Mid-west Humanists – An Irish Atheist Community

This information comes from a report in the Irish Times on a survey carried out by the Irish School of Ecumenics.  They surveyed 700 faith leaders and 900 lay people about a range of faith related topics.  12% of the lay people self identified as atheist or no religion and and they felt that when they are talking noone is listening.  The report states that this 12% is disproportinate to their numbers in the general population and I find this comment very interesting.  I think that the proportion of atheists in the population is larger and their survey is faulty in the way they selected their sample 

Our survey was obviously limited to people who first of all heard about it (through the various channels we employed), and then were interested enough in the topic to visit our website and had the technical skills to complete it.

The poor design of the last census form practically guarantees that atheists and people of no religion will be underrepresented.  That 12% come through in a survey like this must give us hope that we are making progress.

Irish Times Article

Original report

Filed under: atheism, humanism, ireland, Press |