Studies on Atheism in Canada

[Vagabonder]

I've been researching on statistics and attitudes towards atheists in Canada, and have had little luck. I've found plenty on the U.S., and have e-mailed some individuals with respect to their research, but my E-Library searches on my university website and my google searching are coming up empty.

Any ideas? Have you heard of any Canadian culture surveys, papers, etc. on atheism.

Regards,

Brian

[shipload]

Hmmm...I'd go check with the librarian at the local institution of higher education. U of Manitoba?

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

I've been researching on statistics and attitudes towards atheists in Canada, and have had little luck. I've found plenty on the U.S., and have e-mailed some individuals with respect to their research, but my E-Library searches on my university website and my google searching are coming up empty.

Any ideas? Have you heard of any Canadian culture surveys, papers, etc. on atheism.

Regards,

Brian
Hello Vagabonder, I can help you a little. :)

Two studies I know of, using the 1996 God and Society in North America survey, looked at a question regarding how one felt about voting for an atheist to public office.

Guth, J. L., & Fraser, C. R. (2001). Religion and Partisanship in Canada. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(1), 51-64.

Reimer, S. (2003). Evangelicals and the continental divide: the conservative protestant subculture in Canada and the United States. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.

The survey question asked: "Would you vote for a political leader who is an atheist?"

According to results from regression analysis by Guth and Fraser (p. 55), identifying with the Reform Party or PC Party was a predictor for answering "no" while identifying with Bloc Quebecois was a predictor for answering "yes" (those bloody heathen frogs! :p). The results for those who identify with the Liberals and NDP were not statistically significant.

Reimer (p. 134) found 71.9% of Canadians answered "yes" to the question while 55.1% of Canadians who are evangelical Protestants said "no".

Anyways, if you're familiar with statistical packages such as SPSS and the use of cross-tabs or regression analysis, you could perhaps download the God and Society in NA survey and do your own analysis.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Aha! I found another one for ya. :)

Check out the 2000 World Values Survey (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/) for Canadian respondents.

The survey asked respondents for what they thought of the following:

"Politicians who do not believe in God are unfit for public office."

Here were the results:

Agree Strongly: 6.6%
Agree: 18.6%
Neither agree or disagree: 21.8%
Disagree: 35.9%
Strongly Disagree: 21.2%
Don't know: 2.5%

If you wanted to go into more detail, the WVS has an online cross-tab feature that lets you incorporate more variables.

Best of luck!

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Reimer (p. 134) found 71.9% of Canadians answered "yes" to the question while 55.1% of Canadians who are evangelical Protestants said "no".

Oops! I goofed. Sorry to bring back a zombie thread, but I can't let an error like this go uncorrected.

That should read, "55.1% of Canadians who are evangelical Protestants said "yes".