[1] >> 'Argumentum ad populum' is the argument that a majority belief is a true belief. I'm saying simply that majority belief is firstly evidence, and secondly raises a presumption of some merit for the belief. In opinion polls we determine a majority belief on a matter. One would not assume that the majority belief is wrong. One would assume that it is probably right, or at least could be right.

Rowland: A point off to the side on this one...

When I spent three years wandering around Australia's campuses as a young twenty-something, I was impressed with the fact that the proportion of committed Christians among academics (students and lecturers) in Australia was (then) higher than that in the population at large...

Maybe Ken Smith might have a more up-to-date figure on this...

Ken: Reasonably up-to-date, Rowland.

But these should be taken as representative of just Brisbane universities - I haven't talked to enough people in other states to be definite.

Certainly among the physical sciences (chemistry, geology, maths, physics, in alphabetical order) it's much higher than in the general population.

Among the biological sciences (excluding medical sciences) it's about the same as the general population. In the medical area I think it's a bit higher than the general population.

But in most other areas it would be about the same - or maybe a bit lower.

Rowland:>Now, I think the same would be true of committed atheists on our campuses versus non-tertiary people...

Ken: Yes, I'm sure you're right on this one, Rowland.

I suspect that if a survey was done of the general population about God, with properly designed questions, you'd find that something like 70% would say that they believed in God, but the vast majority would then say that their God was just some vague controlling power behind teh universe, and not interested in people's everyday lives. "How would a loving God permit so much evil?" they would ask. And it's *this* question which has led so many people on tertiary campuses to adopt the "there can't possibly be a good God behind all this" approach.

Take many posters to the newsgroup a.r.c as a sample of people who have actually thought about this problem.

Rowland: Note the qualifier (or is it a modifier?)... 'committed'...

December 2006.