Source
r/DebateAChristian•
missing_7

[META] Sub Demographics

As you may have seen, we recently reached 10,000 subscribers. Some people have expressed interest in seeing what the demographics of this sub are. So, I decide to create this straw poll to allow us all to get a general idea of who participates here. I have included an "Other" and "Undecided" category. If you fall into the "Other" category, feel free to leave a comment here stating your affiliation.

Link to poll: http://strawpoll.me/2384073

Posted Aug 20, 2014, 4:02 PM UTC

1092
SsurebreCAgnostic Atheist•

OK, I'm an agnostic atheist, so which do I pick: agnostic or atheist. I don't consider myself to be either - I consider myself to be both.

1
mynunameChristian, Ex-Atheist•

IMHO, unless you were really on the fence about whether or not there is a god, I think it would be more accurate to say atheist. Uncertainty comes with most beliefs. For example, I think many Christians here (including me) would technically say they are agnostic Christians.

2
SsurebreCAgnostic Atheist•

Yeah that's what I picked in the long run. I just don't like that label, I fear the connotation is gnostic atheist.

1
archaic_entity•

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a gnostic atheist?

1
SsurebreCAgnostic Atheist•

No worries. Gnostic atheist means they don't believe in any Gods (atheist) but also KNOW there are NO Gods (gnostic - knowledge).

This is as opposed to agnostic atheist (me) who doesn't believe in any Gods but doesn't know either way. I have no evidence that there is or is not any Gods, I just don't believe in them either.

For example, you can also have an agnostic theist (which I think is most theists) - they believe in a God but they don't know for sure (they have faith).

2
ItsDartsAtheist, Anti-theist•

Are you agnostic about any god and atheistic about the Christian god and gods of man made religions? Or more specifically you don't know the Christian god exists or not, but you don't believe it does?

0
SsurebreCAgnostic Atheist•

I don't see a difference between the Christian God or any other God. As far as I know, they have the same claims.

I specifically don't know if any Gods exist but I don't believe any do. I tend to believe things that I know are true. There's no reason for me to believe things I don't know are true. Certainly not important things, like Gods and religions.

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

Pick either one. This is just a general poll. Not everyone is represented.

1
SsurebreCAgnostic Atheist•

Alrighty

1
MrMostDefinitely•

22,300 subscribers to r/debatereligion

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

Yeah. It is a good sub.

1
MrMostDefinitely•

I wonder what the demo differences are.

1
samreayAtheist•

No need to wonder, I made an infographic about the subs demographics a while back!

The sub has expanded a bit since I took that survey, here is a Google Analytics result of the 2013 survey

3
MrMostDefinitely•

Thanks.

Those charts are neat, but i can read them to save my life.

How does debate religion compare demographically with debate a christian?

I have unt theory

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

It definitely has more diversity. I don't think I've ever seen a Muslim here, but I constantly see them there. And we only have like 2 Jewish users here.

2
MrMostDefinitely•

Right, im just wondering how much overlap.

1
tamist•

I wish you put "agnostic Jew" on the poll because there are sooooo many of us. I suppose we are technically agnostic by faith, but I would still prefer to say I'm an agnostic Jew, especially since in this sub I offer the Jewish answer (with a disclaimer that I don't believe in the religion) more then the agnostic answer bc there are less of us.

1
BCRE8TVEAtheist, Anti-theist•

Maybe we should add a "Christian" option? The Catholic-or-Protestant category might be good enough, but then again maybe not, with many sort of in the middle and not knowing which ones to pick.

Also, as of this comment, I'm really surprised to see that of those who have answered already, 50%+ are atheist.

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

I threw Protestant in there as sort of the non-Catholic catch-all. I really didn't want to have too many options. I just strolled through what flair users had (we can see them all in a list) and picked the most common ones. The numbers are actually showing up as I assumed they would.

1
BCRE8TVEAtheist, Anti-theist•

Fair enough. On the one hand just "Christian" would be a good catch-all, but it's rather non-specific.

Then again, maybe it's just a few atheists going in and voting again and again ;)

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

Well, I left IP filtering turned on. However, that can be easily bypassed. But this poll is just for fun.

1
ItsDartsAtheist, Anti-theist•

Can confirm, I couldn't vote a second time and I only tried it because he mentioned it, to see if it was possible. ;-)

1
mynunameChristian, Ex-Atheist•

The numbers look about right to me.

1
TroyKing[Torah-Observant Christian]•

Other for me = (Messianic Karaite Jewish) OR (Torah-observant Protestant). There are enough of us out there to have congregations, but there don't seem to be many of us here.

The entry to add for that would most likely be covered by "Messianic". That covers nearly all the variations: Hebrew Roots, Messianic Judaism, Torah-Observant Christian, Messianic Gentiles... they all have different doctrines, but would all be represented by the single word "Messianic".

But again, I don't think there are many of us in this sub.

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

Yeah. I believe you are the first I've seen here.

1
TroyKing[Torah-Observant Christian]•

I have run into the doctrines in comments by other users maybe 5 times, so it's not many. I'd say probably 90% of us are former Protestants of some flavor. Search Google for any of the denominations I listed and you'll see we're out there. We even have Google Maps pages to help find congregations.

1
TelochiAtheist, Anti-theist•

It seems like the majority of this community is atheist, interesting.

1
ThoguthChristian, Ex-Atheist•

When I checked it was a plurality of about 45% ... greater than any other demographic, including Christians, but not a majority. And that's not really a big surprise ... although I wonder why they're not all focused on Islam. If I were to oppose religion, I'd probably start with the most harmful and work my way back. But it seems instead that people start with what they're most familiar with instead.

1
EdwardHarleyAgnostic Atheist•

I put "other" because I am an agnostic atheist (you separated them) and because you listed them as "religious beliefs," which is something I don't have.

-2†
mynunameChristian, Ex-Atheist•

Atheism doesn't reflect your belief about religion?

3
EdwardHarleyAgnostic Atheist•

My opinions about religion are a result of my skepticism and critical thinking, as is my atheism.

1
mynunameChristian, Ex-Atheist•

Then it seems like atheism accurately describes your belief. Don't get caught up in technical semantics to prove a point.

2
EdwardHarleyAgnostic Atheist•

My atheism describes what I lack, not what I have. My belief is described by my skepticism, critical thinking, and secular humanism. My atheism can't describe any beliefs I have because atheism is not a positive belief position.

3
SsurebreCAgnostic Atheist•

I'm more atheist than agnostic so I put in atheist. After all, you can be an agnostic Christian.

2
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

Other is fine with me. Those labels specifically describe your beliefs regarding religious ideas. I feel the wording is appropriate.

0
EdwardHarleyAgnostic Atheist•

I'm not saying the wording is wrong or should be changed, you just said to comment if you put other, so here I am. I wouldn't personally word it that way but it's not my poll so I have no say in the matter.

1
missing_7OPPurgatorial Universalist•

Well, thanks for voting. I'm sure the wording could be better, but I didn't assume it would need to be very precise for people to understand what to do.

2