Reason for converting Good Christians

[True Unbeliever]

My husband was a prison officer in the UK for 15 years so I asked him what sort of ratio of religions were the inmates. He said that apart from the odd screwball Raelian or something like that, muslims, jews etc made up about 20%, the rest were christians. His prison was hardcore and held the nasiest of characters. He witnessed inmates pray in the morning and being responsible for slitting a throat in the afternoon.

What proportion were atheists? Only a handful in relation to the prison population. The reason he knows this is because the atheists and agnostics were taken to the library or stayed in their cells during church services.

This isn't to suggest that atheist inmates didn't commit similiar crimes but to suggest violence is proportionally higher amongst atheist is far from proven.

Footnote: there was a higher percentage of Prison Officers (in husband's division)that were atheists than Christians. Which is interesting to ponder why.

[DD_8630]

Unreasonable in the sense that you probably cannot find a way to live with them. Not talking about religion with them poses not much great deal of difficulty in life. However, others wanting to start fights due to you looking at them or they bumping into your drink makes life very difficult.

I have yet to see an official report regarding the Atheism population in prison vs Christian population. Where is it?

http://www.skepticfiles.org/american/prison.htm
http://www.atheistempire.com/reference/stats/main.html

The percentage of a prison population that identify as 'atheist' is a consistent 0.2%, regardless of which Western country you pick. Compare this to the 15% of the general population and, well, your theory crumbles like Spontaneous Generation.

[Ephrium]

DD,

I suggest you read your own source carefully before posting comments on them or else you will embrass yourself just like you have done.

The First site you have linked quoted from a same author listed in the second: Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith . So lets just discuss the second website.

The first three sources of Atheist convicts are almost one humdred years old.

Not only does the age of the survey cast doubt,in addition, What was the proportion of Atheists one hundred years ago?

The last source quoted from a website which another atheist also logically pointed out that there is no source whatsoever for the site's data.

Given that so many us here have tried to find data supporting that Atheists have lower crime rates but failed to, we can only conclude that it is merely hogwash for now(Until someone finds something new).

Unreasonable in the sense that you probably cannot find a way to live with them. Not talking about religion with them poses not much great deal of difficulty in life. However, others wanting to start fights due to you looking at them or they bumping into your drink makes life very difficult.

I have yet to see an official report regarding the Atheism population in prison vs Christian population. Where is it?

http://www.skepticfiles.org/american/prison.htm
http://www.atheistempire.com/reference/stats/main.html

The percentage of a prison population that identify as 'atheist' is a consistent 0.2%, regardless of which Western country you pick. Compare this to the 15% of the general population and, well, your theory crumbles like Spontaneous Generation.

[DD_8630]

DD,

I suggest you read your own source carefully before posting comments on them or else you will embrass yourself just like you have done.

The First site you have linked quoted from a same author listed in the second: Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith . So lets just discuss the second website.

So a source becomes less reliable the more it's cited? Guh...

The first three sources of Atheist convicts are almost one humdred years old.

Not only does the age of the survey cast doubt,in addition, What was the proportion of Atheists one hundred years ago?

The same as it is now, presumably.

The last source quoted from a website which another atheist also logically pointed out that there is no source whatsoever for the site's data.

Err, the source is given as Denise Golumbaski, Research Analyst at the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Given that so many us here have tried to find data supporting that Atheists have lower crime rates but failed to, we can only conclude that it is merely hogwash for now(Until someone finds something new).

*sigh*

[Ephrium]

The rest of the board can figure out my logic and see the lack of yours or perhaps some misunderstanding you have in your first two statements. Only your third is worth pointing out.

And to that I refer you to:

http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/...squad/5584

[Darwinian]

God: The Failed Hypothesis by Prof. Victor J. Stenger.

Chapter 7, page 194, Paragraph 3

"According to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Christians make up almost 80% of the prison population. Atheists make up about 0.2%"

I think if Prof Stenger has chosen to place this in his book you can be pretty sure that it is accurate.

So, don't write your Blog just yet Adrian.

[Tiberius]

Darwinian,

The problem with that is the evidence Prof Stenger provides for this is:

According to a March 5, 1997, letter to Rod Swift from Denise Golumbaski, research analyst, Fedral Buereau of Prisons, online at http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm (accessed February 5, 2006).
- God: The Failed Hypothesis, page 210, Note #2

The data given at the site is from a letter, not an official investigation. It can hardly be held as evidence for anything. A better website would be:

http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html

It's religious in nature but has more up to date data (with sources).