I cam across this blog post by by Ricky Gervais earlier this morning. Posted on the WSJ blog. Ricky, it appears, is an atheists and he outlines the reasons why in this post. Good man. But that’s beside the point. My question to the community is whether you know of the source Ricky quotes towards the end of paragraph 13:
“Well, nearly, 75 percent of Americans are God‐fearing Christians; 75 percent of prisoners are God‐fearing Christians. 10 percent of Americans are atheists; 0.2 percent of prisoners are atheists.”
I seem to remember reading somewhere that no one had done studies like this. Even seem to remember the author saying that he’d be interested to see the results of such a study as he had a hunch the above would be true.
Ring a bell for anyone? Curious as to the validity of the argument.
But, your post reminded me of the old saying “There are no atheists in foxholes”. . . although a few (I imagine) excellent books have put that nonsense to rest.
Beyond that, if there are figures about prisoner faithfulness, it probably comes from the evangelicals who crawl prisons like maggots on a carcass.
I would take the percentages of atheists in the prisons with a grain of salt. Everyone knows that your chances of parole go WAY up if you find Jebus and become a mindless drone of religion. I would jump through any hoop necessary to get a parole, even if it meant putting on the religious robes for a while and lie like a dog!
I’ve heard the same same percentages on TV and thought the same way Asanta did. The last thing I need is some jackass sticking a knife in me in the name of Jesus.
I’ve heard the same same percentages on TV and thought the same way Asanta did. The last thing I need is some jackass sticking a knife in me in the name of Jesus.
I highly recommend the basic link in the initial post!—there is a lot more than this one point.
Why don’t I believe in God? No, no no, why do YOU believe in God? Surely the burden of proof is on the believer. You started all this. If I came up to you and said, “Why don’t you believe I can fly?” You’d say, “Why would I?” I’d reply, “Because it’s a matter of faith.” If I then said, “Prove I can’t fly. Prove I can’t fly see, see, you can’t prove it can you?” You’d probably either walk away, call security or throw me out of the window and shout, ‘’F—ing fly then you lunatic.”
BTB sends inmates free books on request, but they DON’T stock religious books. That policy, I was told, is because other prisoner nonprofits offer religious books—sometimes to the exclusion of nonreligious ones—but I also think this group prefers to promote secularity anyway.
The BTB branch I’ve helped with in NYC (http://www.abcnorio.org/affiliated/btb.html ) already has a healthy collection of freethought books, but more would always be welcome, there and elsewhere.
I would take the percentages of atheists in the prisons with a grain of salt. Everyone knows that your chances of parole go WAY up if you find Jebus and become a mindless drone of religion. I would jump through any hoop necessary to get a parole, even if it meant putting on the religious robes for a while and lie like a dog!
I’ve also heard that a lot of times prisoners can get breaks to meet with religious clerics or for religious services, which they take advantage of, if not necessarily because of faith, but simply to break the monotony on prison life.
I would take the percentages of atheists in the prisons with a grain of salt. Everyone knows that your chances of parole go WAY up if you find Jebus and become a mindless drone of religion. I would jump through any hoop necessary to get a parole, even if it meant putting on the religious robes for a while and lie like a dog!
I’ve also heard that a lot of times prisoners can get breaks to meet with religious clerics or for religious services, which they take advantage of, if not necessarily because of faith, but simply to break the monotony on prison life.
So long as it keeps the guy with 2 Y chromosomes away from me, I’m all for it.
I would take the percentages of atheists in the prisons with a grain of salt. Everyone knows that your chances of parole go WAY up if you find Jebus and become a mindless drone of religion. I would jump through any hoop necessary to get a parole, even if it meant putting on the religious robes for a while and lie like a dog!
I’ve also heard that a lot of times prisoners can get breaks to meet with religious clerics or for religious services, which they take advantage of, if not necessarily because of faith, but simply to break the monotony on prison life.
So long as it keeps the guy with 2 Y chromosomes away from me, I’m all for it.
Do you mean the XXYs, but you are ok with the XYs. I’d have to look it up, but I’ve never heard of an XYY!
I would take the percentages of atheists in the prisons with a grain of salt. Everyone knows that your chances of parole go WAY up if you find Jebus and become a mindless drone of religion. I would jump through any hoop necessary to get a parole, even if it meant putting on the religious robes for a while and lie like a dog!
I’ve also heard that a lot of times prisoners can get breaks to meet with religious clerics or for religious services, which they take advantage of, if not necessarily because of faith, but simply to break the monotony on prison life.
So long as it keeps the guy with 2 Y chromosomes away from me, I’m all for it.
Do you mean the XXYs, but you are ok with the XYs. I’d have to look it up, but I’ve never heard of an XYY!
