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-----Original Message-----<snip>
From: Forum for Physics Educators
[mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On Behalf Of Hugh Haskell
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 1:44 AM
<snip>The Federal Bureau of Prisons does have statistics on religiousinmates per
affiliations of inmates. The following are total number of
religion category:does this)
Response Number %
---------------------------- --------
Catholic 29267 39.164%
Protestant 26162 35.008%
Muslim 5435 7.273%
American Indian 2408 3.222%
Nation 1734 2.320%
Rasta 1485 1.987%
Jewish 1325 1.773%
Church of Christ 1303 1.744%
Pentecostal 1093 1.463%
Moorish 1066 1.426%
Buddhist 882 1.180%
Jehovah Witness 665 0.890%
Adventist 621 0.831%
Orthodox 375 0.502%
Mormon 298 0.399%
Scientology 190 0.254%
Atheist 156 0.209%
Hindu 119 0.159%
Santeria 117 0.157%
Sikh 14 0.019%
Bahai 9 0.012%
Krishna 7 0.009%
---------------------------- --------
Total Known Responses 74731 100.001% (rounding to 3 digits
religion is known.
Unknown/No Answer 18381
----------------------------
Total Convicted 93112 80.259% (74731) prisoners'
Held in Custody 3856 (not surveyed due to temporary custody)
----------------------------
Total In Prisons 96968
As I said before, This data does not prove that atheists are_______________________________________________
more moral people than Christians. There are lots of reasons
why the results may be as they are that have nothing to do
with relative morality of different groups. It is also true
that the conditions are such in many prisons that prisoners
who profess religion get better treatment than those who do
not (as long as the religion they profess conforms to what
the prison officials see as a "legitimate" one), so there may
be a fraction of "jailhouse conversions" in the data above
that can distort the results.
I make no claims about this data showing that atheists are
inherently better people than Christians, only that the data
is certainly not consistent with claims that Christians are
more moral than atheists.