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Nugatory
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micromass said:Your wish is my command: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=766157
Remind me to be more careful about what I wish for in the future...
micromass said:Your wish is my command: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=766157
NATURE.M said:Well to be frank, I think the poll is as it should be. I wouldn't consider atheism a religion at all, nor agnosticism. And since the poll asks what religion your afflicted with, I think none is an appropriate answer given the question.
Exactlly, it seems only the religious feel that the non religious require labeling, the non-religious do not.Lavabug said:I like the fact the OP used "None" as an option. It's always nice to see when someone bothers to get it right, ie: not labeling atheism as a religion.
NATURE.M said:the poll asks what religion your afflicted with
jtbell said:Look again. (I added the boldface.)
Micro, did you intend the word "affiliated" to mean specifically "member of some religious group" or simply "what you believe"?
There are people who have religious beliefs but don't belong to an organized church or other religious or spiritual group; and there are people who do belong to such a group but don't personally (privately) subscribe to its creed or dogma.
Matterwave said:So few Christians in here. This poll does not seem to reflect the standard demographics.
Matterwave said:So few Christians in here. This poll does not seem to reflect the standard demographics.
Evo said:Exactlly, it seems only the religious feel that the non religious require labeling, the non-religious do not.
Indeed, Unitarian-Universalism is a small group, and it's somewhat disparate with UU's in different nations having essentially developed independently.jtbell said:The list is apparently from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups#Largest_religions
The smallest of these groups (Hoahaoism) is listed as having 1.5-3 million followers.
Wikipedia's article on Unitarian-Universalism gives 800,000 followers, using this page as a reference:
http://christianity.about.com/od/unitarian/a/unitarianprofile.htm
In terms of this poll, one could argue for counting it under either "Christianity" or "Other", depending on whether the primary criterion is historical origin or current creed (or rather, lack thereof). Individual UU's are all over the map in terms of personal belief.
WannabeNewton said:That may be because it's a website for physics...
Matterwave said:Physics is not mutually exclusive with religion...
WannabeNewton said:Well no one said it was. But you were saying the poll is not indicative of the demographic. The demographic here is of users of a physics dedicated site and it is simply true that such a demographic has a much higher concentration of non-religious people than the general population so there is nothing to be surprised about.
Nugatory said:It strikes me as a fairly serious defect that there's a single "None" category instead of separate categories for atheism, agnosticism, and non-sectarian monotheism. When 73% of the respondents choose a singe answer in a 16-choice poll, we're losing a far amount of resolution.
Evo said:Exactlly, it seems only the religious feel that the non religious require labeling, the non-religious do not.
Matterwave said:Indeed that seems to be the case. :)
But the way you phrased your response seemed like it would be self-evident that physicists would not be religious, as if the two positions are mutually exclusive.
But does he actually *want* a label or just object to they type of label chosen for him since it misrepresents him? Which is why I oppose any label, what ever they think the label they use means may have nothing to do with my thoughts.Vanadium 50 said:I'm not sure I agree. I have an atheist friend who is very unhappy when the different flavors of non-believers get lumped together.