MyDD :: PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos

PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos

by francislholland, Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 01:01:52 AM EST

PastorDan of DailyKos and Street Prophets has graced my blog with his comments and offered the following useful information with respect to my diary about the political ramifications for the Democratic Party when our atheists and agnostics come out of the closet to advocate for a counter-religious political agenda:

Uh, the least you could do if you're going to go on the attack is get your facts straight.

Street Prophets is not Daily Kos, but a part of the same family of sites. The editorial staffs and positions are separate.

So separate, in fact, that Street Prophets was formed around consideration of religion and politics from a progressive perspective. Given that many progressives are in fact atheists or agnostics - some, like Pete Stark, are even Unitarians - it seemed only fair to let them have their say as well . . . See PastorDan's full comments at the Francis L. Holland Blog.

PastorDan's comments help readers to understand the relationship between DailyKos and Street Prophets, for the latter of which PastorDan speaks in an official capacity.

See the discussion, the rest of PastorDan's comments, and my response at the Francis L. Holland Blog.

Tags: atheism, agnosticism (all tags)

Permalink :: 9 Comments :: Post a Comment

65% - source (none / 0)

Where do you get your stat that Daily Kos readers are 65% agnostic and athiest? You can't run scientific polls and there is a huge self-selection bias for diary polls - readers of faith might think 'ugh...another diary on athiesm' and skip it.

There are a few demographic polls that make the recommended diary list that at least have some claim on being representative. Can you share where and/or how you got the 65% figure with a good link?

"Nothing seems to embarrass the political class today." - Bill Moyers

by joejoejoe on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 01:22:53 AM EST

Re: 65% - source (none / 0)

DrSteveB at DailyKos did a poll in which he asked how many people were atheists and agnostics, and he included definitions of both in the diary with which he polled people about their religious/non-religious beliefs. When DrSteveB's combined figures for atheists and agnostics were totaled it was concluded that the combined total is 65% of DailyKos participants. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2 /6/74350/23451

DrSteveB polls the DailyKos community fairly regularly about its demographics.

by francislholland on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 02:15:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: 65% - source (3.00 / 1)

That poll has fine distinctions about theology and no labels for you to so quickly distill out '65% are athiest or agnostic'.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/2/ 6/74350/23451/332#c332

Here's how DrSteveB characterized the results from his own poll at 7:44 AM PDT, 3 hours after it was posted - "two-thirds not atheist". The poll could have been stuffed by athiest groups just like the MyDD Presidential post gets stuffed by candidate supporters. Online polls are only representitive for a brief period before they are rendered useless by activist subsets of any community. It's no great victory for organized religion or spirituality to win an unscientific Daily Kos poll but such is the state of athiesm in America that winning that poll IS a big victory. Not that there was any poll answers labelled 'athiest'. There is one that is devoutly agnostic.

The poll also separates BELIEF from BEHAVIOR. There are plenty o' people who are making Pascal's wager - 'Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.' Don't you think that there are a good chunk of people who don't know if God exists but behave in an identical manner to somebody that is certain that God exists because they HOPE God exists?

I think you misread the poll if you extract your 65% figure for two reasons.

1) the poll is about theological world view and lacks labels, it's not about religious practice

2) the poll has a vastly different result now then it did 3 hours after it was opened per the authors own comment - leading me to believe it was stuffed

I take the poll you cite to mean '2/3 of users in an unscientific poll at Daily Kos were NOT athiests' - per DrSteveB. That'a A LOT different than '65% of Daily Kos readers are athiest and agnostic'.

"Nothing seems to embarrass the political class today." - Bill Moyers

by joejoejoe on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 03:27:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos (none / 0)

You have no credibility. You have a blog entitled 'The Truth About Kos' and have a section linking to you odious diaries from your short stay at dKos.

Just stop it and go away.

by PsiFighter37 on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 01:51:16 AM EST

Re: PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos (none / 0)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2 /6/74350/23451

by francislholland on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 02:15:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos (none / 0)

If you have to bloviate without facts, could you at least do so in your own diary. This "pimp my diary" crap is getting tired.

The last time you replied to me you tried to force me into a pimp. You can't even reply posts without trying to pimp people to your freaking blog.

I concur with the above poster, feel free to go away.

by ElitistJohn on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 02:02:43 AM EST

Re: PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos (none / 0)

I'm simply citing the facts from DrSteveB's poll, which seem to be the best facts available. If you read them and discover that they are in error, please note that here and I will change my diary to reflect our new understanding of the facts.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2 /6/74350/23451

by francislholland on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 02:16:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

that's it, you are banned (3.00 / 2)

How many times did I have to warn you about posting anti-Dailykos diaries here? This is MyDD, not Dailykos. If you have a problem with Dailykos, take it up somewhere else. MyDD is not second life for for anti-social types that get banned from Dailykos.

by Chris Bowers on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 02:25:12 AM EST

Re: PastorDan Addresses Atheism at DailyKos (3.00 / 1)

A shame. Guy's got some talent, too bad he fails "plays well with others."

Democratic Candidate, US Senate, Wisconsin 2012

by benmasel on Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 11:19:12 AM EST

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