There are more Christians in prison than Atheists. Interesting, considering that Christians are always saying Atheists have no morals.
Catholic 29267 39.164%
Protestant 26162 35.008%
Muslim 5435 7.273%
American Indian 2408 3.222%
Nation 1734 2.320%
Rasta 1485 1.987%
Jewish 1325 1.773%
Church of Christ 1303 1.744%
Pentecostal 1093 1.463%
Moorish 1066 1.426%
Buddhist 882 1.180%
Jehovah Witness 665 0.890%
Adventist 621 0.831%
Orthodox 375 0.502%
Mormon 298 0.399%
Scientology 190 0.254%
Atheist 156 0.209%
Hindu 119 0.159%
Santeria 117 0.157%
Sikh 14 0.019%
Bahai 9 0.012%
Krishna 7 0.009%
http://holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm
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September 7, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
“Note that atheists, being a moderate proportion of the USA population (about 8-16%) are disproportionately less in the prison populations (0.21%).”
I was trying to find these statistics and they were right there on the bottom of the page! LOL
Thanks for sharing.
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September 8, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
The first time I heard of this statistic was in a small piece about Ricky Gervais:
http://www.rickygervais.com/bestlife.php
I’m pretty jealous of his turnaround time, took me a lot longer than an hour.
As with all statistics there is of course a little room for argument - Christian proselytizing is pretty common in prisons, so there may be more prisoners who were atheists before starting their sentence, and converted in prison, or at least felt the pressure to. The tendency some atheists seem to have to not want to label themselves atheist may arguably be even more widespread in that sort of enclosed environment. Some very religious people are scary to begin with, I can easily imagine them being even more intimidating in a prison environment.
The polls I’ve seen seem to indicate that the percentage of self-identified atheists in this country is closer to 4%, with the 8-16% including people who simply describe themselves as “nonreligious” while still professing a belief in a god or supernatural power of some sort.
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September 8, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Yes, but atheists also make up a much smaller percentage of the total population. So the important point is not the number of atheists in prison but the proportion of atheists in prison. Atheists/Agnostics make up roughly 10% of the US population, depending on which poll you consult, but only make up 0.209% of the prison population. That means that atheists seem to be underrepresented in prisons.
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September 8, 2008 @ 11:36 pm
Aww, we’re underrepresented in prison? Bummer!
Just kidding. That’s an awesome stat. It doesn’t surprise me at all, really.
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September 9, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
It doesn’t surprise me either, Neece. I have a few ex-cons in my family and they’re all born again Christians. Drug addicts also. They went from shouting up herion to being all jacked up on Jesus.
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September 9, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
Oh yes, I understand the concept of underrepresentation and the significance of the difference. I just wanted to point out the difference between the percentages given for atheists in our population that I’ve often seen used in posts - many people quote the roughly 8% to 16% figure, but I’ve seen just as many using the roughly 4% figure.
I suppose until atheist stops being a dirty word it’ll be difficult to get an accurate number.
“jacked on Jesus” - lol. Yes, in college a friend used the phrase “parannoying” to describe a mutual acquaintance who was born again while in prison, had just been released and was very intent on savings my friend’s soul. He was definitely jacked on Jesus.
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