Funny how everyone seems to have just the right survey or
statistic to support their claims. Notice how both men in this video have “evidence”
to back their claims, when in reality they both likely just used incredibly biased
pieces of research.
Generally I hate surveys, from the topic, the wording, and
even the participants, nearly everything about surveys are biased. I honestly
don’t know if there is a way to have an unbiased survey. Take the survey in
class we studied about religion in Japan. With a nearly identical survey, both
yielded completely different results. How is something like that even possible?
During the discussion of religion in the USA vs Japan, it
said that 80% of people in the USA are religious, but in my experience (which I
think is fairly valid in my oncoming assumption) the majority of people I know
are not actually religious, despite still being able to associate with a
specific belief. They just take on a religious identity because of family,
community, or other outside influences.
In our society there is a lot of pressure to have a specific
answer. Either you are religious, or you are not. With your family you might be
Catholic, at school you might be atheist, with your friends you are agnostic.
People feel pressured to give a definite answer to a question that shouldn't necessarily be black and white.
To prove my point, I took a survey asking “Do you feel
pressured to identify as religious, even if you might not necessarily think you
actually are?” Lucky for me, everyone in this survey agreed with me. HA! Trick
survey! I was the only one who took it! Bet you feel pretty darn silly now don’t
you. And while maybe some places might have slightly better sources (yes,
slightly) it doesn't mean the people they aren't sending the questions to
people they think are more likely to give them the answer they want. That they
aren't wording the question in a way that tricks you or makes you feel
obligated to pick a certain answer. Thus why my next survey said that surveys
are stupid.
