Collection of gender and religion stats from Barna.org

51% of women have read the Bible in the past week, compared to 42% of men who report reading the Bible in the past week. (2006)
Women are more likely than are men to attend church on a given Sunday (50% to 44%, respectively). (2006)
Women are more likely than men to attend a Sunday school class at church (27% to 21%) or to participate in a small group (26% to 20%). (2006)
In general, women pray more often than do men, with 89% of women versus 79% of men reporting that they have prayed in the past week. (2006)
Women are more likely than men to be born again: 49% of women have accepted Christ as their savior, compared to 41% of men. (2006)
Women are 55% of the adult born again population. (2006)
Women are more likely than are men to believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of its teachings. (55% versus 41%). (2006)
Women are more likely than are men to believe that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator that rules the world today (78% to 64%). (2006)
74% of women compared to 64% of men say that their faith is very important to them. (2006)
68% of women describe themselves as "deeply spiritual" compared to 55% of men who say that "deeply spiritual" describes them accurately. (2006)

barna.org

Oh, and Norwegian Muslim women are more inclined to support the introduction of Sharia in Norway than Muslim men.(In English)

I have a lot of respect for feminists who have been at the barricades against religion. The fight for women's rights have weakened the churches a lot, and will now continue to weaken Islam.

But after having seen statistics after statistics showing how more women than men support repressive religions it seems to me that the feminists can not cast the blame solely on the "patriarchy". They will have to deal with their sisters too.

Is Atheism a Philosophy or Belief System?

"Atheism is no more a belief system or a philosophy than theism is. Both can be part of belief systems, some religious and some not, some good and some not.

If atheism were a philosophy, then John should be able to explain exactly what philosophy it is that is held in common by all atheists who are: Raelians, Objectivists, Buddhists, Religious Humanists, communists, libertarians, socialists, Secular Humanists, conservatives, monarchists, Jews, liberals, etc. I don't think John can — just as his email didn't actually offer any counter-arguments to the explanations I have provided on the site. No one else that I've ever posed this challenge to has ever managed to provide an answer, either."

atheism.about.com, July 8, 2007

An annoying question answered nicely!

Africans Vulnerable to 'Prosperity Gospel'

"Prosperity gospel" churches compete with Baptist churches in Africa, especially for younger people, with promises of wealth and health, according to participants in a forum discussion Saturday at the Baptist World Alliance gathering in Accra, Ghana.
The movement is "attractive to young people, because TV shows a materialistic world," said an African leader. "Young people like that life."
The leader noted the influence of the Trinity Broadcasting Network on Africans who listen to the same message all day that promises of abundant material possessions.
TBC recycles worship services and talk shows around the world, spreading a theology that if Christians will claim the so-called promises of God, made in a few selected biblical texts, they can enjoy luxurious cars, expensive homes, obedient children and untroubled health. It's a theology devoid of discipleship and service.

ethicsdaily.com, 07-10-07

Just creating hope, right?

Chris Hedges In Denial About Religion & Fundamentalism

"His recent book on the fascist tendencies in America's Christian Right has given Chris Hedges an aura of authority when it comes to religion and religious extremism in American culture. I suspect that this perception is sorely misplaced, though, because Hedges has adopted and insists on defending the popular belief that extremist or fundamentalist religion somehow isn't "real" religion and thus critiques of fundamentalism don't impact religion itself.

[...]

Let's be honest here: Chris Hedges and others are critical of atheists like Hitchens for creating straw men and simplifying religion, but if they are then Hedges and his ilk are at least as guilty — if not more so. At the very least, atheist critics like Hitchens acknowledge that there are other forms of religion besides what they criticize, but argue that those forms have little practical impact and thus don't need to be addressed at the moment.

Hedges, however, won't even acknowledge that fundamentalisms, extremisms, etc. are genuine religious movements at all. He doesn't have the decency to admit that they are religious belief systems that he dislikes or has arguments against; instead, he simply denies that they are religions at all."

atheism.about.com, July 8, 2007

Muslim Americans, White Evangelicals Similar in Religious Fervor

"The Pew Research Center found that 72 percent of Muslim Americans, 80 percent of white evangelicals, and 87 percent of black Protestants say religion is "very important" in their lives.

These high percentages stand in contrasts to Catholics, only 49 percent of which said religion was "very important" in their life, and white mainline Protestants, only 36 percent of which responded likewise.

Moreover, Muslim Americans are similar to white evangelicals and black Protestants in their tendency to personally identify themselves first by their religion before their nationality.

[...]

The majority of white evangelicals (66 percent) and black Protestants (68 percent) said they take a literal view of the Bible, while half of Muslim Americans consider the Koran as the literal word of God."

Christian Post, Jul. 10 2007 (See also How Muslims Compare With Other Religious Americans )

Evangelicals, the new Muslims! The next Osama bin Laden is apparently going to be white, and will love Jesus.

Newsflash: Christian Terrorist Cell Caught in Texas

People of the book?

"The question is, do Christians today really deserve this respectful designation? A University of Michigan study found that almost half the population attends Church regularly and a Baylor University study revealed that at least 85% believe in God. Historically, religion has played a key role in the American experience and the Bible has been its foundational document.

However, according to recent polls, Americans' knowledge of the Bible is woefully lacking. Although Gallup found that 60% of Americans read the Bible occasionally, most cannot name even one author of the four Gospels. Harpers magazine found that 12% of Americans thought Joan of Ark was the wife of Noah.

"God helps those who help themselves." It was Benjamin Franklin who coined the phrase but three-quarters of Americans believe it comes from the Bible, according to Boston University Professor of religion, Stephen Pothero. His book on religious literacy promotes a fresh effort at biblical education. Even Jay Leno, in his admittedly non-scientific man-on-the-street interviews, found almost no one who had heard of Cain and Abel or Sodom and Gomorrah. Several people thought Eve had been created from an apple or that there were twelve commandments. George Gallup once summed up, that America is simultaneously a religious nation and a nation of religious illiterates."

pressrelease365.com, 07/09/07

If you think you deserve the title, then check out this quiz.

Don't gimme that old-tyme religion

Religion can be used equally to justify violence [...] and pacifism. Religion can be anything; it's like a synonym for society, culture or human nature. The problem with religion isn't that it's good, necessary or bad[...]. It's that religion can be all of that or anything else. There's nothing clear or pointed you can say about it to which you can't find a counterexample.

[...] Johnny has betrayed and negated his own nature, his self, by treating others, who are essentially like him, with hate and destruction. You look for help or rescue, but your core is no longer there. You've eradicated it. That's a far stronger source of moral suasion than some priest threatening you with hellfire. It's what people sense about themselves, and always have. Any claim that morality requires religion founders on the fact that humans in all eras have managed to act decently toward each other.

Religions have often tried to conscript and endorse the basic impulses of morality. But they don't create it [...] and can't enforce it effectively. When they try, the results are often contradictory: wars and hatred rather than peace and harmony. Go figure.

[...]

For most of what matters in mundane realms such as politics and morality, we're on our own, and we'll do better if we acknowledge that. If this be secular humanism, make the most of it.

Rick Salutin, Rabble.ca, July 6, 2007

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

"4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim
Suicide missions are not always religiously motivated, but according to Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, when religion is involved, the attackers are always Muslim. Why? The surprising answer is that Muslim suicide bombing has nothing to do with Islam or the Quran (except for two lines). It has a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.
What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.
So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates.

[...]

It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single."

Psychology Today Magazine, Jul/Aug 2007

With God On Our Side

The following is a five minute dramatization of the climate of aggressive evangelical Christianity encountered at the USAF Academy by Mikey Weinstein's son and which led Weinstein, a USAF honor graduate during the 1970's, to form the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The short includes appearances from Bernard M. Kauderer, Vice Admiral ( USN, Ret.), Former commander of all US Naval submarine forces, Richard Lamm, three term governor of Colorado, Richard T. Schlosberg lll, former publisher and CEO, LA Times and Denver Post, Bobby Muller, Nobel Peace Prize winner, co-founder of international campaign to ban land mines, Joseph C. Wilson, lV, former US Ambassador, Robert T. Herres, General ( USAF, Ret.), Former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ed Asner.

Talk2action.org, Jul 05, 2007

48 percent of weekly churchgoers not in favour of Creationism Museum

The poll was conducted on behalf of "The Campaign to Defend the Constitution," or DEFCON. According to the survey, 48 percent of those who said they attend church weekly said the idea of the museum, which presents dinosaurs alongside Adam and Eve, was "scientifically unsound" or "biblically inaccurate."

OneNewsNow.com, July 5, 2007

Death Penalty and religious affiliation in USA

"Sharp differences also exist among members of different religious traditions. Opposition to the death penalty is lowest among white mainline Protestants (13%) and white evangelicals (15%), while it is notably higher among white Catholics (27%). Opposition is highest among seculars (29%)."

PewResearch, June 26, 2007 (Notice that the quoted stats are from 2005)

The support for death penality seems to be in decline though. (Wonder if it has something to do with secularisation?)

Religion too often makes life hell

"Our president continues to veto federal funding for stem cell research on embryos that would otherwise be discarded as medical waste -- using the argument of personhood for a few cells in a petri dish. He denies living humans with serious illnesses the chance for a cure through the use of this medical waste. Is that what God intended?
I take this personally because I am a multi-cancer survivor who might benefit from the availability of this research. But those cells in a petri dish appear to be more important than living citizens who need help."

Delawareonline.com, July 1, 2007

Another sad episode in: "How religion improves our health"

Most Canadians say God created them

The Canadian Press-Decima Research survey suggests 60 per cent of Canadians believe God had either a direct or indirect role in creating mankind, shattering the myth that Canadians had long ago put their faith strictly behind the scientific explanation for creation.
The poll suggests Canadians divide in roughly three groups on the issue of creation: 34 per cent of those polled said humans developed over millions of years under a process guided by God; 26 per cent said God created humans alone within the last 10,000 years or so; and 29 per cent said they believe evolution occurred with no help from God.
"These results reflect an essential Canadian tendency," said pollster Bruce Anderson. "We are pretty secular, but pretty hesitant to embrace atheism."

hfxnews.ca 04/07/07

If 'Islamist' is out, what do we call them?

"If it were proved that highly qualified, ambitious doctors were Islamist mass-murder plotters, it would put a hole through another comforting theory - that this is "all about" under-employed young men of low self-esteem and educational attainments.

[...]

On Start the Week on Monday, all the distinguished guests, including the philosopher John Gray and the historian Eric Hobsbawm, vehemently agreed that the word "Islamist", which I have used at the top of this column, was wrong and dangerous. It implied a strong link to Islam, which was unfair. I thought the distinction between "Islamic" and "Islamist" was enough: but if we need a new and more accurate word for extremist Muslims, what is it?"

Andrew Marr, Daily Telegraph, 04/07/2007

More:

Terror-spooked EU: 'Don't say Muslims'
Gordon Brown's ban on the word "Muslim" in relation to terrorism can be blamed on the EU. The prime minister has told Cabinet members not to mention "Muslim" and "terrorism" in the same breath. It comes after the European Commission issued a guide for government spokesmen to avoid offence by ruling out the words such as "jihad", "Islamic" or "fundamentalist" in statements about terrorist attacks.

Daily Mail, 4th July 2007

But being a reasonable fellow, I decided to look up "muslim" at Thesaurus.com to see the alternatives:

Dreams origin of religion?

"This notion is so widely shared by traditions all across the globe that some scholars have gone so far as to argue that religion itself actually originated in dream experience," Kelly Bulkeley, past president of the Association for the Study of Dreams, wrote in his book "Transforming Dreams: Learning Spiritual Lessons From the Dreams You Never Forget" (2000)

International Herald Tribune, July 4, 2007

The actual article is just generally about dreaming so unfortunately there wasn't much on the subject but I have been thinking about the connections between religion and dreams myself lately. It is well known that religious people interpret dreams in special ways, but let's say you are a stoneage man. How do you deal with dreams?
I think mankind never really had a chance to avoid becoming religious. Dreams are strange, and they certainly take us into a different world that will seem to resemble a metaphysical world. And naturally, sometimes dreams seem to try to tell us something. (what they tell us is usually what we think, because dreams is the brain's way of sorting the our thoughts.) Anyway, by the time we understood how dreams originated, religions had been established all over the globe and had long since made themselves independent of dreams.

I think it would be worth shedding some light on this subject.

Inferior Design

I had expected to be as irritated by Michael Behe’s second book as by his first. I had not expected to feel sorry for him.

[...]

It commits the logical error of arguing by default. Two rival theories, A and B, are set up. Theory A explains loads of facts and is supported by mountains of evidence. Theory B has no supporting evidence, nor is any attempt made to find any. Now a single little fact is discovered, which A allegedly can’t explain. Without even asking whether B can explain it, the default conclusion is fallaciously drawn: B must be correct. Incidentally, further research usually reveals that A can explain the phenomenon after all: thus the biologist Kenneth R. Miller (a believing Christian who testified for the other side in the Dover trial) beautifully showed how the bacterial flagellar motor could evolve via known functional intermediates.

[...]

If mutation, rather than selection, really limited evolutionary change, this should be true for artificial no less than natural selection. Domestic breeding relies upon exactly the same pool of mutational variation as natural selection. Now, if you sought an experimental test of Behe’s theory, what would you do? You’d take a wild species, say a wolf that hunts caribou by long pursuit, and apply selection experimentally to see if you could breed, say, a dogged little wolf that chivies rabbits underground: let’s call it a Jack Russell terrier. Or how about an adorable, fluffy pet wolf called, for the sake of argument, a Pekingese? Or a heavyset, thick-coated wolf, strong enough to carry a cask of brandy, that thrives in Alpine passes and might be named after one of them, the St. Bernard? Behe has to predict that you’d wait till hell freezes over, but the necessary mutations would not be forthcoming. Your wolves would stubbornly remain unchanged. Dogs are a mathematical impossibility.

Nytimes.com, July 1, 2007

Atheism Is a Civil Rights Issue

Numerous commenters on Nisbet's post have pointed out the many ways in which atheism is a civil rights issue. There are the atheist parents who are denied custody of their children because of their atheism; state constitutions that officially deny atheists the right to hold public office (now unenforceable, but the discriminatory language has never been removed); religious language in official affirmations like the Pledge of Allegiance that infringes on atheist parents' rights to raise their children as they see fit; government programs that take atheists' tax dollars and use them to pay for programs of religious indoctrination; and more. And then there are the significant pluralities, if not majorities in some cases, who consider atheists to be the least trustworthy group in America and would not vote for atheists for public office. These examples show Nisbet's claims to be unfounded in reality, and he has chosen to ignore them rather than make any effort to address them.

It is now obvious that what Nisbet is demanding is that atheists be silent and not speak our minds. That isn't going to happen. I'm happy to see a vigorous, thriving atheist community take shape, and we will continue to say exactly what we think. Nisbet can sputter and complain about this to his heart's content, but it will not silence us; it will only show that his position is without worth or value and deserves no further consideration. Meanwhile, we who are genuinely concerned with both the civil rights and the public image of nonbelievers can and will press ahead in the vital effort to defend both.

daylightatheism.org, 07 July 2007

Religion losing its allure in Australia

"Since 2001, the number of people [in Australia] saying they have no religious conviction has risen from 2.9 million, or 15.5 per cent of the population to 3.7 million, or 19 per cent.

So, over a period during which the total population has grown by just under a million, the number of non-believers has risen by 800,000. Which means the percentage increase of non-believers is close to 30 per cent.

Conversely, the percentage affirming commitment to some form of Christianity has hardly fallen – from 54 per cent to 53.2. In numerical terms, the overall number of Christians has declined from 10,768,000 to 10,577,000 – hardly cause for the bishops to sweat.

However, when the population is increasing, it's difficult to deny the emergence of a trend towards decline – and if the trend were to continue, as it has over the past three census periods, Christians will a minority very soon.

Those who fear that as Christianity declines, other religions will gain new adherents need not do so. In the past five years, the percentage of Australians claiming belief in "other" religions – Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and so on – has also slipped – from 30.5 per cent to 28.1 per cent.

[...]

So it seems beyond dispute that, rather than cleaving to "new" religions offering new alleged truths and insights and rather than falling back on the age-old shibboleths of "traditional" Abrahamic religions, increasing numbers of Australians are rejecting religion altogether."

Daily Telegraph (Australia), July 03, 2007

Multiculturalism and faith schools a recipe for disaster

"Multiculturalism may seem a liberal policy, but it reinforces prejudices. [...] While any society will always have its fair share of bigots, we also found that governmental multiculturalism made the problem worse. By arguing that all groups in society should be allowed to live according to their own beliefs and customs, they were encouraging people to see themselves as different from one another. And not just a little bit different, but fundamentally different. So it fostered a them-and-us attitude to politics.

[...]

parallels that can reasonably be made between Britain and the Netherlands, particularly in regard to faith schools. "The Dutch always pursued a segregated education policy of different schools for Protestants and Catholics," he points out, "and it seemed obvious for them to apply the same principles for Muslims.
"Yet the evidence proves this hasn't worked. The biggest predictor of integration and social mobility in the Netherlands is the ability to speak Dutch, and kids at Muslim schools are not learning the language as well as students in other schools. The result is that second-generation Muslim immigrants are actually becoming worse off than their parents, a situation that can only cause more problems. And if the British government continues to promote faith schools, it could well find itself in a similar predicament."

Guardian, July 3, 2007

WikiIslam - critical encyclopedia

"How is WikiIslam different from WikiPedia?
Asides from the fact that Islam is the primary topic at WikiIslam, the main difference between WikiIslam and Wikipedia is that the primary goal of WikiIslam is to help Muslims leave Islam by providing them with information that may otherwise not be available to them.

Is WikiIslam a hate site?
No, WikiIslam is not a hate site. We do not believe all Muslims are terrorists. In fact, many of us are ex-Muslims with Muslim family and friends. The purpose of this wiki is to archive those truths about Islam which are frequently censored by Muslims or political correctness. This project also provides a much-needed relief for editors at WikiPedia whose opinions are constantly edited out by Muslims and others who are afraid of saying anything against Islam for fear of NPOV or bias.

What is the purpose of WikiIslam?
The purpose of WikiIslam is to help Muslims leave Islam. WikiIslam can help Muslims leave Islam either by showing Muslim visitors a side of Islam that they may have never seen before, or by being used as a reference by non-Muslims who are trying to help Muslims leave Islam.

[...]

Who runs this website?
The site belongs to and is maintained by Faith Freedom International. FFI is an organization whose goals are to unmask Islam and help Muslims leave it. It is founded by Ali Sina, an ex-Muslim from Iran.

FAQ, WikiIslam.com (Last edit 30. Jun. 2007)

Seems like a good resource!

Come to think of it: something similar would be good for Atheism in general. There's this one: wiki.atheist.net but it seems to go slow.

The Muslim faithless

Ridiculing and questioning Islam, Muhammad, the Qur'an and religion in general is an ancient tradition in Muslim countries.

[...]

Those Muslims who condemn such literature and views as un-Islamic and new-fangled western imports are obviously unaware of their own history. Some 12 centuries before these modern writers, Ibn al-Rawandi was establishing a controversial reputation for himself as the Richard Dawkins of ninth-century Baghdad (probably the wealthiest and most advanced city in the world at the time).

Belonging, as he did, to a more poetic age, his most famous work was not entitled The Allah Delusion, but had the more colourful title of The Emerald Book (Kitab al-Zumurrud). Nevertheless, he was no less sparing than Dawkins would be in his indictment and rejection of the divine authorship of the Qur'an, Muhammad's status as a prophet and organised religion. He argued that humans possess the gift of intellect, by which they can judge right and wrong, rendering the prophets and scripture superfluous.

According to Dawkins, most of the modern scientists who talk of "God" do so in the loosest possible sense of the word. Likewise, many of the greatest scientists of Islam's golden age sailed pretty close to the wind and, like their modern counterparts, were often deists rather than theists.

[...]

Islam's glory was a secular one based on knowledge and science. This is what makes the current drift towards scripture, ritual and conservatism in many Muslims so alarming. Just because dictators and foreign meddling spoiled the modern secular experiment, that does not mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Khaled Diab, Guardian, June 30, 2007

My plea to fellow Muslims: you must renounce terror

"When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology, I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.
By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology."

The Observer, July 1, 2007