Alright, you asked for it. There have been several discussions revolving around religion, specifically, belief, or lack thereof. This Diary is sure to be a place of disagreement, as all such Diaries are. Then, again, I make no statement. Just some statistics - as requested by several. Who is an Atheist? Not the definition of one - since we all have our own definitions - but really, Who?
I try not to just read the contents of a Wiki out as data, but it's all the same data in any case. Here's a link to the wiki on Atheism. There are other sources used here. They will be linked.
So here's the stats:
Worldwide, 2.3% of the world's population is Atheist. Another 11.9 % are non-religious. Math gives us a figure of 14.2% of the many billions of humans on the Earth that lack a belief in a Man in the Sky (or Woman in the Sky, or Both, or several of either, or both). Note that to an Atheist, there are no deities of any kind - and not all religions have the same deities. For many, that's just a single being, for others it's several. Atheists don't disbelieve any harder at Christians than they do at worshippers of Kali. It's all the same.
No one self-identified as an "Atheist" until the 18th Century.
Atheists in Western Nations: United States - 4%, Italy - 7%, Spain - 11%, Great Britain - 17%, France - 32%.
Number of babies born with religious beliefs - 0%, anywhere. Belief in a supreme being is a learned behavior.
And, more demographics:
Canadian beliefs - the statistics are all over the place: 53% of Canadians believe in God. BUT, 28% of Protestants, 33% of Catholics, and 23% of those who attend weekly religious services do not. One quarter (23%) of those with no religious identity still believe in God.
Always remember, there are lies, damn lies, and then statistics ;).
Country with the highest percentage of Atheists: South Korea at 41%. Second place - Sweden at 23%.
The country with the lowest percentage of Atheists is now the United States (4%), but in 2005, it was Italy.
In 1914, 58% of randomly selected Natural Scientists expressed "disbelief or doubt in the existence of God". The same test repeated in 1996 - gave a number of 60.7%.
A 2005 Eurostat Eurobarometer poll, 52% of European Union citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 27% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 18% that "they do not believe there is a spirit, God, nor life force". Results were widely varied between different countries, with 95% of Maltese respondents stating that they believe in God, on the one end, and only 16% of Estonians stating the same on the other.
A poll done in the UK in 2004 shows that in the United Kingdom, 49% of women are non-believers, while 39% of men are are also non-believers.
A 2009 study reported that two thirds of teenagers in the UK do not believe in God.
The latest statistics show that a lack of religious identity increased in every US state between 1990 and 2008.
Overall, U.S. Americans who profess no religion or self-identify as atheist or agnostic are more likely to be white, non-Hispanic, or Asian and less likely to be African American or Hispanic, as compared to the general adult population in U.S.
In the U.S., 55 percent of atheists are under age 35.
Percentage of imprisoned persons that are Atheist - .003% Percentage of imprisoned persons that self identify as Christian - 75%.
Atheists in South America: Uruguay - 12%, Argentina 11.3 %, Chile 8.3%, Brazil - 7.4%, Columbia - 1.9%, Peru - 1.4%, Paraguay 1.1%.
Atheists in Australia: 18.7%.
Number of Human Beings that do not believe in God: 500-750 million.
Alright, I could post links to stats all day. No statement about Atheism to make here. Create your own conclusions ;). Enough for now.