While browsing through some old data sets, I came across these questions, 60 years apart, about acceptance of atheists. I'm somewhat surprised that there hasn't been more acceptance of atheists over time... (though the data suggest that there has been *some* progress).
| Gallup Poll (AIPO) [December, 1946] |  |
An atheist is a person who doesn't believe in God. In San Francisco, a radio station allowed an atheist to broadcast his views on religion. Would you approve or disapprove of letting atheists broadcast in this area?
|
36% Approve
57 Disapprove
7 No opinion
Methodology: Conducted by Gallup Organization, December 13-December 18, 1946 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,500. Sample size is approximate.[USGALLUP.46-386.QKT02]
| Gallup Poll [December, 2007] | |
(Between now and the 2008 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates--their education, age, religion, race, and so on.) If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be...an atheist, would you vote for that person?
|
46% Yes
48 No
6 No opinion
Methodology: Conducted by Gallup Organization, December 6-December 9, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,027. [USGALLUP.07DEC06.R15B]
Data provided by The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut.
3 comments:
They are very different questions from very different eras. The atheists that get the news time today are the ones that want to remove all crosses from sight. I suspect that might contribute to the second poll.
Personally, I'd wonder about the sanity of the atheist running for public office. WHat's the point? If you're just a bag of chemicals, why bother to do more than maximize your personal pleasure?
"Personally, I'd wonder about the sanity of the atheist running for public office. WHat's the point? If you're just a bag of chemicals, why bother to do more than maximize your personal pleasure?"
nice strawman
Yes, I'm not comfortable with that characterization either.
From a Christian perspective, we're all made in the image of God, and so we should all have God-inspired impulses to benefit others.
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