Ireland now in top ten atheist countries

The Mad Hatter

With no small sense of irony related to the "catholic country" comments in the abortion thread, Ireland, according to new Gallup poll numbers, is now in the top ten atheist countries in the world. Source.

The Gallup International Association poll, titled the Global Index of Religion and Atheism, asked 50,000 people in 57 countries: “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person or a convinced atheist?”

In 2011, 47% of Irish respondents said they considered themselves religious, 44% not religious, and 10% convinced atheists. The global average has 59% of respondents self-identifying as religious, 23% as not religious, and 13% as convinced atheists.

That's up from the previous poll, which showed 25% of Irish people as not religious, but only 3% as convinced atheists.

pauldla

That's interesting. Ireland losing it's religion? It is to be hoped!

Atheists! Let us all go forth and spread the Word! (Did I get that right? I'm a bit new to this atihesism lark)

Zillah

How typical. We have above average "not religious" but a relatively small percentage of actually confess to not believing in God. I tell you, I look forward to the day this post-Catholic post-modern New Agey bullshit bubble bursts.

Dades

^^ That's the reason this "news" fails to lift my day.

The day Irish people start officially declaring themselves non-catholics, or the day the census isn't allow to count infants is a day I look forward to.

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Raw data here: http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RED-C-press-release-Religion-and-Atheism-25-7-12.pdf

The table is on page 4. Forgive me for not including it here - boards.ie table tags suck.

More impressive is the table on page 6 which shows we are the second greatest decline globally, second to Vietnam.

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Also, by my math 47 + 44 + 10 is 101. :pac:

Peregrinus

Wait. At 10% "convinced atheist", we're below the world average of 13%, but still in the top ten countries?

How does that work?

magicbastarder

maybe the world average is heavily skewed by some outliers. depends on how it's weighted, i suppose.

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Peregrinus wrote: »

Wait. At 10% "convinced atheist", we're below the world average of 13%, but still in the top ten countries?

How does that work?

They're counting the non religious heavily.

Peregrinus

magicbastarder wrote: »

maybe the world average is heavily skewed by some outliers. depends on how it's weighted, i suppose.

Actually, I think you're onto something there. The outlier is China.

vibe666

ironically, a lot of the thanks for this sharp rise in atheism in ireland is (imho) largely caused by the catholic church driving people away, rather than atheism actively attracting people directly.

so thanks to the catholic church for repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot.

Zillah

Peregrinus wrote: »

Wait. At 10% "convinced atheist", we're below the world average of 13%, but still in the top ten countries?

How does that work?

As I alluded to, the Irish 20-35 band is currently in the throes of post-modern post-Catholic bullshit wherein it is cool to say that organised religion is a bad thing, but its great to still believe in all manner of ill-defined, pseudo-spiritual horse tripe, influenced by half-baked, barely understood, condescendingly-adopted pilferings from world religions and inarticulate existential angsty home-brewed crap-thoughts mumbled out over a cup of tea or a fifth glass of white wine, resulting in a preposterous, mangled, inbred paradigm that hasn't the slightest degree of credibility, reflection, consistency or dignity.

I did not realise until this moment how annoyed by that I am.

AstraMonti

I think one of the most interesting thing in the survey is the part that compares how religious or not you are with the level of education. The higher the education the higher are the non-religious/atheist percentages.

ShooterSF

Zillah wrote: »

How typical. We have above average "not religious" but a relatively small percentage of actually confess to not believing in God. I tell you, I look forward to the day this post-Catholic post-modern New Agey bullshit bubble bursts.

To be fair it uses a horrible term "convinced atheist". I'd be weary of describing myself as a convinced atheist if there was already an option for atheist or non-religious.

I agree that there is a lot of people who are struggling to shed the last remnants of their catholic upbringing but I also think this poll is really badly worded. Because this is how it reads to me "Are you religious, atheist or convinced atheist" and the second option until the third is clarified seems the safest.

Galvasean

ShooterSF wrote: »

To be fair it uses a horrible term "convinced atheist". I'd be weary of describing myself as a convinced atheist if there was already an option for atheist or non-religious.

I don't really get the 'convinced atheist' angle either. It sounds as if you had to be convinced by someone as opposed to just came to the conclusion by yourself. I don't see the need for dsucha distinction.

AstraMonti

You can still believe in god without being religious (ie not going to church or following a specific religion). A convinced atheist is someone who has decided that there is not any god of any sort. I think that's the difference.

Dades

AstraMonti wrote: »

You can still believe in god without being religious (ie not going to church or following a specific religion). A convinced atheist is someone who has decided that there is not any god of any sort. I think that's the difference.

Someone who believes in god without being religious isn't any kind of an atheist (Irish catholic - more likely ).

The adjective "convinced" is just a distraction here. Perhaps one added in by whatever market researcher created the poll, without too much thought about how it affects the actual definition of atheist.

Galvasean

It probably just means someone who describes themself as atheist TBH.

endacl

Finally. Top 10% at something that isn't drinking! No time to rest on the aul' laurels all the same. We could win this one! C'mon ye godless heathens in green!

Calibos

Zillah wrote: »

As I alluded to, the Irish 20-35 band is currently in the throes of post-modern post-Catholic bullshit wherein it is cool to say that organised religion is a bad thing, but its great to still believe in all manner of ill-defined, pseudo-spiritual horse tripe, influenced by half-baked, barely understood, condescendingly-adopted pilferings from world religions and inarticulate existential angsty home-brewed crap-thoughts mumbled out over a cup of tea or a fifth glass of white wine, resulting in a preposterous, mangled, inbred paradigm that hasn't the slightest degree of credibility, reflection, consistency or dignity.

I did not realise until this moment how annoyed by that I am.

Was just saying exactly that the other day

Those types of people as well as the type that one uses the "Well Done, Now you can feel superior to both groups" meme for...They are actually frustrating/annoying me more than Philo and the Fundies these days.

mcmoustache

Calibos wrote: »

They are actually frustrating/annoying me more than Philo and the Fundies these days.

Damned right. At least philo isn't trying to sit on the fence on these matters and he's more than happy to explain his position politely among a skeptical crowd.

This whole "I'm not religious but I believe in God" nonsense is, as I said, nonsense. It annoys me because it's as though those who spout it are either trying keep the door open as per pascal or trying not to offend people. These are people who don't attend church, don't pray and don't live their lives as though there was a god. They're atheists who don't have the balls to just admit to it.

Zillah

The reason it is happening is because people are not turning against the Catholic Church after becoming rationale and reasonable people - they're turning against the Church because they're emotionally unsatisfied by it and morally repulsed by it. The core vulnerability to bullshit is still there. This is why PDN and his ilk are making such gains. Those that don't get swept up by the Evangelicals or Anglicans will fall foul of whatever pop-mulch happens to be whizzing errantly through addled minds and wasted airwaves.

Doctor DooM

To be fair, I use to be one of those people, and the reason I was was more that I was scared of life without some form of god (that 14 years of indoctrination again) rather than some form of superiority complex or reneging against the CC.

The more I looked into it (here in the Religion sub cat, as it happens), the more and more I became comfortable with the truth.

Frustrating as the wishy washy position is, perhaps helping them rather than scorning would be more productive, imo.

Zillah

My scorn comes unbidden, as warmth from the sun.

fisgon

Please excuse my ignorance, but who is PDN/ Philo, and are they the same person?

Peregrinus

fisgon wrote: »

Please excuse my ignorance, but who is PDN/ Philo, and are they the same person?

PDN and Philologos are not the same person and they often disagree with one another. You can search both of their usernames in the usual way.

fisgon

Peregrinus wrote: »

PDN and Philologos are not the same person and they often disagree with one another. You can search both of their usernames in the usual way.

Oh, ok thanks. I was under the impression that they were public figures of some kind, didn't realise that they were Boards usernames.

vibe666

i don't believe there is any kind of god and i'd say that means that i'm a fairly convinced atheist, but at the same time as someone who believes in science and empirical evidence, my current lack of belief is based on the evidence available to us, but is subject to change in the event that convincing proof is uncovered that points to the contrary, just like any other theory.

i'm not totally against the idea of a god, i just don't believe that there is one because IMHO there isn't any convincing proof to persuade me otherwise.

right now, i'm about as convinced of the existence of god and heaven to about the same degree as i am of the existence of harry potter and hogwarts.

to be honest, IF anyone did ever discover unimpeachable evidence of a higher form of life of some kind that had created us, i think the scientific community would be just as excited about the prospect as any religious group. particularly if it was Q!

philologos

Peregrinus wrote: »

PDN and Philologos are not the same person and they often disagree with one another. You can search both of their usernames in the usual way.

I wouldn't say often. I honestly don't have major issues with PDN's theology.

Zillah

fisgon wrote: »

Oh, ok thanks. I was under the impression that they were public figures of some kind, didn't realise that they were Boards usernames.

PDN is an evangelical pastor that posts here on boards, and used to pop over to A&A to unctuously pontificate about the failings of non-theism. Doesn't come round much any more. He has stated in the past that they are winning quite a few converts in Ireland.

hognef

Note that Ireland is not actually in the top ten overall, only top ten out of 57 selected countries.