A new poll of people in Britain found that roughly one in five[1] non-believers there admit that they pray -- especially during a crisis. This sort of agrees with findings by the Pew Research Center which a couple years ago found that nearly 6% of American atheists pray every day and 11% pray weekly or monthly.
This causes me to wonder why these atheists pray if they claim that God does not exist.
The new poll was conducted by ComRes (a market research consultancy headquartered in London and one of the country's best known pollsters) at the behest of Tearfund (a Christian charity involved in alleviating world poverty).
1. Although The Independent says it's "around 24%" and then later says "as many as one in five" and the Daily Mail reports "One in four atheists or agnostics." Taking a quick look at the raw data from ComRes, suggests that 20% is correct (page 21).
This causes me to wonder why these atheists pray if they claim that God does not exist.
The new poll was conducted by ComRes (a market research consultancy headquartered in London and one of the country's best known pollsters) at the behest of Tearfund (a Christian charity involved in alleviating world poverty).
1. Although The Independent says it's "around 24%" and then later says "as many as one in five" and the Daily Mail reports "One in four atheists or agnostics." Taking a quick look at the raw data from ComRes, suggests that 20% is correct (page 21).
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