Well, I dunno. There seem to be an awful lot of us “atheiettes” here, and I know a lot more religious guys than dolls.
Maybe it depends what part of the country you’re in, and what kind of people you hob-nob with.
Eve wrote:
Well yes, but that’s not really surprising, given the title of the thread. A woman who is not religious is probably going to be tempted to post on this thread to dispute my premise. So I think we have something of a skewed sample here. I could be wrong, but like I say, the numbers seem to be backing me up. 
There are a couple of things being overlooked in this thread:
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The people who post to an online message board are not representative of the population in general (either of a country or of the world).
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Look at the values championed by many religions:
[ul][li]forgiveness[/li][li]mercy[/li][li]charity[/li][li]chastity[/li][li]fidelity[/ul][/li]
Futhermore, religions often focus on your feelings. Spirituality is compared to love, etc. These are characteristics that men are often told are “wussy” or “unmanly” (not to mention the vices that Johnny Angel brought up). It’s no wonder that men number fewer in churches.
There is also the possibilty of work routines disrupting a church-attending lifestyle. I would hazard a guess that more men have jobs that would cause this problem.
emarkb wrote:
It’s too bad the Jack Chick web page is down, or else I’d post the `Jesus is a Wimp’ comic, about a truck driver who though Jesus was a big fat hwussie because he turned the other cheek, until another truck driver pointed out that Jesus had to have big, big balls to get nailed to a cross for the sins of the world. Well, that’s a real rough paraphrase, but you get the idea.
Not only are there generally more women than men in church, but the men there probably have a lower than 60% belief rate.
The “concept” of religion is more suited to women, which is probably why the old religions felt the need to lean heavily to the patriarchal.
Now men remain largely out of family tradition, and not having the heart to tell “mom and dad” that they are really athiests, which would send them into the ultimate self imposed physcological hell, thinking their poor son will be burning in some “real” hell, while they are basking in gods glory!
(egad!)
Welcome aboard bossbuster.
I agree that there are a lot of atheists sitting in church pews, either out of a sense of family obligation, as you suggest, or because they enjoy the social atmosphere. I think many husbands attend, not because they believe, but to support their wives, and for appearances’ sake.
I attended church myself for a time, and kept going even after I was well along the way to deciding that I was an atheist (in college). The hypocrisy finally got to be too much, and I quit going.
(This prompted phone calls and visits from concerned church members, and I wound up having to debate with them the existence of God. I did not want to be in that position because frankly, I felt I had better arguments. My philosophy is that if someone believes, and gets some enjoyment or benefit out of it, I have no business trying to talk them out of those beliefs.)
Bottom line though, I agree that the number of men who actually believe may be even lower than that suggested by church attendance numbers.
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While you’re counting, it might be interesting to note age ranges.
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You’d go to church too if it was the only time you got an hour’s peace and quiet. Or saw someone other than the Meals on Wheels volunteer.
Stereotypically, woman are not indoctrinated in self-determination. (How’s that for a mouthful?)The overt message is Have faith, God will be there The underlying message is You can’t do this on your own. Again stereotypically, there is little to no stigma in a woman acknowledging vulnerability or asking for help, but the same does not hold true for men. I would even venture to say that religious feeling is seen as more socially acceptable in women than in men. Men may react to religion as: Why am I letting someone tell me what to do, think, feel? The female reaction may be: Everyone else expects me to listen to them, why should church be any different?