continuum:

Voters favor cuts to balance the budget — yet they object to most of the cuts that could be made, a Los Angeles Times/USC Poll shows.

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.  [original post]

ericmortensen:

2010 Election Results

We’ve got a neat interactive infographic here just in time for the midterm elections. It takes a peek at what issues Americans are wringing their hands over, and how their concerns have changed since the start of the decade.

etrehumain:

Gallup: Americans’ Acceptance of Gay Relations Crosses 50% Threshold

Click through for source.

friendlyatheist:

Article has 10 sample questions. Got 10 of 10 correct.

The survey is full of surprising findings.

For example, it’s not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it’s atheists and agnostics.

It’s not Bible-belt Southerners who scored highest - they came at the bottom.

Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God did slightly worse than average, while those who say it is not the word of God scored slightly better.

Barely half of all Catholics know that when they take communion, the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ, according to Catholic doctrine.

Yes. If there is a doctrine that needs ignoring is the doctrine of transubstantiation. Of in lay terms: magical cannibalism. No wonder people do not know about it. It is so ridiculous it boggles the mind.

Smith has a theory about why atheists did so well on the quiz - they have thought more about religion than most people.

“Very few people say that they were raised as atheists and agnostics,” he explains.

About three out of four were raised as Christians, he says.

“They were raised in a faith and have made a decision to identify themselves with groups that tend to be fairly unpopular,” atheists and agnostics, he says.

“That decision presupposes having given some thought to these things,” which is strongly linked with religious knowledge, he says.

I agree. Thinking is the antithesis of myth and superstition. No doubt about it.

friendlyatheist:

A Gallup report issued on Tuesday underscored just how out of line we are. Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious. (via Op-Ed Columnist - Religious Outlier - NYTimes.com)

friendlyatheist:

The Slow March Toward Gay Marriage Rights - Newsweek

Gay couples can wed in “Buenos Aires, in Mexico City, in Ames, Iowa, and in Pretoria, South Africa, but not in San Francisco.” Though, despite reversals on allowing gay marriage in California, that might soon change too. While the consensus that emerges across various polls on the topic is that people are currently evenly divided on the issue, it seems that over time the trend will move toward acceptance in California, and eventually across America.

A Los Angeles Times poll found that 71 percent of Californians between 18 and 29 supported gay marriage rights. That figure dropped to 37 percent for those older than 65. A 2009 Columbia University study, “Gay Rights in the States: Public Opinion and Policy Responsiveness” [PDF], shows the shift even more clearly.

It is good to realize that time is on the side of equality and justice.