In a recent poll conducted by the widely respected news outlet The Journal, people were asked:
Should local governmental bodies be allowed to open their meetings with a prayer?
With thousands answering, the results were an astonishing 93 percent opposed! See the results, here.
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Except I know that at least one Ontarian voted in that poll ;-).
(Apologies if this shows up twice)
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/05/you_all_have_such_fun_crashi…
Polls of this sort are virtually worthless. It is so much fun to see a demonstration of why this is so, delivered by a group such as PZ�s readers who make no secret of the fact.
I voted no, but noted in the comments that if the people in the meeting were required to perform a Native American dance around the conference table then maybe it was OK. And I mean DANCE -- none of that fake piety with heads bowed thinking about the good-looking secretary taking notes.
Yes, these polls are worthless, but only for their stated purpose. From another point of view, they can have value.
I believe that the forces behind ID and Expelled and all of that decay don't really care about teaching their falsehood. I think they just use this to keep a certain segment of the population riled up. Then they can steer that segment to other work, generally at the polls but also at the pickets, in the libraries, and so on.
So even though the results of this poll can be doubted, I think it shows that the forces of reason can also rally the troops.
If we can skew the polls, the whores in office will dance to our dissonant tune.