Poll underlines sharp divide on religion (before Christopher Hitchens/Tony Blair debate)

[alp227]

Source: CBC News

The world is deeply divided on the question of whether religion is a force for good, a survey by Ipsos Reid suggests.

The pollster found that 48 per cent of the more than 18,000 people it reached online in 23 countries agreed that "religion provides the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to thrive in the 21st century."

A bare majority — 52 per cent — thought otherwise. They agreed with the sentiment that "religious beliefs promote intolerance, exacerbate ethnic divisions and impede social progress."

There was wide regional variation in the results. Respondents in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, where there are large Moslem populations, overwhelmingly said they believed religion was a force for good, while respondents in European countries tended to disagree with that.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/11/26/religion-good-evil-poll-hitchens-blair.html

[provis99]

1. so in countries ruled by religious barbarians, religion is viewed as good.

That should finish the debate right there.

[MrModerate]

2. I kind of straddle the divide on this issue . . .

Believing in most cases religion to be a pro-social phenomenon, while facepalming over the fact that all religions are based on fairy tales of lesser or greater preposterousness.

I am encouraged, however, that the god-is-good crowd is in the minority. I'd have thought the numbers would go the other way by a significant margin.

[struggle4progress]

3. It might be interesting to compare people who take online polls with those who don't

[LAGC]

5. Interestingly, there was a poll done after the debate to see who won.

Audience members voted on the debate and preliminary results posted on the Munk Debates website sided with Hitchens, with 68 percent saying that religion is more of a destructive than benign force in the world.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/292/2010/november/27/tony-blair-christopher-hitchens-debate-religion.html

Of course, it could just be that there were more non-believers than believers in that particular crowd watching the debates...

[swilton]

4. But this doesn't mean that belief in the 'goodness' of religion

is based upon religious faith or type of government.

From an article by Charles Blow (September, 2010) Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious.
But that doesn’t hold true for the United States.
Sixty-five percent of Americans say that religion is an important part of their daily lives. That is compared with just 30 percent of the French, 27 percent of the British and 24 percent of the Japanese.

[klatu]

6. Bogus debate

This debate was redundant from the start as neither Blair nor
Hitchens are able to resolve the fundamental questions they
are discussing, and is already being over shadowed by a much
more significant debate.  What science, religion, philosophy
or theology, Hawkins or Dawkins thought impossible has
happened. History now has it's first fully demonstrable proof
for faith. And coming  from outside all existing theologies,
clearly has 'tradition' in the cross hairs. Quoting from an
online review: 

"The first ever viable religious conception capable of
leading reason, by faith, to observable consequences which can
be tested and judged is now a reality. A teaching that
delivers the first ever religious claim of insight into the
human condition that meets the Enlightenment criteria of
verifiable, direct cause and effect, evidence based truth
embodied in experience. For the first time in history, however
unexpected or unwelcome, the world must contend with a claim
to new revealed truth, a moral wisdom not of human
intellectual origin, offering access by faith, to absolute
proof, an objective basis for moral principle and a fully
rational and justifiable belief! " 

If confirmed and there appears a growing concerted effort to
test and authenticate this material,  of which I am taking
part, this will represent a paradigm change in the nature of
faith and in the moral and intellectual potential of human
nature itself;  untangling the greatest  questions of human
existence: sustainability, consciousness, meaning, suffering,
free will and evil. And at the same time addressing the most
profound problems of our age.

While the religious will find this news most difficult,  those
who have claimed to be of an Enlightenment mind should find it
of particular interest. But if they are unable to appreciate
this change in the historical faith paradigm, to one that
conforms precisely to a criteria subject to test and
confirmation, then their own 'claim'  to rationality is no
more than pretension nor better then those theological
illusions they find so abhorrent.

A unexpected revolution appears to be under  way. More info at
http://www.energon.org.uk

[AlecBGreen]

7. to me its a false choice

I actually believe both statements are true.

Religion DOES provide common values & ethical foundations that we need. Of course many here might argue why do we need religion for that? But anyway, I think it is a true statement.

I also believe that some relgious beliefs are used to justify intolerance and impede social progress.

[DeSwiss]

8. Talk about your self-evident headlines.....

:eyes: