Thursday, August 18, 2011

Atheists: No longer the least popular group

A mildly amusing survey shows that the Tea Party is less popular in America than all other groups mentioned:

In an op-ed article in the New York Times, Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, and David E. Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame, say they have collected data indicating that the tea party is "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'"


To be fair, there's bound to be cross-over, as a Tea Party member could very well be an Atheist or a Muslim (although I would find it highly unlikely.) The survey also asks participants to rate religious groups, political parties, and notable individuals, so the results are bound to be weak and difficult to interpret.

But it's refreshing to see that atheists are no longer the whipping boys of American culture.

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