So - has someone started blaming atheists for the losses yet?

[trotsky]

You know it's coming.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. It seems the scapegoat du jour is the left in general. -nt

[Warpy]

6. Right, never mind the Blue Dogs took a 50% hit

while the Progressive Caucus stayed relatively intact, DU conservatives never manage to get the point of such things and keep trying to make that 2+2 = a conservative 3 or 5.

The fatal flaw of the conservative in either party is that he cannot admit he is ever wrong about anything.

[sakabatou]

2. Well, we're gonna be blamed for something eventually

[charlie]

3. Catholics broke hard for Republicans this cycle

Hitchens must've made that "no child's behind left" crack one too many times. Damn him.



Religiously unaffiliated are still a dependable bloc for the Godless Party.

Wait... Fuck me, more of us went Repub this time, too!

Militant Christians must've driven them to vote for wreckage and ruin with their Dawkins dissing. This cannot stand. I demand apologies.

No wonder we lose elections. LEAVE DAWKINS ALONE!

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Starkest stat: "go to church at least weekly, R 60%, D 39%; less than weekly, R 44%, D 54%"

http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/polls/#val=USH00p2

And those 2 categories roughly divide the country in 2 (48% weekly or more, 52% less than that).

[charlie]

5. There's no way to find out

but I'd like to know the real numbers. Churchgoing is a virtuous virtue in much of this country and many won't admit to less than regular attendance. The hectoring moralists of the Bible Belt have worse divorce and wedlock birth stats, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were lying about how often they plant their butts in pews.

[onager]

7. And you shouldn't be surprised!

Fortunately, there is a way to find out - go into the Spookeries on the Sabbath and count noses. Which is exactly what some intrepid research groups have done.

I remembered reading about these studies in Skeptic magazine long ago, so I was happy to find confirmation on the web that I wasn't hallucinating.

There's lots of data here, but this is the gist:

Hadaway, Marler, and Mark Chaves counted the number of people attending four Protestant churches in Ashtabula County, OH, and in 18 Roman Catholic dioceses throughout the U.S. In their 1993 report they stated that actual attendance was only about half of the level reported in public opinion surveys: 20% vs. 40% for Protestants, and 28% vs. 50% for Roman Catholics.

They later returned to Ashtabula County to measure attendance by Roman Catholics. They physically counted the number of attendees at each mass over several months. They concluded that 24% of Catholics in he county actually attended mass. They then polled residents of the county by telephone. 51% of Roman Catholic respondents said that they had attended church during the previous week. Apparently, most were lying.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm

[charlie]

9. Hah! Thank you!

I knew it! I didn't have numbers, but I know what I know. Namely, the pious are posers by just about any measure you can think of.

"Gallup and other pollsters are aware of this. It's kind of a dirty little secret." :D

[laconicsax]

8. Wait until they're done blaming "the gays."

Atheists usually get blamed next.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Fuck it...

blame gay atheists :)

[TZ]

10. You will find this depressingly interesting

my Uncle did a large scale study on american political beliefs in the last 25 years...and the one question that struck me was "Does Prayer play a big role in your daily life"? In 1987 75% answered yes. In 2010----- 77% answered yes.
So really, atheists played little role in this election or any other one, despite what the idiots said.
(This is the relative who was on Minnesota Public Radio the other day)

[charlie]

11. Fix yourself a drink

This is even more depressing:



http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/Many-Americans-Mix-Multiple-Faiths.aspx

[TZ]

12. ick

I need to bookmark that for the next R/T ninny that goes on about the "dangerous" fundamentalist militant atheist brigade...:crazy:

[FiveGoodMen]

13. Horrifying!

[Odin2005]

14. Depressing? I've had what can be called "mystical" experiences and I'm as Godless as can be.

And I don't believe in supernatural realms or incorporeal souls either. :shrug:

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Nevertheless, that trend line indicates that more people are becoming religious when it should be

fewer.

You may not attribute your experience the big bully in the sky, but most will.