Lies, damn lies...

Dades

... and the 2002 census results.

http://www.cso.ie/statistics/popnclassbyreligionandsex2002.htm

I checked and interestingly they did have an "No Religion" option on the form, though I don't recall it. (There was also an "Other" option, with a box to elaborate).

Great site with some really interesting stats.

MrJoeSoap

Interesting gender divide on Atheism and Agnosticism. Anyone know of any studies done on this, anywhere in the world, not just here?

lostexpectation

was that actually a printed option?

590 Lapsed Roman Catholic, really...

Dades

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Interesting gender divide on Atheism and Agnosticism. Anyone know of any studies done on this, anywhere in the world, not just here?

That would be interesting alright, but always a can of worms when people speculate why women think one way and men another...

lostexpectation wrote:

was that actually a printed option?

Nope - that would be an "Other" option I'd imagine. They probably grouped together everyone who wrote in "ex-Catholic" or similar.

Here's the (PDF) form they're using for 2006 - the Religion options are the same as 2002. (Page 4)

http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/censusform_2006.pdf

robindch

> Interesting gender divide on Atheism and Agnosticism. Anyone
> know of any studies done on this, anywhere in the world, not
> just here?

There's plenty of research which exists which indicates a clear preference for religious belief in women. Here's some census-based stuff from the UK:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=955

...which shows similar findings, if not ratios, to the Irish one (it'll be interesting to watch these stats change as the church here continues to disintegrate).

The US Census is unfortunately prevented by law from asking religious questions, so its otherwise excellent site at http://www.census.gov is a bit useless.

> always a can of worms when people speculate why women think
> one way and men another...

I do recall reading a year or two back of some interesting possible psychological/evolutionary explanations for this disparity, but as The Atheist says, frankly, one is likely to get slapped for airing these views. Which I can't air anyway, coz I can't remember exactly what they were, other than that they made good biological sense (and referred to research in the Nordic countries involving censuses going back around 150 years or so).

Stephen

Ok, wtf is the difference between no religion and atheist? (given that agnostic is another seperate heading on that census page).

Tar.Aldarion

you might have no religion but believe in a god existing.
That would be a difference.

Dades

Stephen wrote:

Ok, wtf is the difference between no religion and atheist? (given that agnostic is another seperate heading on that census page).

My guess is that 138,264 simply ticked "No Religion", 500 filled in 'atheist' in the "Other" box, and 1,028 filled in 'agnostic'. There's no other way of distinguishing.

Don't they have a number which if exceeded becomes an official religion? I seem to recall they issued a statement before that "Jedi" would not be recognised regardless of how many appeared on the census. :v:

MrJoeSoap

robindch wrote:

> Interesting gender divide on Atheism and Agnosticism. Anyone
> know of any studies done on this, anywhere in the world, not
> just here?

There's plenty of research which exists which indicates a clear preference for religious belief in women. Here's some census-based stuff from the UK:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=955

...which shows similar findings, if not ratios, to the Irish one (it'll be interesting to watch these stats change as the church here continues to disintegrate).

The US Census is unfortunately prevented by law from asking religious questions, so its otherwise excellent site at http://www.census.gov is a bit useless.

> always a can of worms when people speculate why women think
> one way and men another...

I do recall reading a year or two back of some interesting possible psychological/evolutionary explanations for this disparity, but as The Atheist says, frankly, one is likely to get slapped for airing these views. Which I can't air anyway, coz I can't remember exactly what they were, other than that they made good biological sense (and referred to research in the Nordic countries involving censuses going back around 150 years or so).

Thanks, will read links later when I get a chance!