I always wonder who the “you” is that online pollsters think they’re addressing. I think they’re talking right to us atheists, so you should answer their question: Do you believe in God or a supreme being?
Tony Sidaway informs me that a lot of people have been clicking for Jesus — this new documentary that is being aired in England very shortly has roused the creationist hordes (OK, creationist dozens) to click furiously on its TV Guide entry to downrate it. It’s pointless and trivial — they haven’t even seen it! This is the perfect occasion to marshal our godless thousands to stampede the site and teach them how to properly trivialize web polls. Go ahead, go to the UK TV Guide site, scroll down to Channel 4, and click on the 8pm showing of “The Genius of Darwin”. Vote however you want — giving it a ten is a good score, a one means you think it is very bad.
By the way, what are all those awful American comedies doing on British television? Have they no taste over there?
Here’s one way to foil a pharynguloid poll invasion: limit your poll answers to those that aren’t even wrong. Try to answer the question of”When does life begin?” — your only choices are at birth, at conception, at some stage, with a god (?), and the ever-useful “I don’t know”. Conception is winning right now, when everyone knows the correct answer is approximately 4 billion years ago. There is no dead stage in the cycle of life!
The alternative answer is “after the kids all move out”, but that option isn’t listed, either.
So how about this one: Should atheists be barred from public office?
It’s mostly going our way already, but would you believe a quarter of the votes so far say “yes”?
You people keep sending them to me, and as long as I’m swamped with work they’re at least a quick and easy blog post. So forgive me, but when I saw the results on this poll that asks,
“Should prayer and the Ten Commandments be allowed in schools?“, I couldn’t resist.
92% say yes. I know that not all Kentuckians are that dumb. Help their image by adjusting these poll results to something more sensible.
This one is on CNN: Is it OK for states to issue car license plates with religious messages?
Boy, when you put it that simply, isn’t it obvious? Since when should a state government be in the business of promoting religious slogans? Let people buy a nice religious license plate frame from a private business, or slap a bumper sticker on their car.
(It’s good to see that “no” is in the lead, but this poll is about evenly split so far.)
The Family Research Council asks, “Do you believe that America, as a nation, was founded upon Christian principles?
97% of the clueless ideologues at the Patriarchy Research Council think so.
Oh, man…you know you’ve got colossal wackaloonery when you find a website titled “Remember Thy Creator” — but then you discover that they are sponsoring a YEC conference at the end of July, that they list luminaries like John Morris and Ken Ham, and that they’ve got a front page article demanding that people reject the idea that the earth is old because the Bible says so, and best of all, they’ve got an open online poll. “Do you think Creation should be taught, along with Evolution, in public schools?”
Go on, skew that sucker.
It’s the nature of these things to trivialize. Yet again, media hysteria fuels the absurd fear that flipping a switch in Switzerland will Destroy The World…and they’re running a poll to let non-physicists guess at the risks. This one has two polls: “Is the gaint[sic] particle smasher worth the risk?” and “Which do you think is more likely to destroy the world? Human actions or natural disaster?”
Go ahead, vote. Everyone’s opinion is of equal value in matters of nuclear physics.
One of our least favorite institutions, Focus on the Family, has been trying to corrupt the educational system of New Zealand by sending creationist garbage to the high schools. It doesn’t seem to be a serious threat — so far, they’re pretty sensible down there — but there is one internet poll asking whether schools should teach ID.
Go express your opinion!
