Poll Results: Creepiest Fundie Pastor

With 179 responses, the poll for “Creepiest Fundie Pastor” is now coming to a close. It’s no surprise to me that Fred Phelps got as many votes as he did. If I could go back and redo the poll, I’d have allowed voters to select two that way I could have gotten a good idea of a solid #2. As it stands now, the one with the second highest number of votes is only the creepiest to those who did not find Fred Phelps to be the creepiest.

Here are the results.

  • Fred Phelps – 47 votes
  • Pat Robertson – 41 votes
  • Ted Haggard – 29 votes
  • Joel Osteen – 23 votes
  • Jimmy Swaggart – 12 votes
  • Jerry Falwell (the dead one) – 8 votes
  • James Dobson – 7 votes
  • Rick Warren – 7 votes
  • Other – 5 votes

The truly scary thing is that this list was only a select few of the creepy fundamentalist pastors that exist in our world. No poll could ever encompass all of the creepiness, because a new creepy pastor is likely birthed every day. This is especially true in the Quiverfull community.

Continue to fight the good fight and keep church and state separate in your neighborhood.

Poll Results: The ‘Four Horsemen’ Live and In Person

The 'Four Horsemen'With this poll up for just a little over two months, I got 112 responses to the question “Have you seen any of the “Four Horsemen” speak or debate?

I must admit that I voted in this poll, something I would normally never do, but I had the pleasure of seeing Christopher Hitchens in Birmingham, Alabama in March and I wanted to stand up and be counted.

I wasn’t surprised by the skew of the results, but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of responses I received. It is wonderful to see people committed to an idea supporting the authors that have helped bring said idea into the mainstream for scrutiny.

  • Richard Dawkins – 62 votes
  • Daniel Dennett – 26 votes
  • Sam Harris – 35 votes
  • Christopher Hitchens – 53 votes
  • None – 38 votes

For those 38 respondents and others who have not yet seen one of these gentlemen speak or debate, I highly recommend you try to make it to an upcoming event. Only Richard Dawkins has events scheduled at this time, all of which are in the UK. For my US-based readers, these gentlemen all tend to make their way around the country fairly often. Just keep your eyes peeled on their websites for info on any speaking engagements that might be coming to your area. And let’s face it, if I can see Christopher Hitchens in Alabama, everyone should have an opportunity.

Richard Dawkins:

  • May 19, 2009 – Leicester, UK – Empirical Evidence Against the God Hypothesis
  • June 16, 2009 – Leicester, UK – “45 Minutes From Attack!”: WMD and other state-sponsored conspiracy theories
  • July 21, 2009 – Leicester, UK – Investigating the Impossible: A Skeptical Approach

Poll Results: Oath of Office Verbiage

pollresults2This poll ran for just nine days, so it had a significantly smaller sample from which to draw results than my last poll regarding winter celebrations of choice. I would run this poll longer, however, I feel that after today, the issue would not be nearly as timely. I would like to open the comment section of this post up for any debate on the the issue.

Here are the results from the poll:

  • It is a state ceremony and should be free of religious references. – 24 votes
  • It is the personal decision of the President-Elect, whose wishes should be respected. – 9 votes
  • I could care less. – 4 votes
  • This is the first I’m hearing about this. – 0 votes

I’m certainly glad there were no votes for the final option, as it had even come to the attention of national mainstream media outlets.

I thank you for taking the time to vote, and I hope that you will expand upon your votes through discussion in the comments.

P.S. If you didn’t get a chance to read the Christopher Hitchens piece on Rick Warren that appeared on Slate.com, I highly recommend it.

Poll Results: Winter Celebration

pollresultsI ran this poll for just a little over a month, and after 111 responses, I decided that it was time to report on the results. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to cast their vote in this poll.

I asked, “What do you celebrate this time of year?” The results of the poll are as follows in descending order:

  • Christmas (secularly) – 68 votes
  • Nothing – 18 votes
  • Winter Solstice – 13 votes
  • Christmas (religiously) – 8 votes
  • Festivus – 3 votes
  • Hannukah – 1 vote
  • Kwanzaa – 0 votes

I can’t say this particularly surprised me. All of the atheists that I know personally celebrate Christmas for what it is, a secular holiday centered around family-togetherness and gift exchange. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my mind. When you start mixing in a fat man in a red suit and the birth of a magical being, then it starts to cross the boundary into insanity.

I was glad to see that celebrations of some kind were the majority, because with all of the religious tripe in everyday that cannot be utilized for the enjoyment of all, it is nice to have a holiday that has become so secularized as to allow involvement from all. Sure, every year the religious crazies try to claim Christmas as their own and reintroduce the term “War on Christmas” into the vernacular. However, see that for what it is: a failed attempt to apply religious meaning to a holiday that began without religious meaning.

So when I go to work today, I will continue to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone I see, and watch people squirm as they ponder whether or not it is politically correct or not.