Fun with Numbers (collegiate atheism)

[cthulu2016]

"62 percent of children who enter college with a faith conviction leave without it" — Rick Santorum

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/206633-santorum-says-obama-wants-more-americans-to-go-to-college-so-they-can-be-indoctrinated

Okay... what percentage of kids enter college as believers? Let's say 80%
.
80% x 38% = 30.4% So the percentage of the college educated who are believers is 30%. Even if 90% of students enter college as belivers the faith-rate among the college educated would be only 34%

Does that sound right to you?

Meanwhile...

Church Attendance Falling Among Less-Educated Whites: Study

While overall church attendance has declined slightly in the United States in recent decades, a new study says attendance at religious services among white Americans who did not go to college has fallen more than twice as quickly as it has among more highly educated whites.

The study, released Sunday by the American Sociological Association, draws on decades of data from the General Social Survey and the National Survey of Family Growth to conclude that "moderately educated whites," defined as people with high school degrees, attended religious services in the 1970s at about the same rate as whites with degrees from four-year colleges. In the last decade, however, they attended much less frequently.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/21/church-attendance-falling_n_930036.html

[edhopper]

1. It seem appropriate

to accuse Santorum of pulling things out of his ass.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Another make-believe statistic for a make-believe world.

Not according to this: http://www.christianpost.com/news/college-not-public-enemy-for-religiosity-study-shows-27982/

College students are the least likely to abandon their faith than those who never pursued a college degree, a recent study revealed.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin found that college attendance appears to prevent young adults from losing their religion, contradicting widely held assumptions that students leave the church or their faith altogether during their college years.

[Scuba]

3. Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that 72.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

[surrealAmerican]

4. I wonder where he got that statistic.

If it was a legitimate source, I'm guessing it includes students who convert from one denomination to another. A lot of religious group "prey" on college students in a rather aggressive manner.

[MineralMan]

5. It was probably from one of George Barna's statistical analyses.

He does all sorts of them. Oddly enough, the 62% number seems to show up a lot in his results. Google Barna 62%. He seems to get that number a lot. "Tithes down 62%. There are several results with that percentage out there from him. Bogus research.