Ages of Athiests

[themonkeyman]

Hi Folks,

It seams rather strange to me but it looks like the common age group of Atheists on this site is around 16 - 25. Is there anything to be read from this? E.g. Perhaps Rebellion?

Or are there older people here who are in the shadows - Just I've been wondering why we have never seen many older Atheists.

Cheers,

[Silver]

Why do you want to know how old I am?

[Heir Apparent]

I think quite a few of the members here are older. And by "older" I of course mean quite young. 30's-50's, you know. Young.

I'll let them explain why you don't see too many "out and proud" "older" atheists. I only have a theory.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Or are there older people here who are in the shadows - Just I've been wondering why we have never seen many older Atheists.

IT's becuase they've been harvested for their organs.

[pocaracas]

Minimalist, Kichi and zen will disagree...

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Minimalist, Kichi and zen will disagree...

Maybe they're the ones harvesting the organs...

[themonkeyman]

See It just makes me think that perhaps my athiesm is because I havent the knowledge to believe - Where as as a I grow older I will understand I dont need this knowledge?

I'm just wondering why theres a a gap between 18-30 and then not alot of people on these fourms over and above that.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

See It just makes me think that perhaps my athiesm is because I havent the knowledge to believe - Where as as a I grow older I will understand I dont need this knowledge?

I'm just wondering why theres a a gap between 18-30 and then not alot of people on these fourms over and above that.

Maybe it's to do more with the ability of users? Younger people tend to be on the internet in greater numbers than older people (there are always exceptions to this rule, however).

We have grown up with the internet and it's second nature to us. This isn't always true of older people. My nan is an atheist, but I doubt she'd know how to even turn a PC on let allone contribute to a forum discussion.

The only knowledge you need to 'believe' is the knowledge that there are other sources of knowledge out there you're willing to ignore to maintain your belief.

[Ben Davis]

Hi Folks,

It seams rather strange to me but it looks like the common age group of Atheists on this site is around 16 - 25. Is there anything to be read from this? E.g. Perhaps Rebellion?

Or are there older people here who are in the shadows - Just I've been wondering why we have never seen many older Atheists.

Cheers,

1. Is that the most common age group? What's your data? It should be fairly easy to get, if you ask enough people nicely enough

2. Even if your base assumption is true, the best you can hope to do is illustrate a correlation. The root cause(s) might be the demographic split for 'propensity to use the internet' or 'propensity to participate in forums'; it's not necessarily 'propensity to be atheistic'.

3. Once again, assuming your basis to be true, it's a massive jump to infer 'youthful rebellion' as an underlying trend. It could be that 'modernisation of society' or 'more people are better educated' is the real influencing factor.

4. On this site, I've seen plenty of 'older' (>25yo) atheists but I don't know what the exact percentage is. My estimate is 60/40 (<25/>25). It could be that you're suffering some compensation bias (maybe I am, too!).

[max-greece]

Now listen here Sonny. Don't be thinking you is the first generation what found atheism.

48 as it happens - just like everyone I know who is my age. Many of us are atheists.