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In another thread, and many threads in general, people claim that atheists are an extreme minority. While this is true, I find it odd that people are saying this on message board dealing with Mormonism- which is a larger minority both in the USA, as well as the world at large.

Jhall118 wrote:In another thread, and many threads in general, people claim that atheists are an extreme minority. While this is true, I find it odd that people are saying this on message board dealing with Mormonism- which is a larger minority both in the USA, as well as the world at large.

Excellent point, J. Who knows how many atheists there are? There is no community of atheists to make an accurate count. More atheists than Mormons, I would bet.

Quasimodo wrote:

Jhall118 wrote:In another thread, and many threads in general, people claim that atheists are an extreme minority. While this is true, I find it odd that people are saying this on message board dealing with Mormonism- which is a larger minority both in the USA, as well as the world at large.

Excellent point, J. Who knows how many atheists there are? There is no community of atheists to make an accurate count. More atheists than Mormons, I would bet.

Likely many more. Hey, don't Buddists count in the atheist camp? It gets complicated....these labels and such.

It’s a hard group to count, since Atheism doesn’t entail a lack of spirituality or some kind of other non-natural belief. I know on my campus, there are people who identify as “Pagans” who would qualify as atheists, but they don’t exactly fit into a category with say Quasimodo, Me, and EA.

MrStakhanovite wrote:It’s a hard group to count, since Atheism doesn’t entail a lack of spirituality or some kind of other non-natural belief. I know on my campus, there are people who identify as “Pagans” who would qualify as atheists, but they don’t exactly fit into a category with say Quasimodo, Me, and EA.

It could be fun to start a "Church of Atheism". The trouble is, who would join?

That's the problem with atheists, it's like herding cats. Every adherent to a particular belief can join with others of that belief in brotherhood. Atheists seem to be unique in their own disbelief. Probably a good thing.

Jhall118 wrote:In another thread, and many threads in general, people claim that atheists are an extreme minority. While this is true, I find it odd that people are saying this on message board dealing with Mormonism- which is a larger minority both in the USA, as well as the world at large.

By "larger minority" you actually mean "smaller minority", right? According to the ranking shown below*, Mormonism is a much smaller minority.

When bundling secularists, secular humanists, agnostics, etc. with atheists (sort of like bundling all of the Christian sects together) atheists and secularists rank 4th place in world population overall. Mormonism comes in at lucky 13. Note that one can subtract Mormonism from Christianity without affecting the number 1 world ranking of Christianity.

1. Christianity: 2 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million
5. Buddhism: 360 million
6. Chinese traditional religion: 225 million
7. primal-indigenous: 150 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 14 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Mormonism: 14 million (Claimed)**
14. Baha'i: 6 million
15. Jainism: 4 million
16. Shinto: 4 million
17. Cao Dai: 3 million
18. Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
19. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21. Rastafarianism: 700 thousand
22. Scientology: 600 thousand
23. Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

*Source: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

**Mormonism was shown both by claimed adherents (ranking mine) and as bundled with Christianity.

I think there are tons of atheists out there. They just don't give a rat's patooty about talking about it all the time. And I definitely think the majority of exmormons are atheists. At least that's been my experience. I don't include buddhism, bai haiism, or other forms of religion in that equation.

Pollypinks wrote:I think there are tons of atheists out there. They just don't give a rat's patooty about talking about it all the time.

Yup. Like all those non stamp collectors, who certainly don't spend time talking about why they don't collect stamps.

Not collecting stamps = not a hobby

Not believing in deities = not a religion

Sorry, I meant to say that Mormonism was smaller a group than non-believers.

Even people that explicitly say "Atheist" number more than Mormons in USA polls.

I guess it's because of our missionary work and excellent PR department right? Or maybe it's all thanks to this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58wgn-9Y3c

Any number of studies have shown that the more educated an individual, the less likely they are to be religious or believe in a god.

Far from being amoral as one believing poster stated on another thread (with the clear implication that atheists were also immoral), it turns out that atheists and agnostics commit far fewer crimes than their believing counterparts. Less than 1% of the US prison population is 'atheist' vs. about 10% in the general population.

And the Divorce Rate among atheists and agnostics is 21% vs. 30% for Jews, 27% for Born Again Christians, and 24% for other Christians.

(I find the last statistic interesting since the divorce rate in Utah is the fourth or fifth highest in the country, and has been up by more than 10% in recent years, while rates in most States have remained stable declined over the same period.)

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