OkCupid, while not the most praiseworthy place to draw data from, has some correlating data that some might find surprising (or not?). What causes this discrepancy? I would venture to guess that since people who read more often are better readers and writers, those people would have read more about religion, life, culture, science, etc. and have a ‘weaker version’ of their faith — that would also explain the discrepancy between the stronger non-believers and their abilities. This would especially make sense if one assumes that the atheist position is closer to the truth, and that somehow from reading and writing, humans get closer to the truth. Even in education, which involves higher amounts of reading and writing “those with graduate degrees were the least likely to believe in the afterlife or the Bible as the word of God” (http://sda.berkeley.edu:8080/quicktables/quicksetoptions.do?reportKey=gss04%3A1, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence). I want to avoid being Glenn-Beckean and note again emphatically that OKCupid is not necessarily representative of all populations and that the data is correlative, though it is deserving of explanation. Perhaps this also lends credibility to the notion of vague Buddhism not being that close to other religions?
Archived entries for education
The Ontario College of Teachers states that there have been over twice as many qualified teachers in the province as there are available positions. The desperation of Ontarian teachers has reached to the point that they are reaching positions in Catholic schools, even if the teachers are non-practicing Catholics or not in the faith. To these teachers it is worth the cognitive dissonance they experience or the outright lies they tell during the interview process if it means securing a position.
The Toronto Catholic School Board states that all of its faculty and staff that directly interact with its students must be Catholic; this is supported by a subsection of the Ontario Human Rights Code. Does this seem discriminatory, as others have contested against the school board, or is this a right given to private institutions and their hiring practices? How do you feel about the desperation of teachers in need of a job versus the lies they may provide regarding their beliefs in order to obtain these jobs?
Source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100509/national/teachers_converting_catholic
