up a dead horse’s … Perhaps I’m overly opptomistic, but it just seems that not only are we ready for change, we are going to begin demanding it. So I’m wrong, so sue me.