Poll: do you believe in God?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like some people aren't comfortable sharing their beliefs about God so current polls may be inaccurate.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58f67e31e4b0de5bac41d3eb

So let's do a little informal poll to see who we have here in DCUMland.

1. Do you believe in God?
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand?
3. Do you participate in organized religion?
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion?
5. Which religion?
6. How often do you pray?
7. How often do you attend religious services?
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now?
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion?
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you?

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM?
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family?
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll?

[Anonymous]

Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

No I don't believe in God or any kind of "intelligent designer." At the very most, I might be persuaded that there is some kind of energy force that we're all a part of but it's not intelligent in the way that we normally think of that word nor does it have the other human characteristics that organized religion insists on attributing to God.

I'd like to believe. God to me is like Santa Clause. It's a nice story and I wish it was true but I just don't think it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Agree. DCUM is predominantly liberal, and liberals tend to have a lesser belief in G-d. Skewed sample.

[Anonymous]

It all depends on ones definition of god.

[Anonymous]

I suspect there is a higher power. But not God in the traditional religious sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like some people aren't comfortable sharing their beliefs about God so current polls may be inaccurate.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58f67e31e4b0de5bac41d3eb

So let's do a little informal poll to see who we have here in DCUMland.

1. Do you believe in God? depends on the definition
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand? No
3. Do you participate in organized religion? Yes
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion? Yes
5. Which religion? Unitarian Universalism
6. How often do you pray? depends on the definition
7. How often do you attend religious services? It used to be 3 out of 4 Sundays in years where I was not teaching RE.
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now? yes and no- but close
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion? They attended RE classes from preschool through HS
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you? extremely

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM? yes
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family? yes
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll? I don't answer telephone polls of any sort

[Anonymous]

1. Do you believe in God? No
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand? No
3. Do you participate in organized religion? No
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion? No N/A
5. Which religion? N/A
6. How often do you pray? Never
7. How often do you attend religious services? For funerals, or once in a blue moon for some other occasion
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now? Brought up Muslim
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion? Golden Rule
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you? Organized religion? None. Feeling a sense of purpose and responsibility to your fellow humankind and nature? A fair amount

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM? Completely
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family? Depends on the person - yes for some, no to others
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll? Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Not trying to draw any conclusions about society. Just trying to see who we have here on DCUM, as I posted in OP.

Since you work for Pew maybe you could address why some of the poll numbers seem off. Did the article ring true for you at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

What about the religious trolls? Would you control for that as well? Careful, your bias is showing. Suddenly, the flaws with the Pew poll are glaringly obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Agree. DCUM is predominantly liberal, and liberals tend to have a lesser belief in G-d. Skewed sample.

Lots of liberals, like me, are religious. The religious forum, however, skews atheist because the atheist trolls have driven off the religious folk.

What a waste of time. This is better than Pew? Bwahahaha. I see OP's atheist fellow travelers are giving her love, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Not trying to draw any conclusions about society. Just trying to see who we have here on DCUM, as I posted in OP.

Since you work for Pew maybe you could address why some of the poll numbers seem off. Did the article ring true for you at all?

I don't work in that division, but I know a lot about surveys. I have that survey on my desk because it's in the magazine we all get. Pew's survey used a nationally representative sample (in stark contrast to this thread) of sufficient size to get statistical significance (again, in complete contrast to this thread). So yes, I would say it's reliable.

I'm sorry the results seem "off" to you. You might consider who you work and associate with, and whether that biases your perceptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Agree. DCUM is predominantly liberal, and liberals tend to have a lesser belief in G-d. Skewed sample.

Lots of liberals, like me, are religious. The religious forum, however, skews atheist because the atheist trolls have driven off the religious folk.

What a waste of time. This is better than Pew? Bwahahaha. I see OP's atheist fellow travelers are giving her love, though.

Better than Pew, huh?

Next topic will be "why is your reading comprehension so poor?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

What about the religious trolls? Would you control for that as well? Careful, your bias is showing. Suddenly, the flaws with the Pew poll are glaringly obvious.

Care to address this, Ms. Pew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Not trying to draw any conclusions about society. Just trying to see who we have here on DCUM, as I posted in OP.

Since you work for Pew maybe you could address why some of the poll numbers seem off. Did the article ring true for you at all?

I don't work in that division, but I know a lot about surveys. I have that survey on my desk because it's in the magazine we all get. Pew's survey used a nationally representative sample (in stark contrast to this thread) of sufficient size to get statistical significance (again, in complete contrast to this thread). So yes, I would say it's reliable.

I'm sorry the results seem "off" to you. You might consider who you work and associate with, and whether that biases your perceptions.

Well I do work with a lot of well-educated liberals so that makes sense.

Again, not looking to do any statistical analysis from any "data" gathered here. Just trying to get a feel of who is on this board. So far we have: some sincere people and a few vocal complainers. Sounds about right.