One of the more interesting an robust survey datum in the United States is the low opinion of atheists, and, the finding that atheists are less popular than Mormons or Muslims or Homosexuals when it come to a vote for high office. Secular Right points out that the Inductivist has posted data from The World Values Survey on this question in an international context. I doubt people will be too surprised, but, I recommend you check out the Inductivist for the full list. Below the fold I've taken the data on that particular question, and compared it to the % of atheists, agnostics an non-believers from selected countries (see data source).
I obviously log-transformed the "Atheists Unfit For High Office" responses on the Y axis. I posted the trendline so that you can see if there is a pattern for the nations above and below it. You can download the data as a csv if you wish to flesh it out by adding better % of atheists, etc., survey data.
Politics
Comments
There seems to be a preponderance of Eastern European / former Iron Curtain / ex-Russian states above the line - something to do with relics of an association between atheism and oppressive communist government, I imagine.
It's interesting to see Greece so far above the line but Spain, Portugal and Italy well below.
Posted by: csrster | January 9, 2009 6:09 AM
I'll grant you that Atheists Are Unfit For The Highest Office. Unless God is an athiest.
Posted by: dearieme | January 9, 2009 10:40 AM
"Unless God is an athiest."
Well, we all have our moments of self-doubt.
Posted by: Moopheus | January 12, 2009 1:05 PM