<p>Don't most colleges want to hear about how you'll contribute to the campus community? If you're just presenting yourself as "not-something" how does that enhance and build their community of learners?
If you can answer that, then maybe you've got something to write about.
Or, really LEARN something about atheism; find out about those who are its biggest proponents and maybe one will become a person who "most influenced you" (Common Ap question). Like...Madelyn Murray O'Hare who fought at the level of the Supreme Court to remove prayer from the public schools as a constitutional violation of church/state separation. (Sadly she was murdered around age 50, and some saw it as her "punishment"...yeesh, weird.)
Or, find some expression of atheism in the American democracy; see how the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has had to defend atheists through the years.
If you can find something intelligent or interesting to say about your beliefs, whether it's how they fit into our society OR how you came to understand the world through this lens, then you might have an essay.
Or...go the safe route and write about something else.
But just "being an atheist" is about as interesting as "being a ___" (fill in the blank...Methodist. Presbyterian. Conservative Jew.
Not very fascinating, in and of itself. I agree with above posters: it's more how you treat the subject than the subject itself.</p>
<p>InvertedCommas (and others), the number of atheists is immaterial. Most selective colleges don't take religious affiliation into account. Under the common data sets (section C7), it's usually checked as "not considered." </p>
<p>
The official religion of China is atheism. Personally, I think 1.3 billion people is definitely a lot. Unless you meant the US specifically? :p</p>
<p>In one of my college applications, I did mention that I am an atheist, however, my thesis and the entire essay did not revolve around that, but something beyond the topic of religion</p>
<p>I wish it did. I'm an atheist from India, definitely in the minority, but Indian colleges don't give a *#%! about diversity.</p>
<p>quote: "No. There's a high correlation between liberalism and atheism. The ideologies often go hand-in-hand."</p>
<p>I challange you to prove that. </p>
<p>Just because a person is a liberal does not mean that they do not have a belief in a higher power or spritual realm.</p>
<p>Even if you do think being an atheist will give you an edge, how are you going to show this? As far as I know colleges applications don't have a section where they ask you to state your religion.</p>
<p>Yea, not to make this political here, but I also tend to believe with Pearl.</p>
<p>I think the basic tenants of liberalism are often very much based on artistic and emotional expression. I see many liberals moving away from atheism due to its inability to effectively express, well, anything.</p>
<p>Liberals are oftentimes non-theists, yes, but not necessarily atheists. Liberals often believe in religions which are very much either based on art, romanticism, nature or far-East religions. Then, yes, there are liberal atheists. Granted, I think there might be some atheist conservatives. I wouldn't say that most far-left people are atheists, but rather, spiritualists?</p>
<p>Well, since people are guessing at how many...</p>
<p>I don't seem to have a more current version copy handy, but in the 2001 national report from CIRP, they remarked that the number of freshman who reported "none" for religion was on the rise. It was about 16% overall, and closer to 20% at universities. If the rising trend held, it's probably higher now.</p>
<p>All right. Thank you everyone. Guess I'm not that special ;-)</p>
<p>atheists, liberals, both are all too common in college to matter</p>
<p>"not just mit and caltech. just the intelligentsia in general.</p>
<p>you should see the contestants in the National vocabulary championship. i bet half of them are atheist."</p>
<p>Are you implying that atheism is the "intelligent person's" belief system? That is a terribly inaccurate generalization if that is indeed what you are implying.</p>
<p>strange post from someone named lithiumonsundays ;-)</p>
<p>I'd say there's a pretty strong correlation between a person's intelligence and the degree to which they analyze the world around them. Intelligent people are more likely to doubt and question what they've been taught by their parents and society. Consequently, a higher percent of smart people are atheist.</p>
<p>I can see this even in my own school.</p>
<p>I can't speak for the person you were quoting, but that's how I see it.</p>
<p>Well of course intelligent people scrutinize the world around them more closely, however that does not necessarily mean that all intelligent people come to the conclusion that there is no religion worth believing in. (By religion I do not mean the belief in a specific deity, simply a belief in something higher than mankind) Many of the world's historically intelligent individuals were believers in some form of religion, or at least did not discount it entirely. </p>
<p>Einstein himself was quoted as saying "science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind ...a legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist. Both are important and should work hand-in-hand."</p>
<p>
[quote]
however that does not necessarily mean that all intelligent people come to the conclusion that there is no religion worth believing in.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't think he was implying that at all.</p>
<p>I think he was just saying that because faith (in a higher power) is an inherently irrational concept, people who are scientifically minded are more likely to be atheist.</p>
<p>Pearl:</p>
<p>"Just because a person is a liberal does not mean that they do not have a belief in a higher power or spritual realm."</p>
<p>Hm, can you point out to me where I said that? No, you can't, because I never said it. =) I said there's a high correlation. For example, on the subject of abortion:</p>
<p>Pro-life: conservative, often because of religion (ethical issues rooted in religion, in many cases)</p>
<p>Pro-choice: liberal, often because of irreverence to religion/God</p>
<p>And this is just one example. Try gay marriage, or stem-cell research, etc. I don't have statistics on it, but you're welcome to look for them -- I'm sure there's something on the net I can't find. =)</p>
<p>Notice, also, that before noting the correlation between liberalism and atheism, I said "or agnostics, even deists," implying that liberalism is correlated with doubt in religion. If you'd like me to parse the semantics of my use of 'atheism' in my noting, you'd find that I intended it in 'low[er] level / complete lack of belief.'</p>
<p>Further, and this is just anecdotal evidence, but so far I have, in my experience, found that most (if not all) atheists = liberal and that many, many liberals = atheists.</p>
<p>Do you honestly doubt the negative correlation between liberalism and religiosity? Or, further, the positive correlation between liberalism and atheism?</p>
<p>lithiumonsundays:
[quote]
Einstein himself was quoted as saying "science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind ...a legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist. Both are important and should work hand-in-hand."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>He wasn't praising religion, if that's what you're thinking. He evaluated the qualities of religion on the human psyche, but he himself was a pantheist, I believe.</p>
<p>If anyone would like to see a graph of IQ and religiosity:</p>
<p>There have been many studies on the correlation; most conclude that they are inversely correlated, and then, of course, the theists throw up there hands and bellow "illegitimate test!" Thing is, it's sort of hard to refute a survey of thousands of people. I also remember reading about the correlation between SAT score and religiosity, and it was strongly negative.</p>