@TheMiddleWay True

I have about 2.5% neanderthal genetics. That means my Dad has a whopping ~5%.

The thing about Neanderthals is that some of them were genetically gifted enough to produce Cro-Magnons with very large brains. Their descendants live in some parts of Germany, the Baltic countries, Northern India, the British Isles, and maybe some other places.

@DZhukovin -- This Neanderthal lives in southwestern United States. I keep my cave immaculate because I never know when a modern female may stop by and want to try crossbreeding.

@evidentialist

Hahahahahahahaha

@TheMiddleWay
Exactly... <I think>

@TheMiddleWay "White" is neither race nor ethnicity.

@TheMiddleWay My census answer would be "Other" - "European".

@TheMiddleWay Just what do you consider white, I'm a Scot and a beed apart from the english. I'm a Celt they ate anglo/saxon.

@maturin1919 That's like clubbing together parrots and frogs, well they are both green. You need to study genetics and evolution. Skin colour changes as peoples migrate. Earliest briton found was black.

@TheMiddleWay Why do you find it alarming that white people make up a majority of atheists and agnostics? Based on historical context and culture of non-white people (mainly black and Latino), many don't really change their religious views.
Look at chart #4, majority of people who are atheist identify as white compared to other races/ethnicities [pewforum.org]

@TheMiddleWay

I think you should keep in mind, also, that at least some of the people here (myself included) found this site in the first place through ads on other algorithm-filtered social media, and as such, some of the traffic that brings people to join in the first place is from within the Filter Bubble. That means that membership is going to be at least partially filtered.

Thus, such results as your quick visual comparison, and even more complete results that you may or may not get from these polls, doesn't necessarily represent a problem with the site, or even with atheism or agnosticism. Rather, it merely makes apparent some of the problems of the Filter Bubble combined with, as @joeymf86 pointed out, the fact that atheism and agnosticism is simply more common among whites (at least for the time being) within our societies and cultures in general.

That latter point in particular should not really come as a surprise considering the fact that for non-whites, religion is often not just a matter of beliefs and faith, but also a component of cultural identity, and social and political activism. Such diverse purpose and active involvement in those religious sub-cultures means it is less likely that people will break out of those sub-cultures. This is particularly the case anywhere (such as the US) where racism is still a major problem and people depend on the society of their sub-culture to help one another get by in life where others from outside that sub-culture are often trying to prevent them from getting ahead, or even get by, or even live in the area, or sometimes even live at all. I think that as racism and systemic/institutional racism decrease, atheism and agnosticism among such groups is likely to increase.

@TheMiddleWay So discuss it then. Surely you know the facts about non-white atheism as your survey purports to prove it is "alarming".

@TheMiddleWay As for many black and Latino people not changing their religious views, statistics speak for themselves; however after doing some research, it seems there is a rise in Latinos identifying as a religion different than their parents or not associating with any affiliation.

In regards to why both groups are still very religious compared to white people; there are different reasons which includes oppression and racism (past and present) which have contributed to both groups having lower socio-econimic status compared to whites. Education, income level, learning environment, and geography all play a factor in who we are as people and what religion we are.

To summarize a little bit from the links I provided. When Africans were brought to America as slaves, they were forced to become Christians. Slaves then used religion as a tool to unify them and keeping African cultures intact, provide a reason for what was happening to them, and have hope. This continued after slaves were freed and during black segregation and Civil Rights Movement. Black churches were built to create a sense of community and provide a safe haven for learning and expression.

For Latinos, Catholicism was spread throughout Latin and South Americas by Spain. Catholicism is a very strict religion with specific religious practices, so it quickly became part of Latinos every day lives and shaping their culture. Latinos in America were also subject to oppression and racism mainly by Protestant whites who migrated to the west. Latinos also built churches or worshiped secretly in their homes to keep their culture and religion intact.

Religion can create a sense of hope for people in terrible times. With the history and current racism towards these two groups, it's no surprise that black and Latinos are still religious. As a whole, white people in America have not encountered oppression or racism to the extent that other races have in America, so the need to preserve our culture and community isn't as strong. Religion and churches do that for blacks and Latinos.

[americanhistory.oxfordre.com]

[religion.oxfordre.com]

@TheMiddleWay But you won't find it by asking this question!

@joeymf86
Nice of you to try and help him, but he's not interested in considering the sociological causes which may be behind his questions. I believe he reposted with Men/Women instead of continuing his "alarming thread" because everyone ate his lunch over there.

@joeymf86 I agree,many of my neighbors ,co workers and friends are people of color.Yet many employers ;clubs;
social organizations;are pro religion.Watch the t.v. shows,radio,the elder population especially is very religious. Their exposure
to the option of free thought has not been extensive
enough for the information to be readily availible.
This site is what? 2 years old?
There is no way possible to disseminate into the cultures the knowledge
of its exsistance

@joeymf86 my personal experiences
mirror these facts; I have no agenda ;
believe in the goal of the site;thanks
for the source material...
p.s.
don't know if I income matters.

@TheMiddleWay my ethnicity in this digital world is generic as any human can be. Anything else is irrelevant

@TheMiddleWay
I am not in the hiring line ! I...AM....RETIRED. Yipeeee !

@TheMiddleWay black

@maturin1919 they don't even matter that much, most of people are mixed, just some really idiots care about being part of a pure ethnicity.
I can look more like white but for real with all this mixing, what are my ethnicity?

@maturin1919 So you can say by yor definition I am hispanic ethnicity (Brazil has lots of difference from spannsh america but it counts). And about race... I really do not know.

How is it nonsensical to ask what race someone is? You admit that it’s a cultural delineation. How does that invalidate anything? By that logic, asking what culture someone identifies with is a nonsensical question.

@TheMiddleWay Yeah, I knew what you were getting at.

I'm just wondering if it really is a problem. I know the disproportion exists, but so What? Is it really a problem?

I doubt it is and I'm not exactly sure I'm in line with Crimson67's thinking. I don't think it's about clustering or fear. I think it's just got more to do with culture and difference of interest and beliefs based on the differences in cultures. I know a lot of my Latinos tend to be Catholic and embrace the role of religion in their lives. They aren't even aware of the position of agnosticism and don't care to know. Many of my black friends also tend to ignore religious topics and simply practice church-going and regular religious beliefs, ignorant and apathetic towards thinking any deeper than their pastor makes them.

I'm not saying that that is the only case. It's just what I've observed down here in the bible belt of the stupid South.

Especially considering my own discovery of the app through Reddit. (I'm Latino btw just to clear the water some.) Doesn't seem really that easy to discriminate with advertising using social media. Everything spreads like wildfire... But again, your efforts provide evidence to back up such claims. Thanks.

Edit: expansion and reflection

@TheMiddleWay Texan, descended from Spain ?

Edit:
Then shouldn't you be aware of the significance of religion in the Latin people's lives? It's pretty outrageous how cool they are to just not think about shit any deeper than they have to. Lots of us idolize and worship virgin Mary, Joseph, and have pictures of Jesus right next to roosters and family pictures. It's like an essential component to being a part of Latin culture.

People like you and I are rare.

Thanks again middle.

@TheMiddleWay hahaha ...too bad you're miles away middle, it would be nice to have a few drinks, chats, and debates with ya.

@TheMiddleWay Yes, our two country's needs are different in this area.

@TheMiddleWay Thank you.

I have believed what you expressed for
ten years or so,and have acted accordingly.

@Hebert54 Ok, I'll play along. I'm not trying to prove anything. What are you trying to prove? If people can't understand the difference between nationality and ethnicity then that's on them. I'm just as much all of those things as I am American, and probably even more so those things. I say that because if I decided to go through the naturalization process and move to Japan then I would become a Japanese citizen and my nationality would also be Japanese as well as American. There are people with more than 1 and even more than 2 passports and nation citizenship. My ancestry will never change as it's been handed down to me through my DNA. In every NATION there are people within that nation with different ETHNICITIES. There IS a difference! Also, the only true Americans are the Native Americans. So I guess my ethnicity ALSO includes American because my mother's side also has Native American ancestry. Just because you're born somewhere it doesn't automatically make you a part of that ETHNICITY, although it could if that ETHNICITY was one of the first settlers there like the Native Americans. If you were Japanese and moved to America, it doesn't mean your ETHNICITY is American, but it makes your NATIONALITY American and Japanese. Under the same situation, if you had a kid after you moved to America, it would mean your kids NATIONALITY is American and his or her ETHNICITY is whatever your ethnicity is, which isn't American.

Race, nationality, and ethnicity are all completely different things. Some people talk about them like they're all the same. They're not.

@Hebert54 And just what do you think that would be? That I can discern different terms and ideas?

@TheMiddleWay I would suggest you do something more useful with your time than try to categorise people. Why do you want to know anyway? Are you gonna block the races you don't like?

@GoldenDoll

I don't think he is like that

@GoldenDoll Uh, you categorized me when we had our discussion a while back when you said I wasn't Italian, Irish, or German because I didn't partake in their cultures or live there.

@Piece2YourPuzzle Someone said that!? That's retarded, those are terms of citizenship and/or blood origin.

@TheMiddleWay Ethnicity and race are two distinct concepts, are they not? [livescience.com] "Human" was my official answer to the US census,so why should I give you a different answer? [livescience.com]

@TheMiddleWay My goodness, you certainly know how to open a can of worms!

Which minority do you think you represent? People with PhDs in Physics? People from Chile? People who speak with a Spanish accent? There are so many minorities to represent! In my case I think I represent the minority "people who think clearly and reason well". LOL Which minority does Martha Argerich represent? Woman? Hispanic? Argentine? Catalonian? Jew? Long-term cancer survivor? World's most famous living pianist?(that is definitely a minority of one!).

If anyone is running a business and hired only White people they would eventually go out of business. Business's need to hire the best people they can get, or else their competition will, and they will go bankrupt. Academia and government are under less pressure to hire the best, and maybe that's where your attitudes were formed. The business I work for is run by a woman, and my immediate superior is a Black man. They are both almost as smart as me (LOL), work very hard, and are very well qualified.

Now I am wondering about you. My original assumption was that you were a brilliant man with two PhD's in Physics. But now due to your newly revealed attitude I am wondering if you got some special assistance because you fill the Hispanic quota. Are you an "affirmative action physicist"? It really doesn't help you for anyone to suspect that you are anything but the very best, like Martha Argerich.

The great Black economist Thomas Sowell frequently receives criticism for opposing "affirmative action", based on the assumption that he himself benefited from it. But Sowell was quick to point out that when he went to Harvard in the 1950s they didn't have affirmative action. I recommend that everyone learn by reading Dr Sowell's writings, as I often have. [hoover.org]

@icolan what makes it a "scientific valid concept?" do you know its origins? Remember this was in the 17 and 18 hundreds and you know how "scientific" they were at that time..lol

Racial anthropology
Further information: Physical anthropology § History, and Historical race concepts

Blumenbach's five races.
Blumenbach's work included his description of sixty human crania (skulls) published originally in fascicules as Decas craniorum (Göttingen, 1790–1828). This was a founding work for other scientists in the field of craniometry. He divided the human species into five races in 1779, later founded on crania research (description of human skulls), and called them (1793/1795):

the Caucasian or white race. Blumenbach was the first to use this term for people of European origin, believing that the people of the Caucasus were the most beautiful of the world.[2]
the Mongolian or yellow race, including all East Asians and some Central Asians.
the Malayan or brown race, including Southeast Asian and Pacific Islanders.
the Ethiopian or black race, including sub-Saharan Africans.
the American or red race, including American Indians.
Further anatomical study led him to the conclusion that 'individual Africans differ as much, or even more, from other Africans as from Europeans'.

Blumenbach argued that physical characteristics like skin color, cranial profile, etc., depended on geography, diet, and mannerism.

Like other monogenists such as Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Blumenbach held to the "degenerative hypothesis" of racial origins. Blumenbach claimed that Adam and Eve were Caucasian inhabitants of Asia (see Asia hypothesis),[12] and that other races came about by degeneration from environmental factors such as the sun and poor diet. Thus, he claimed, Negroid pigmentation arose because of the result of the heat of the tropical sun, while the cold wind caused the tawny colour of the Eskimos, and the Chinese were fair-skinned compared to the other Asian stocks because they kept mostly in towns protected from environmental factors. He believed that the degeneration could be reversed in a proper environmental control and that all contemporary forms of man could revert to the original Caucasian race.[13]

@icolan just like a European culturalist... the past means nothing and has no connection to your glorious future which by the way in unknown and unknowable.. take care icolan

@TheMiddleWay if i didn't use them, most folks won't know what the hell I'm talking about because they have been so enculturated.. as an example, your response..

@TheMiddleWay it wasn't just on craniology, there's religious, cultural ideologies, anatomy and social theory all mixed in there together.. SKCell evolved from geological disposition and ALL people in the topics didn't develop the disease. However, and you won't believe me, because as I've found out over the years, this statement doesn't support Euro science or cultural ideology; but ALL people from the geo region we call Africa do share a deep seeded cultural kinship.. Tell me why didn't the African, who has been on the planet as human beings pretty much forever, develop the mechanical precision of the ballet? However, all Africans share in their rhythms of Nature in dance and ideas of communal-ism as opposed to the Euro idea of individualism.

@icolan ideas of race are social theories...now just like 'power" allows you to change meanings to suit your political climate doesn't alter it's original purpose. for example, the usage of the word "white and Black' to refer to this idea of race is antiquated with the advent of those very things you mentioned, DNA, biology, genetics, "miscegenation" however we still use the words, why? Because it suit the Europeans political, cultural, economic and social purpose..

@TheMiddleWay The difficultly is if you ask the ethnicity of third generation Indian, Hispanic or Anglo-Celtic Americans what they relate to culturally. Most likely the same but racial they are different due to physicality.

@TheMiddleWay sounds like an interesting study. ? Good luck