Anomaly in new religious poll

[ceo_esq]

Nicolas D. Kristof's column from today's New York Times (I read it in the International Herald Tribune) mentions a new poll that indicates, among other things, that "America is so pious that not only do 91 percent of Christians believe in the virgin birth [of Jesus by Mary], but so do an astonishing 47 percent of U.S. non-Christians" (italics and boldface mine).

Frankly, I'm stumped. The virgin birth is a religious mystery taken on faith, if at all (and disbelieved even by many Christians worldwide). What possible motive or reason could 47 percent of our country's non-Christian population have for believing in it?

What is the percentage of people who respond to opinion polls who fail to understand the questions put to them? Maybe that's where the answer lies. Otherwise, I no longer have any confidence in my ability to understand and predict human behavior and attitudes about religion.

[ceo_esq]

Scrap this, I see headscratcher's beaten me to it. See you in his thread about the same article.

[Yahzi]

Originally posted by ceo_esq
SNIP
I was going to respond to this by deliberatly misinterpreting a word that was obvious by context, and then castigating you for being so foolish as to counter your own argument by using a word that clearly contradicts it.

But I see I have no patience for that kind of tomfoolery, no matter what the provocation.

[ceo_esq]

Originally posted by Yahzi

I was going to respond to this by deliberatly misinterpreting a word that was obvious by context, and then castigating you for being so foolish as to counter your own argument by using a word that clearly contradicts it.

But I see I have no patience for that kind of tomfoolery, no matter what the provocation. But you have the patience for whatever newer, better kind of tomfoolery is represented by your foregoing post?

Eureka! I think you've just invented meta-tomfoolery.

We all got your point of view about this in the other thread, Yahzi. Let this one die in peace.