It's also logically equivalent to "...you can like broccoli any way you want (raw, fried, boiled etc.) but you must like broccoli."
Of course, if someone were to tell her that... there would be a brain-explosion, most likely, but the most frightening thing is I cannot predict whose.
It's also logically equivalent to "...you can like broccoli any way you want (raw, fried, boiled etc.) but you must like broccoli."
Or, you know, "There's no marriage discrimination against gay people! They can marry a person of the opposite sex, just like anybody else!" which is another favorie fundie line.
wow that is the most ignorant thing ive ever read.. by the way i never really understood the whole "in god we trust" thing while people tout fredom of religion.. so i can see how said person would get that impression but its one of close mindedness and bigotry
I agree with her completely. As an atheist myself, I desire the ability to levitate so that I may do exactly what she says, and get off of her country. Secondary to that, a Cloud City would suffice.
That was so dumb I called shenanigans, and did some Googling... where I discovered it was a real letter, published in the Peninsula Clarion. I'd rather have learned it was a fake.
Sorry, but in a nation of three hundred million people, a meager two thousand can't pretend to be a representative sample no matter how prettily you dress it up.
And I have to agree with pope_guilty above in sentiment too.
2000 people can, indeed, predict the results of three hundred million with reasonable certainty and a predictable, measurable margin of error.
That doesn't mean that this study *didn't* fall into that margin of error as they made a random selection and got two thousand home-skool science-are-evil poop-eating fundies, only that the sample very well could be representative.
It COULD, but the probability against it using random sampling is extremely high. I seriously doubt they hunted down the necessary individuals to get a realistic cross representation of the US.
Since they don't give their methodology, as far as I'm concerned, their study is bullshit.
If nobody already mentioned this, our founding fathers may have had other ideas: http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.shtml
That last line made my head hurt. I thought poverty was the underlying cause for most crime. Do athiests cause poverty? Is that it? I don't have enough money becuase you jerks took it all? Thats it! I'm robbing the Seven 11!
Apparently, in the world of this letter writer, atheists could be 100% crime free ("I don't care if they never committed a crime...") and yet be insidiously mind controlling normally healthy Christians (and others) to commit crimes.
If atheists cause the crime rate to go up, do polytheists cause the crime rate to go down? On a more serious note, would the average IQ rating skyrocket if everyone like the writer of the article suddenly dropped dead?
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 03:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 03:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:06 pm (UTC)Of course, if someone were to tell her that... there would be a brain-explosion, most likely, but the most frightening thing is I cannot predict whose.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 09:54 pm (UTC)Or, you know, "There's no marriage discrimination against gay people! They can marry a person of the opposite sex, just like anybody else!" which is another favorie fundie line.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 03:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 03:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 05:15 pm (UTC)Pick yer battles.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 06:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-24 01:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-24 01:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-24 01:25 am (UTC)Always amuses me when non USians know their history better than they do, and I don't even try that hard...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 03:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 03:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:13 pm (UTC)"Evolve?"
Date: 2007-02-23 08:15 pm (UTC)Re: "Evolve?"
Date: 2007-02-23 08:34 pm (UTC)Methinks it was a joke.
Re: "Evolve?"
Date: 2007-02-23 08:36 pm (UTC)Re: "Evolve?"
Date: 2007-02-24 06:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:39 pm (UTC)Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 04:59 pm (UTC)I call Bullshit...
Date: 2007-02-23 05:05 pm (UTC)And I have to agree with
Re: I call Bullshit...
Date: 2007-02-23 05:11 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size
2000 people can, indeed, predict the results of three hundred million with reasonable certainty and a predictable, measurable margin of error.
That doesn't mean that this study *didn't* fall into that margin of error as they made a random selection and got two thousand home-skool science-are-evil poop-eating fundies, only that the sample very well could be representative.
Re: I call Bullshit...
Date: 2007-02-23 05:18 pm (UTC)Since they don't give their methodology, as far as I'm concerned, their study is bullshit.
Re: I call Bullshit...
Date: 2007-02-23 05:32 pm (UTC)Re: I call Bullshit...
Date: 2007-02-23 08:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 09:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-23 11:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-24 12:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-25 04:00 am (UTC)