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Early incursion by the evil Pomeranian Empire.

21 year old Australian chess grandmaster!

A survey on young Australians' religious beliefs (about a third don't have any).

Comments

Dropping Up

[(Anonymous)]

The SMH thing about non-belief has some interesting terminology:

'The research showed 31 per cent of youths aged 13 to 17 were non-believers - a significant drop from previous generations.'

It's a significant *rise* in non-believers, of course. You can just
about squint and get away with that, but then there's ...

'While there were no comparable figures to show the size of the drop of non-believers, anecdotally it was a big decline, she said.'

OK ... now the increasing numbers of atheists is not just a 'drop' it's also a 'decline'. Imagine it was a survey of ethnic mix instead of belief, and there had been a significant increase in the number of 'non whites'. If the editor had characterised that as a 'decline', would he still be the editor this morning?

Also, the questioning is clearly skewed. After inviting Christians to self-identify, it then asks to say if they do charitable work. (I suspect that questionnaire didn't define terms - someone who spent a year teaching poor kids in Africa to read and someone else who seriously thought about putting a dollar in a collecting tin could both say 'yes'). The problem with that approach is neatly spelled out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yhN1IDLQjo

The survey was carried out by that well known neutral party when it comes to the value of religion the Australian Catholic University. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the poll was *designed* to create the impression that non-believers are selfish.

Oh and ...

[(Anonymous)]

There are a couple other pieces of sleight of hand aimed at the non-Christian theists. What does 'those with serious spiritual and religious beliefs' mean?

'At least 47 per cent of those aged 13 to 17 identified themselves as Christians. About 15 per cent classified themselves as New Age and 7 per cent as having "other" beliefs.'

Hmmmm. Care to guess whether a 'New Age' believer counts as a 'serious' one in the eyes of researchers from a Catholic university?

But the big trick is here:

'Researchers found that active Christians rated helping others and social justice higher than other spirituality types and that teenagers serious about their spirituality were more likely to be volunteers.'

The word 'active' is the key one, there. At best, it's meaningless. But again, it's the Yes Minister problem. If you've just defined yourself as a Christian, you're not then going to admit you're not an 'active' one - particularly when you get to define 'active'. And it doesn't say how *much* 'more likely' it is.

At worst, though, it's doing exactly what religious types always accuse 'the secular media' of doing - taking the extreme as the norm. Someone who shoots a doctor who performs abortions is 'more likely' to define themselves as 'an active Christian' than someone who doesn't. But it doesn't mean that everyone who is a Christian will shoot a doctor.

This is a poll *designed* to give the results it does.

The poll I would like to see (and perhaps people reading this might want to answer):

1) Give the dates of the last three times you attended a religious service or ceremony involving you and at least two other people solely to perform an act of worship.

2) Give the dates of the last three times you prayed to your deity or performed a similar private religious ritual.

3) Please give an honest estimate of the dates of the last three times you donated money or time to charity. Please specify the amount of money/time.

4) Give three examples of how your religious beliefs affect your daily routine or behaviour.

Please be aware that for question 3, we may require documentary proof. Please amend your answers if you feel that will be a problem.

5) Did you amend your answer to question 3? YES/NO

6) Do you believe that your religious beliefs entitle you to special treatment in law or that certain laws and other societal norms don't apply to you because of your beliefs? YES/NO

7) Do you believe that you, personally, have faced persecution or discrimination because of your religion? YES/NO

8) How many people you come into contact with would you estimate share your beliefs? NONE/FEW/MANY/MOST/ALL

9) How many people in the world would you estimate share your beliefs? NONE/FEW/MANY/MOST/ALL

10) Is the question 'is there a god?' a complicated one? YES/NO

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that icon link, BTW. Much love, there! :D

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

Early incursion by the evil Pomeranian Empire.

puppy! *squoos*

boggling over how much win the cyoa icons are made of, too. acid trip indeed.