How many fundamentalist believers do you know personally?

[siddharth]

This thread has branched off from the following thread: http://nirmukta.net/Thread-How-many-rati...personally

We were discussing how many atheists/freethinkers do we know personally. This of course means that "friends" from the internet don't count, for it is possible that some of us have 600 on our facebook lists.

The results of that poll followed a nice little Normal (bell) Curve.

Forum member 'Anomaly' commented the following:

Quote:It's a bit sad that the peak is at 10 people though because thats only 1/15 of the theoretical cognitive limit of the number of social relationships one person can maintain ( Dunbar's number - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number)

Does that mean all of us free-thinkers are surrounded by theists ? I feel like I am most of the time.

I do think that a lot of people are 'culturally Hindu', 'observant but not a believer' and 'spiritual but not religious' etc. Maybe a poll that asks for - ' Number of fundamental believers you know' might also be interesting.

So how many fundamentalist believers do you know? (The question is open to theists and fundamental believers too!).

[Lije]

I thought I'd have a lot more deeply religious acquaintances than what I counted (<20). Most people I know are religious, but as anaomly said, they are culturally religious or spiritual.

[anomaly]

I guess this sort of question kind of gives me hope, because it's clear that there's a large non-fundamentalist demographic that will at least hear us out and listen to rational argument.

Then again the (as yet) small sample size and bias towards non-religious (because this is a rationalist forum) may be telling here.

[palaeo]

I know quite a few adults how fall into the crazy Christian category. And there is a guy in my class who tried to convert me. On the street. It was so awkward. But all of my friends who do follow a religion aren't fundies. Just "spiritual".

[siddharth]

Haha... the evangelical ones are the freaks.