Wednesday, November 01, 2006

42

This is rather surprising, considering that generally we think of these numbers being much more extreme. A new Harris poll of over 2,000 U.S. adults says that 42% aren't completely convinced that there is a God. The number includes everyone who stated that they weren't "absolutely certain" of God's existence in varying degrees. [LINK]

The numbers of completely convinced believers has gone down significantly since the last identical Harris poll taken 3 years ago, and the article speculates that part of the difference could be explained by the fact that this one was conducted online while the previous one was done on the phone. They have (yet more) statistics that show that people are more willing to admit certain things that might be considered socially unacceptable if they are online. (I don't even need the statistical proof for that, I believe it.)

I'd like to think that more people in this country are thinking for themselves.

Unfortunately, a lot of people won't do that until Rush tells them to.

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4 comments:

FreakyNick said...

42 - Oh Yeah!

The number 42 is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, according to Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Numerous others have parodied this supposed mysticism of 42.

God's answer to Moses, when he asks His name: Eheieh Asher Eheieh, that is, "I am what I am." I am (spirit, high) what I am (matter, below). In Gematria (the numerical value of the Hebrew letters composing the words), Eheieh (aleph-heh-yod-heh) has a value of 21. Repeated, then, we have a total of 42. The value of the letters M and B is also 42(mem-beth).

Now how's that for a bunch of worthless and useless information about 42.

Numbers are useful, they can make any argument seem valid.

Sorry about the religious stuff, I was brainwashed as a kid, and the residue lingers.

Blueberry said...

I love religion and mysticism as topics! I just no longer commit belief to most things like that, but study and belief are different. Actually, the subtitle of this blog, "Life, Austin and Everything" is a little nod to the Hitchhiker's Guide. One more bit of trivia about the number 42 (and this one really is worthless) is that it was Fox Mulder's apartment number on the X-Files. Gotta love that Chris Carter!

Anonymous said...

I just love those blue link homepage thingies. I click on them and end up in the most interesting places. Good to meet ya.

Ellie said...

Though I think the study is right on, I'm meeting more and more Pagens. In fact the person who sits next to me at work all day long is a staunch Pagen.