Who knew atheists had higher morals than fundamental Christians? Uh, a lot of us, actually, and now we have more poll results to prove it:
Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis. […]
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did.
I’m not shocked by that result. It fits with what I’ve heard from people who claim they are Real Christians, and that punishing or killing “evil doers” is perfectly acceptable behavior according to their interpretation of the Bible. The same folks who promote the idea of a “Christian Warrior” at their Jesus Camps. The Pastors who publicly proclaimed at Republican rallies last Fall that “Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists around the world are praying for an Obama victory that if Obama wins, they’ll think “their god is bigger” than the Christian god.” The US General and self proclaimed evangelical Christian, William Boykin who claimed he led an “Army of God” in Iraq, and who helped Gitmo-ize Abu Ghraib vastly expanding the Bush administration’s use of torture and abuse to thousands of Iraqi detainees many of whom were swept up in mass arrests by American soldiers merely for the “crime” of living in a Sunni neighborhood.
So, no I’m not surprised that the people who most loudly proclaim their “Christian values” have no moral qualms when it comes to killing and torturing people who don’t share their faith or have the exact same beliefs that they do. I’ve known for many years that many, many of these so-called “Christians” are hypocrites when it comes to issues of morality and human rights. You know what does surprise me? That CNN had the guts to actually use the word torture in their article. But then maybe the details of the survey conducted by Pew Forum of Religion & Public Life made it impossible for them to avoid the word that must not be named. At least by the US media, anyway.
How much do you want to bet this survey result is prominently reported by the traditional “liberal media” over the next few weeks rather than buried or ignored as soon as possible? No takers, eh? Don’t blame you. Don’t blame you one bit.
You’re actually assuming facts not in evidence here – without access to poll internals, the writeup on CNN didn’t really say anything about atheists, just “unaffiliated with any religion”. It could mean atheists, but it could mean Deists. It could mean “generic American Christian non-churchgoer” (which I seem to recall was the dominant species of Christian in the US in the last set of polling data I saw). It doesn’t have to mean atheists.
True. I made a leap of faith about atheists.
Here’s a poll from 2006 in which the following results were obtained:
It would seem that these polls are somewhat chromatically challenged – a more diversified sample might yield a more honest result…
Wait a minute???
According to the survey, “White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified” but the survey “did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.”
While it wouldn’t surprise me if the assertion of the poll is true, I have to say that this sounds like someone trying to manipulate some data to prove their predetermined notion.
It might well be true, but it doesn’t sound to me like this was a very scientific poll.
Well, Pew polling is fairly well respected. What they are saying is that the poll was too small to do further sectarian analysis. For example, too small for determining the specific views on torture of Southern Baptists or Methodists or or Mormons or Assembly of God congregants, etc. Not too small to determine the views of larger, self described groupings, however.
I agree that Pew is generally proven to be pretty accurate.
From my personal experience, most evangelical Protestants I know would likely support torture. So the results are not really surprising to me on a personal level. But I really would be curious to see a more extensive breakdown on this question.
My initial reaction, which fits with my overall view of most things, was kind of a reflexive skepticism. Wish this subject could be explored more in depth in the near future.
Well, waterboarding is sort of like being baptized. You just hold the head underwater a little longer.
their mascot is dangling from a cross by his thumbs. they believe in salvation through suffering.
of course they’re into torture. next question?
No thumbs, just the nails.
Not to mention that their god is an angry and vengeful god. Just ask Lot and Job.
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Inquisition does have some similarity with Gitmo torture: military trial, evidence and limited appeal.
I’m of the Catholic faith, however cannot comprehend the views of U.S. locals.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."