In its continuing drive to ignore actual current events, the Courant managed to stumble onto a fairly interesting story that reflects well on Connecticut:
A poll released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that Connecticut (along with Rhode Island), though still home to many believers, ranks near the bottom of most indicators of religious fervor, compared with the rest of the United States.
When asked how many of us are “absolutely certain” we believe in God or a universal spirit, only 57 percent responded yes. Only the folks in New Hampshire and Vermont scored lower, at 54 percent.
At first blush, this speaks well for the level of intelligence here in New England, but there may be another explanation. It’s not necessarily the case that we are smarter than the average American, though truth to tell that’s really not saying much. Maybe we’re just more honest. We’re we folks in Connecticut polled about our feelings about race, even the racists among us would be a bit hesitant about admitting to their vice, while in Mississippi, where 91% of the folks claim to have no doubts about God, more folks would feel quite comfortable about admitting to being racists. It’s all a question of what is relatively acceptable. Down in Mississippi, rational thinking is frowned upon, while racism is more or less accepted, if not required. We in New England take a more benign view of the freethinker. For can it be that, in their heart of hearts, only 9% of Mississippians, as dumb as they undoubtedly are, have never entertained a doubt about the existence of God? Of course they have, but down there admitting to such a doubt is like admitting to reading books. You just don’t do that kind of thing down there. We take a broader view up here, so the level of honest responses goes up.
But we cannot smugly sit on our laurels. As advanced as we are, less than half of us are willing to admit to doubts about the existence of the Hairy Thunderer. Those of us in the rational minority must encourage our fellow New Englanders to listen to-nay embrace- that inner voice of reason. Just as the anti-slavery movement began in New England, so must the pro-Reason Renaissance. Once we have completely legitimized reason here, we can more effectively export it to the solid, superstitious South.
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