Atheists in USA not as Numerous as they seem: Reason Why.

[Radrook]

The reason why there seem to be more atheists than there really are in the USA and in other parts of the world is because of the manner in which surveys are conducted.

The trouble is caused by typical question: Do you believe in God?"
"
Trouble with whom? Well, trouble with agnostics who tend to respond with "No!"because of the following reasons:

Here’s the problem this this approach: It’s not a measure of atheism. Yes, atheists will say that they don’t believe in

God. But so too will agnostics, who do not believe in God because they don’t think it can be known. In addition, there are people in the world who may believe that God exists, but they don’t “believe” in God in the sense of having faith and following Him. They too will answer “no” to this question. That’s the problem: This question is ambiguous as to whether
it’s getting at belief of God’s existence or acceptance of God as a guiding force.

Think about it. If I ask you if you believe in Barack Obama, I’m not asking if you think he exists as a person, rather do you affirm him as a leader. Or if I ask if you belief in freedom of speech, I’m not asking if you think it exists in our society, but rather if you agree with it.

Likewise, some unknown number of people interpret the question “do you believe in God” to mean do they have faith and follow God. (The GSS question gets around this by giving other belief statements for the respondent to choose from, and they clarify the meaning of the “do you believe in God” statement for some respondents.)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackw...cans-are-atheists-fewer-than-you-might-think/

This phenomenon results in the atheist claims that MOST scientists are atheists when in all reality, large numbers of Agnostics, who do not discount the possibility of a creator are being enthusiastically and conveniently included in that estimation.