If God Doesn't Exist, Why Are There So Few Atheists?

Question

Many atheists regard religion as nothing more than fairy tales invented to explain the unexplainable or fantasies of hope in a hopeless world; “the opium of the masses” goes the popular quote. They claim religion defies logic and rejects reason, resting on beliefs which could appeal only to the hopelessly stupid, the desperate or the manipulative. They tend not to give religion very much thought, because they assume its adherents have given it virtually no thought at all.

They ask questions like, “If God exists, how can there be so much suffering in the world?” and because they cannot provide an answer, they assume there isn’t one.

So why does the religion chart look like this?

http://www.lava.net/~hcssc/ReligiousDiversityUSA_chart.gif

Answer 1

false premise on this since God Does exist!!

BAD THINGS HAPPEN cuz Satan is running this world right now..

Answer 2

A lot of atheists were actually brought up in a religious household (they might refer to themselves as being a non-practising christian) so they are educated on the subject.However many don't feel the need to push their beliefs and opinions down other peoples throats.

Answer 3

So reality is a democracy now?  Whatever the majority of people want to believe, that is the truth?

Don't think so.

Answer 4

when the majority of a population eats from a garbage belt it doesnt mean that it tastes good.

Answer 5

Argument from Popularity. Please go to the back of the line.

Answer 6

Cos most people in the world are stupid and scared.

Answer 7

so many people r gullible or they were born into a gullible family -_-..

it is also said that there is a small percentage of leaders in this world and many followers, that may be why people just believe in God and not question him. the atheists r the one that actually think!!! the rest just blindly believe in them

Answer 8

... In the world, we are numerous.

Answer 9

Because Americans as a whole are a fairly stupid country. Look who you guys have voted in TWICE as president

Cheers for thumbs down in advance

Answer 10

I am in my late middle age and have travelled extensively throughout Europe and Asia. Wherever I have been practicing Christians have been a very small minority. Indeed I can think of only one old lady that actually goes to church and only rarely at that.

You must remember that Christianity is mostly peculiar to the USA where it is used by the powers that be in much the same way as it was in Europe a few centuries ago.

Answer 11

Mass delusion.

NEXT

PS when most people thought the world was flat, was it really flat?

Double PS So far I have the most thumbs up, which according to your logic makes my answer both best and correct.

Answer 12

He who yells the loudest?, is heard first!

And  the religious have big mouths!!

People of religion make it impossible for atheists to be honest about their way of thinking!

When christians ACTUALLY start practicing what they preach, and I mean loving their fellow man, instead of talking about it, AND when they remember that they don't have the right to judge, then maybe  more atheists can be the people, that they really are, out in the open!

Answer 13

well there are 1.3 billion people in China and most are Buddhist/atheists....hmmmmm  that seems like a big number!!!

apart from America..which seems to bread religous nutts...the next generation will be less and less likely to believe in "god"!!  

Answer 14

So whichever god is the most popular is real?

You better start converting before islam beats you!

Answer 15

Let's say why do so few people declare themselves to be atheists.  My own opinion is a lot of atheists go to church or whatever pretty regularly to keep peace in their family.  A lot more don't go to church much, but also don't publicly declare themselves atheists.  

I live in Missouri, and it's pretty liberal here compared to states to the south and east of us.  An out-of-the-closet atheist in the Bible Belt would be treated with disrespect at the very least, and quite possibly with violence.  

Answer 16

Obviously you have no idea how surveys are done.

They didn't ask every single person in the US what their religion was.

They stopped maybe 100 people on the street, took that data and turned it into a percent. That does not make it accurate.

There are nearly one billion Muslims in the world and obviously that is not reflected in that data.

Try to pick accurate materials, not just ones that look like they back up your point no matter how unsound they are.

Answer 17

Your argument is an example of the logical fallacy non-causa-pro-causa.

The fact that there are few atheists is not premise enough for them being wrong.  Neither is the fact that some atheists use incorrect arguments against theism.

I noticed that your chart only contains US religions.  In looking at non-US religions:

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Ad...

one sees that Christians represent the largest chunk of the world, but are not more prevalent than non-Christians.  Also ignored in your argument is the fact that an overwhelming percentage of the scientific community (i.e. the most educated members of society) is atheist.

There are various issues with your argument.  Please, in the future, try not to generalize.  Not all atheists approach Christianity this way, only some.   It is also important to remember that there are plenty of intolerant Christians out there who tell atheists that they will all be sent to h**l for eternity and that they are scum.  Surely these are not the beliefs you represent, I hope, for they are decidedly un-Christian in that they follow in no way the teachings of the person called Christ.

Then again, what do I care, I'm a Buddhist.

Answer 18

There are so few athiests in the world because people feel the need to conform and believe in a non-existent 'god'.

Assuming these people hold no actual worthwhile beliefs, they think it is entirely neccesary to just believe in something that hasn't actually been proven.

Answer 19

Because humans need to believe there is some great purpose to their lives, that someday judgment will be pronounced.

Answer 20

I love your answer. It is true that you are a way smarter than me. You go girl

Answer 21

because when man was still ignorant, the church was powerful, and seared into his mind its ideals. to be an atheist at those times was to be on death row. through the years, tradition has just kept in place religion's prominence, even though government now has more power

Answer 22

If there were too many atheists, they'd have to start gathering weekly, at a building or something, then, they'd need a symbol of some type, and like, a manual, or a handbook, aw heck, lets just call it a bible, you know, for yuks.  Then how will they pay the light bill, they'd have to start asking for donations, hiring a secretary who'd only work a few hours a week.  This, is how it all starts....

Answer 23

Sad, isn't it? The world is a profoundly uneducated place.

Answer 24

No - "atheists" BELIEVE there is no god.  Most of us are agnostics - we're not sure.  Actually everybody is an agnostic because nobody is sure.  Religious nuts say they're sure, but they're not.  They know nothing more than you do - and you KNOW you don't know anything about god.

Atheism is a sort of religion since it's based on belief.  Agnostics mostly just don't care.  Religion is such a waste of time - that's my belief anyway.

Answer 25

Polls are pretty unreliable.

But I think that spirituality is important to most people, and the hope that something is going on beyond that which we can observe is powerful.

The fear of the unknown, the greatest of which is death, causes many to seek comfort.

As to the polls low numbers of atheists, we tend to be ostracized by society in general, perhaps they didn't feel it necessary to respond?

In the end, I think outright rejection of the spiritual is rare. Many of us simply reject the CHRISTIAN god, or other monotheistic, absolutist doctrines that don't feel true to us.

(Note, I use us because I identify with atheists, though I myself am open to the possibility of a god or gods, I do not profess belief in any)

Answer 26

So since there are few atheists, atheism is false? So which religion is true then?

This is a logical fallacy.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies...

Answer 27

Gee and you took all that time to write out a nicely worded question. Proper grammar and everything!

Pity you can't accept the fact that you have no facts to support your wacky beliefs....only faith, and let's face it one could pull faith out of one's behind so that's no biggie. Doomsday and Creation? You would have to be crazy to believe that junk.

Atheism, on the other hand, is supported by science, reality and logic. There is probably not an accurate number of how many Atheists there are because, unlike religious people, we don't find it necessary to congregate in buildings and sing songs to a mythical being. We are comfortable in our surroundings and with the obvious environment presented to us.

Answer 28

an atheists will tell you "because there the only smart people in the world"

but the fact is that some of the people can be fooled all of the time.

and all of the people can be fool some of the time,

but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Answer 29

I think that many people have DNA that makes them feel the need to have answers even if they are false answers.  There are about 1 billion Catholics in the world.  It's hard to know for sure how many of them really believe.  But there are 5 billion people who are NOT Catholics.  So, if you want to go by numbers, Catholics are wrong.  Then you can look at the approximately 1 billion Protestants.  5 billion people think they are wrong.

Answer 30

Duh!!  Because God DOES exist.

Have you seen someone get possessed and then tremble at the name of Jesus? I bet not. But i have seen things before my eyes. Actually i didn't believe God existed myself and even if he did i believed that he didn't do any job up there but after that experience i totally believe now. And i have also realised that if he kept answering our prayers, we would turn into lazy and greedy beings asking for more and more.

The poor (helpless), are blessed by God and will go to heaven. The poor (who are lazy to work) are not. If God aswered our Prayers we would be like the poor who are lazy. so thts why God gives us what we need.

On the other side God wants us to help and pray for  the poor (helpless) in order to earn our points to heaven. If we didn't have the helpless orphans and the hungry we would just be relaxing doing no good.

Answer 31

well we ARE one nation under God....but there are ALOT of athiests.....thats a 2000 census...a lot can happen in 8 1/2 years