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Ann Coulter: The Wedge for the Masses

June 12, 2006 Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design
35 Comments

Having been a sounding board for Ann Coulter on chapters 8-10 of GODLESS, I’m happy to see the entire book now that it is out. Ann is taking Phillip Johnson’s message as developed in DARWIN ON TRIAL and REASON IN THE BALANCE and bringing it home to the masses. Critics will dismiss it for its hyperbole, lack of nuance, and in-your-face attitude. But she has the gist just right, which is that materialism (she calls it liberalism) dominates our culture despite being held by only a minority of the populace and has become an agenda among our elites (academy, scientists, media) for total worldview reprogramming. Close to half the book is devoted to science and evolution. I cannot help but feel that GODLESS will propel our issues in the public consciousness like nothing to date. Phil Johnson’s DARWIN ON TRIAL took ten years to sell 300,000 copies. I expect Ann will sell more than that in ten weeks.

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35 Responses to Ann Coulter: The Wedge for the Masses

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  1. 31
    jerryJune 14, 2006 at 9:11 am

    DWSUWF,

    Since you are using parts of your review of Ann Coulter on your website here, maybe you should correct something in that review. Namely, that she was right about no Democratic candidate except Jimmy Carter with 50.1% of the vote has gotten a majority of the votes cast since 1964. Since that time Nixon (72), Regan (80.84), Bush (88), Bush (2004) have received majorities of the votes casts.

  2. 32
    DWSUWFJune 14, 2006 at 10:23 am

    Jerry,
    Got your comment on the blog, and agree I have to make a correction. Just want to look up all the numbers and get it right. Probably get to it tonight, as in the meantime I am having more fun here.

    DS,
    My specious on-line poll reference was in response to turandot’s specious on-line poll reference, which I note you did not feel needed any editorial comment. Wonder why?

    Wonder no longer. Coulter’s Godless is the top seller in non-fiction this week according to Nielsen’s and is #3 in all categories. Given her well established popularity the poll Turandot quoted, while not reliable, is probably reasonably accurate. The one you quoted was not. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder. If so take it somewhere else. -ds

  3. 33
    jerryJune 14, 2006 at 5:35 pm

    DWSUWF,

    If you want to check on vote counts I found a very good site for presidential elections results. It is http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/ and at the top are menus for several years for both presiidential years and mid terms for some other offiices. It has results by state and county information too.

  4. 34
    skiddlybopJune 20, 2006 at 5:48 am

    Gildodgen wrote:

    The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed the death of God. At the turn of the 21st century we are witnessing the death of Godlessness. It’s all rather exciting.

    I’m afraid that this hopeful assertion is terribly contradicted by recent studies, (ARIS) which rather conclusively showed that the number of people who went from any religion to no religion increased by 23% over the years studied.

    In their words, the researchers note:

    The top three “gainers” in America’s vast religious market place appear to be Evangelical Christians, those describing themselves as Non-Denominational Christians and those who profess no religion. Looking at patterns of religious change from this perspective, the evidence points as much to the rejection of faith as to the seeking of faith among American adults. Indeed, among those who previously had no religion, just 5% report current identification with one or another of the major religions.

    The raw number of “no religion” folks swamps the Evangelicals by about 30-fold and non-denoms by about 14-fold. In numerical form, the “no religion” switch from some prior religion increased by approx. 6.6 million persons, and those “switching out” were approx. 1.1 million persons = approx. 5.5 million net deconverts.

    Do the math on this, and you’ll see that no other category even comes close. Not one. The next highest number of net converts is 1.4 million for “Christian” and then 600,000 for “Pentecostal”. So, you may want to start checking the data before baldly asserting that “godlessness” is somehow waning. On the contrary, friend, it is waxing full.

    You’re misinterpreting the results. The number of people self-reporting as atheists, agnostics, humanists, and secular together total less than 1% of the population. Those are the godless and its a piddling small group that doesn’t appear to be growing at all, although we can’t tell since (mysteriously and suspiciously) there is no number in the atheist category for 1990. -ds

  5. 35
    skiddlybopJune 20, 2006 at 7:09 pm

    Dave,

    You said:

    The number of people self-reporting as atheists, agnostics, humanists, and secular together total less than 1% of the population.

    Where did this come from?

    See this data, which implies that you are quite off on your estimates, as most sociologists agree a minimum of 7% of Americans are either agnostic or atheist. A great number of those who answer “Christian” are obviously nominal in their faith. And there is data available for 1990, it just wasn’t displayed in the study. Lots of data out there.

    When you consider the stigma against atheists, it certainly isn’t surprising that a lot of people aren’t “open” and are “closeted” atheists. But who cares? The study proves my point — that those who claim godlessness is on the wane are not supported by evidence.

    You have yet to refute that.

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