Just a little rant of mine written a little while ago:

Gallup’s lie about religion and age

As you may or may not know, the Gallup polling organization is an organization with a pretty ass-backward conservative bias. Sometimes it doesn’t matter — but sometimes it does…

In their "special analysis" of poll data collected from 1992 to 1999 (reprinted here), the folks at Gallup tell us that the analysis "highlights the general sociological finding that religious involvement and behavior increase in later stages of life." And there are a variety of ways in which the age of people in the mid 90’s, when the polls were taken correlate with a greater degree of religious belief and observance: Those who say religion is very important in their daily lives goes from 45% among those 18-29, to 77% for those 75 and older. Similarly, the numbers who say they belong to a church or synagogue go from 61% among the young to 75% among the old; and those reporting weekly church or synagogue attendance go from 23% among the young to 46% among the old.

Of course, these numbers tell us absolutely nothing about whether religious involvement increases later in life. If they had tracked particular people and seen that their level of religious involvement increased on average between the time they were 25, say (in 1945) and the time they were 75 (in 1995), then such a conclusion might well be supported (at least for that generation). But all that’s shown by the numbers they give is that people who were 75 in 1995 (and so 25 in 1945) have, in 1995, a greater level of religious involvement on average than people who were 25 in 1995. That is, they show that people who grew up in an earlier time (e.g. in the 1930’s-40’s) are more religiously observant than those who grew up in a later time (e.g. the 1980’s-90’s). It tells us nothing at all about whether either of those groups has changed (or is likely to change) with age.

Of course, other data we do have reinforce this: According to Gallup’s own figures, the percentage of adults claiming the religion is "very important in their daily lives" was 57% in 2001, but 70% in 1965 and 75% in 1952.

So, are they intentionally lying, or just making a mistake? You might have thought it was their business not to make such a dumb mistake, and that pushes me toward the lying interpretation. But who knows; you make the call.

Just sent this to the NBC nightly news:

I’m sure Mr. Brokaw would never even consider repeating offensive and ungrounded stereotypes about, say, African-Americans, women, or Jews on the air. But apparently he has a blind spot when it comes to atheists. The “no atheists in foxholes” canard, repeated by Mr. Brokaw on the air on Tuesday, accuses atheists in general of not having the courage to stand by their convictions. It’s offensive to the 10% of Americans who (according to the recent Harris poll) don’t believe in God, and without any factual basis. I hope Mr. Brokaw will be more careful in the future about passing on such pieces of ignorant and insulting stereotyping.

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I disagree with this guy on the war, and his editorial is kind of all over the place, but he does give religion a few good smacks:

As a member of Atheists for Regime Change, a small but resilient outfit, I can’t say that any of this pious euphemism, illogic, and moral cowardice distresses me. It shows yet again that there is a fixed gulf between religion and ethics. I hope it’s borne in mind by the president, next time he wants to make a speech implying that God is on the side of the United States (and its godless Constitution). The leading experts in the supernatural, including also the Archbishop of Canterbury, many rabbis, most imams, and Bush’s own “United Methodists” appear to agree that this is not so. The Almighty seems, if anything, to have smiled on Saddam Hussein for a quarter of a century. If we want to assure ourselves of a true “coalition of the willing,” we might consider making a pact with the devil. (“Religion of peace?: Dissecting the hypocritical ‘Christian’ case against war “)

Just be glad you don’t live in Alabama. From ‘Publican Gov. Bob Riley:

God looked down on this country because this country was founded on the rock — and that rock was our lord and savior Jesus Christ… And when the storms came and the rains came, the rock, it did not move. But over the last 15 or 20 years, something began to erode. If we are going to save this country, if we are going to re-establish that belief in God, it’s up to us….If we don’t do it, who will?

I guess in Alabama they’s so eager to get to that 2nd amendment that they tend to skip right over the first one. Read the story here: Riley makes call for prayer soldiers.no loan 500 payday faxloan 6 payday christian 913 payday 9 application loan9 com loan 13 payday directloan equity 90 hawaii homeacquisition land loanurl add secured loanadjustable mortgage calculator loan home rate Map

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Good op-ed from New Zealand: Beware statesman invoking God. As she says: “Emboldened by getting away with sounding increasingly like an Old Testament prophet rather than a 21st century world leader, Bush continues to blur the lines, not just between church and state but between the will of God and the will of George W. Bush.”

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