The Atheist Blogger » polls

Bin Laden as a “Symbol of Islam”

Adrian Hayter — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:00:59 +0000

The popular web-comic “Indexed” has a somewhat controversial Venn diagram out today, listing Osama Bin Laden (and Santa) as a “symbol of a popular religion”.

Santa? Rarely seen? Surely not!

Now Santa is hardly a symbol of a popular religion, a symbol of a certain holiday usually associated with a popular religion maybe, but not of actual Christianity itself. However, is Bin Laden a symbol of Islam? The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the name Bin Laden is “terrorist”, or “9/11″, but it was Islamic terrorists who committed that atrocity (as well as many others). It seems almost too easy to associate terrorists with Islam, and vice-versa; the religion certainly encourages followers to kill unbelievers, even if the “moderates” deny it.

Proponents of Islam will often refer to it as the “religion of peace”, and yet you have to take a step back and look at what this so called peace has brought. I have to admit, every time I hear Islam described in such a way, I just stare in disbelief. It all boils down to a couple of things; namely, whether it is right to judge a religion by its extremists, and whether the religious beliefs of the terrorists were the influencing factor in their decision to carry out their plans.

Religion being an influencing factor is, in my opinion, undeniable. The hijackers died as martyrs for Islam, and we all know what their last words were, so the factor that remains is whether religious extremism is a good indicator of the actual religion. There are extremists in all religions; many simply twist the words of prophets to force their own agenda, but others are quite the opposite. Islam rewards those who kill infidels in battle, whilst Christianity makes no such promise. When considering the religion of Islam purely from scripture, I’d say it is more of a religion of hate than of peace.

As a religion of hate, Bin Laden is a good a symbol as any, although he is one of many, including the hijab (symbol of the Islamic oppression of women), and the scores of young Islamic girls who know all too well the religion’s position on child molestation.

I noticed we haven’t had a poll recently, so this is a good point to have one. Simple yes or no question: Do you think of Osama Bin Laden as a symbol of Islam? Leave a comment on why you voted, or if you think I’m talking complete nonsense.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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To Complain or Not to Complain?

Adrian Hayter — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:18:33 +0000

My recent article on how we should respond to Christian bus adverts asked a simple question. Should we complain or refrain? Here is a new poll to see what readers think.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Book Club Vote – October 2008

Adrian Hayter — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:13:42 +0000

This month’s book is “Biblical Nonsense” by Dr. Jason Long, and I’m thinking about scrapping the live discussion. It is fun when you get to invite the author along (as with Hemant Mehta) but otherwise it usually ends up with 2 people discussing the book for about 5 minutes, and then turning onto something else.

So the discussion for this book will simply take place over in the forums.

We need to start choosing a book for October.

Do not vote unless you wish to read the book or take part in the discussion!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I’d also like to know who out of my readership is interested in the book club, so please make a comment if you think you’ll be able to subscribe to it regularly. I’d also love some feedback on it.

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Oy Free Riders! Db0 Wants A Word…

Adrian Hayter — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:00:42 +0000

Db0 from A Division by Zero is intrigued by all the atheist blogs that are hosted on free services like blogspot, wordpress.org, livejournal, etc. He has set up a poll over at his website to find out why so many people use these free websites instead of having complete control with a hosted account. Of course, this isn’t just a poll to find out statistics.

Now rest assured that there is a method to the madness . I am not just doing it for my own amusement but I will actually utilise the results I get for your benefit. I will reveal the how and why in one week, once I have (hopefully) enough answers.

If you fall into the group of bloggers who are using free services, go and vote now!

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Evolution Poll Results

Adrian Hayter — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:19:20 +0000

A few weeks ago I debunked a Christian’s view of Evolution and started a poll to see what percentage of readers believed Evolution. I predicted that the vast majority of atheists would believe in Evolution, although some might not for various reasons. I also predicted that the majority of theists would believe in Evolution, although not quite as much as atheists.

The results pretty much matched my expectations.

A total of 203 people have voted so far; 182 were atheists, 21 were theists.
94.6% of those people (192) believe in Evolution.
97.8% of atheists believe in Evolution.
66.7% (13) of theists also believe in Evolution.

It is good to see a healthy number of theists believing in (and presumably understanding) Evolution, but what I’d really like to research more is the number of atheists who do not believe. If you are such an atheist, please leave a comment outlining what you believe, or why you don’t believe Evolution.

Matt posted a comment on the poll

I actually don’t like to say I believe in evolution. I accept it.

I agree with Matt, saying “I believe” often seems to imply that it isn’t a fact and could be wrong. However every knowledge implies a belief, and likewise, everything we “accept” implies that we believe it as well. You cannot accept gravity without already believing that it exists, and the same goes for Evolution. I doubt the results of the poll would have differed anyway.

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On The Subject Of The Closet

Adrian Hayter — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:42:41 +0000

Just a simple poll based on recent discussions about atheists coming out of the closet online. This poll is only about online closets, so you may be out in real life but not online for various reasons.

vjack asked:

To clarify, are you asking whether we blog atheist-style under our own names?

What I mean by “out of the closet online” is essentially your name having been related in some way to atheism. For instance, if you sign up to an atheist discussion forum with your real name, or have it in your forum signature, then you are out of the closet. Likewise if you use your name on your blog, or some other public site, you are out of the closet.

If however, you use facebook under your own name but don’t use your real name anywhere else (as in the case of amiable atheist) then I would count that as in the closet online, since not everyone knows amiable’s real name. The same goes for oliver at msatheists.

So in answer to vjack’s question, if you blog atheist-style with your own name, that would be out of the closet. If you blog using an alias, but might have your name on the internet somewhere (most people do), without linking that name back to your atheist blog, that would be in the closet.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Evolution Poll

Adrian Hayter — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:45:21 +0000

Recent debunkings of Creationist flaws leads me to ponder how many people believe in Evolution and what relation these results have with belief in gods. Thus I have constructed the following poll. It only covers atheism / theism and unless I have complaints it will stay that way. If you are a deist I would say to go with the theist grouping since deism is a vague subset of theism. Likewise with agnosticism, if you are an agnostic atheist put yourself in the atheist groupings, and agnostic theists go in the theist group. Very simple!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

It would be interesting to see what the results turn out to be. Obviously I have some predictions about atheist / Evolution but there may be some people who doubt it. Likewise I suspect the majority of theists believe in Evolution, but then it is usually Creationists who come to this blog so perhaps not.

I should also point out that I’ve added the Poll widget to the sidebar so the latest poll is always shown at the side nomatter which page you are browsing.

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Some Changes To The Book Club Procedure…

Adrian Hayter — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:21:03 +0000

The problem with running an online book club is that we don’t do a vote on the day of discussion, instead saving it till a later date and having 7 days of voting so everyone has a chance to choose the book they want. This leads to some problems with getting the book, and then reading it, all before the month “deadline”. This month Oliver managed to get through the entire book, but I only made it to the final chapters. So essentially Oliver could talk about Hemant’s conclusions whilst I had no idea.

I have hence devised a more complicated system which should make things easier. Instead of having a 7 day vote starting on the 23rd of month 1 to choose the book for month 2, we will have a 7 day vote starting on the 1st of month 1 to choose the book for month 2.

The book for July has been chosen already, and although it was a narrow vote (3:2), Daniel Dennett’s book “Freedom Evolves” has been chosen. I usually try to keep the discussions on the weekend, so that might mean a slightly early date of 26th/27th July. I am also thinking of putting the time forward slightly so that people in the USA can get home from work, and (more importantly) our Aussie members can get out of bed!

We’ll worry about the date somewhere down the line. I already have enough things to do this month (including moving into a new house) without that on my mind too early.

As I mentioned a few paragraphs up, we are using a new voting system. Today is the 1st of July, so here is a 7 day vote for the book for August. On the 7th of July I’ll announce the result and you can go and buy the book if you so wish. You may even start reading it if you aren’t reading Dennett’s (or if you are a freak and can read multiple books at the same time).

I got fed up of the lacking submissions of new books, so I added a few new ones I have recently bought.

As always, do not vote if you do not intend to read the book or contribute in the discussion!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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A Quick Poll

Adrian Hayter — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:05:54 +0000

I’ve recently installed a poll plugin for wordpress seeing as it may come in handy for the future. I may even start having weekly polls on various topics if it gets popular. Anyway, this post is really to test the feature out so I know how it works, and more importantly, if it works!

So, the simple question: Are you atheist, theist, or agnostic?

I get quite a few visitors to the blog, and some people leave comments suggesting they belong to certain religious groups, some not. This is an anonymous poll to see what percentages of people read the blog, that’s all.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.