I'm embarrassed. I live in New Orleans. Wish Id have known about the conference! As for the morons in the comments? I assure you, normal people are too busy. The Times Pic is famous for the stupidest old bored retired farts in the US who have multiple log ins to be multiple commenters. That's how you get a god fearing atheist like the idiot espousing the Ten Commandments. He's the minion of some church. Several Times Pic commenters have wound up in huge public scandals when their real identities got out. It's a problem. They've expanded IT to try to keep these fools out; Finally! Very embarrassing for the city.

As for the poll? You all take this much too seriously! No sectarian affiliation leaves New Orleanians with the confused Labrador Retriever look on their faces. Sect affiliation is a big part of the byzantine caste structure in New Orleans. We are nothing like either the South or the USA. Religion you grew up around, high school, what you do on Mardi Gras Day, there's a long list unlike anything in other places in the US that instantly identifies a person as fitting in to niche 3 226. Or whichever. (it's really a verbal thing but nobody would get the names). Its a pyramid, and only the Uptown Old Line Society families on top can be Different. They are in the presence of the One True God, Comus. A debutante presenting bal masque. And the god who gets the most groveling out of the populace (and the most anger!) See? Ruled by a heathen clan who reads the New York Times on iPad. I knew nothing about this, I don't read the Times Pic. We get important news by word of mouth. Or random web surfing lol.

And I'm dead serious, the Milton characters embodying vice are the biggest most central anchor of life here. Not faith- said gods appear each year. And are played by some anonymous Uptown guy. Mystique is amazing stuff, especially when it spends a ton of cash locally. Religion has made great use of it too, but the predominantly Catholic churches send it out of town. Did I mention that we are a unique culture that doesn't compare to anything much you all know? This poll needs to be looked at in context. None of this paper applies outside of the Isle d'Orleans, Northern Carribean version. That's because we aren't part of that homogenized culture you expect.

Now it seems that Catholic on the outside, atheist crunchy center is nothing new. I suspect a number of people but why should they rock the boat? They don't actually do religion. It's like that high school frat. And the brainwashing is tough to actually grapple with. So they get on with a very secular life underwriting insurance or operating a crane. Sundays? Saints Football!

I'd prefer an atheist too- but for this city nobody would know where to place a skeptic in the complex model of hierarchy. It's too new. Historically, famous Atheists around town were called Jesuits. Even they seem awfully religious of late... Lapsed Catholic has always been a bit of a code word too. And acceptable. People don't want to wind up in fights with pious lunatics and you never know where some Mormon kid or Pentacostal babbler will turn up looking for trouble. They're everywhere now. The nuts trolling You Tube to convert us are in coffee shops trying to do their gods dirty work. Lets hope they don't invade the nightclubs.

A lot of the religion thing is tribal marker, like the people who smoke all being friends. Want a church building? The Diocese has 24 up for sale in historic neighborhoods.. Attendance has crashed since four Cat 5 storms ripped us to shreds. Katrina was just the first. That says something very loudly about blind faith in a changing world.