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The Experiment on 100 Professed Atheists

mayday

Graduate Poster
mayday
Joined
Feb 5, 2005
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My friend I work with whose abusive husband was killed by a truck was talking about her church and I somehow brought up the subject of atheism.
She told me there was a study done on 100 people who claimed to be atheists. They hooked them up to a polygraph machine to see if they honestly believed there was no god and she told me over 80% failed. I didn't ask where she saw this because I was not there to be confrontational.

Does anyone know anything about this experiment?
 
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Using every search engine I have available, I have found nothing that even remotely matches this story. I suggest you tell your friend not to spread stories that have no basis in fact, even though they might make her feel self-righteous.
 
In considering whether or not this story deserves even a moment of adult attention, you might bear in mind small matters like the distinctions between different flavors of atheism, and the effectiveness of polygraph machines. Gee, if only such things had been thoroughly discussed numerous times on a board you've been active on for years...
 
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mayday said:
Does anyone know anything about this experiment?
Click to expand...

I strongly suspect that literally no-one knows anything about it, because there never was such an experiment. I'm just guessing though.
 
Hey, that reminds me of an experiment that I heard about with a pendulum swinger who was picking lotto numbers. She said that she'd post predictions and results once a week, so all the skeptics could see how amazing and accurate it was. 80% of the time, she failed to do so. Does anybody know anything about this experiment?
 
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mayday said:
My friend I work with whose abusive husband was killed by a truck was talking about her church and I somehow brought up the subject of atheism.
She told me there was a study done on 100 people who claimed to be atheists. They hooked them up to a polygraph machine to see if they honestly believed there was no god and she told me over 80% failed. I didn't ask where she saw this because I was not there to be confrontational.

Does anyone know anything about this experiment?
Click to expand...

Why do you think polygraphs work?
 
mayday said:
My friend I work with whose abusive husband was killed by a truck was talking about her church and I somehow brought up the subject of atheism.
She told me there was a study done on 100 people who claimed to be atheists. They hooked them up to a polygraph machine to see if they honestly believed there was no god and she told me over 80% failed. I didn't ask where she saw this because I was not there to be confrontational.

Does anyone know anything about this experiment?
Click to expand...

Funny, my friend I work with was talking about her church and I somehow brought the subject of religion. She told me there was a study done on 100 people who claimed to believe in God. They hooked them up to a polygraph machine to see if they honestly believed there was a real god and she told me over 80% failed. I didn't ask where she saw this because I was not there to be confrontational.
 
I don't know where she heard this, but I would guess some cheesy sermon from some dorky pastor who made it up to awe people.

I think it's so humorous to watch people get their undies in a wad, though. You all start rolling around like the snake I pepper sprayed that got in my laundry room.
 
mayday said:
I don't know where she heard this, but I would guess some cheesy sermon from some dorky pastor who made it up to awe people.

I think it's so humorous to watch people get their undies in a wad, though. You all start rolling around like the snake I pepper sprayed that got in my laundry room.
Click to expand...

Why do you think polygraphs work?
 
It's true though, most atheists secretly believe in God. They just act like they don't, in order to rot in hell, rather than qualify for the afterlife of eternal bliss in God's infinite love which they all know actually exists.
 
mayday said:
I don't know where she heard this, but I would guess some cheesy sermon from some dorky pastor who made it up to awe people.

I think it's so humorous to watch people get their undies in a wad, though. You all start rolling around like the snake I pepper sprayed that got in my laundry room.
Click to expand...

Couldn't you just let the poor thing go?
 
mayday said:
I don't know where she heard this, but I would guess some cheesy sermon from some dorky pastor who made it up to awe people.

I think it's so humorous to watch people get their undies in a wad, though. You all start rolling around like the snake I pepper sprayed that got in my laundry room.
Click to expand...

From the tone of your post, I gather you did not like the serving of the same food you gave us, given to you back.

You see, we don't squirm. Because we know a few things more than you do (hint : it has to do with a non existent study, and the fact that polygraph don't really measure what you think they do). We are a bit like adult which tries to bring you on the correct way to handle logic, science, and evidence. From all the thread you started in the same genre, I would gather we failed utterly to teach you anything. If I had to qualify the type of evidence and story you bring us, I would use this "why soar with the eagle when you can wallow with the piggy tale ?".
 
Jeez, people are really jumping on mayday here.

Is there some special reason that I am not aware of here? Why was the OP necessarily worth it?
 
Ignoring any agenda mayday may have had in posting this, I found this article that alludes to some such study:

http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0702W4.htm

Near the end of the article:

...according to Senior Pastor Jess Moody of the First Baptist Church of Van Nuys, California, "Lie detector tests were administered to more than 25,000 people. One of the questions was, ‘Do you believe in God?’ In every case, when a person answered no, the lie detector said he was lying."
Click to expand...

The reference in the footnotes admits that the study could not be confirmed.
 
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