As interesting as the book Atheists: A Groundbreaking Study of America’s Nonbelievers is, I think I take issue with its groundbreakingness. 

It suffers from what appears to be very common when studying atheists – the study considers only absolute non-believers (°Faith=zero).  This seems to compromise their study in a number of ways relating to sample size and reasonable cross-section of the population (bias).  I give them credit for trying, but I wonder if it’s possible to do even better… via the Internet.   Their study was entire on paper, mailed to atheist organizations.  Now that fact alone seems to seriously narrow the sample.  My lack of belief is at a place where I would be perfectly happy and enjoy myself in a room full of atheists, but the likelihood of me joining a club that meets face-to-face to chat about is pretty much nil.  (By the way, why do the ffrf and other organizations have to come off so weird? Where are the mainstream non-believers?)

So, the question that floats through my head is, How many people kinda like me are out there?  I wouldn’t presume to be a silent majority, but I think the numbers are probably much higher than estimated even in the US. 

Life without Faith points out a more encouraging result from the UK Times Online.  Has anyone seen a really strong survey or methodology for finding out the true faith makeup of the US population?  Every study I have seen is seriously flawed in some way.