I live in a country full of superstitious twits

U of M study reveals America’s distrust of atheism

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/20/2006) -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.

From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.

Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Edgell also argues that today’s atheists play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past—they offer a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society. “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious,” says Edgell. Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism.

Edgell believes a fear of moral decline and resulting social disorder is behind the findings. “Americans believe they share more than rules and procedures with their fellow citizens—they share an understanding of right and wrong,” she said. “Our findings seem to rest on a view of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the common good.”

The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation—with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts.

The study is co-authored by assistant professor Joseph Gerteis and associate professor Doug Hartmann. It’s the first in a series of national studies conducted the American Mosaic Project, a three-year project funded by the Minneapolis-based David Edelstein Family Foundation that looks at race, religion and cultural diversity in the contemporary United States. The study will appear in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.

“Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

It's too bad there are so many misconceptions out there about atheism (and agnosticism).

Atheists have a God-given right not to believe in God.

-Kiamat Dusk

I think it's because people seem to connect moral character to a belief in God. The idea is, people who believe there is an ultimate judge watching will act accordingly. That's not to say atheists have no moral character, its just that many believe an atheist moral code has no backing.

I think it's because people seem to connect moral character to a belief in God. The idea is, people who believe there is an ultimate judge watching will act accordingly. That's not to say atheists have no moral character, its just that many believe an atheist moral code has no backing.

Assume there are 2 kidnappers in your house, holding you for ransom. One is an atheist, the other is a fallen-away Catholic. Which of the two would you plead your case to? Would you try to get the Catholic to see how God is unhappy with his actions? What can you say to an atheist to make him consider his actions are morally wrong?

I don't suggest either is more or less moral, I'm just stating what I think made the poll lean the way it did.

Yep, and I've always thought that to be absurd and to indicate quite the opposite. Is threat of punishment from the imaginary man in the sky the only thing that keeps religious people from raping and pillaging? That's rather frightening. "Morality" isn't even a religious term. It's just been hijacked by religion over the ages. Humanism is a far more effective root for morality.

Yep, and I've always thought that to be absurd and to indicate quite the opposite. Is threat of punishment from the imaginary man in the sky the only thing that keeps religious people from raping and pillaging? That's rather frightening. "Morality" isn't even a religious term. It's just been hijacked by religion over the ages. Humanism is a far more effective root for morality.

If you have two criminals, I'm betting you appeal to the criminal with a belief in God to save your life before going to the atheist.

Could it be also that people mix up atheism with materialistic philosophies like social darwinism and psychiatry?

This is hardly surprising, but very depressing nonetheless...

Could it have anything to do with the perception that atheists have a really bad attitude? E.g., I live in a country full of superstitious twits

We've been done this block so many times before, and yet we still see pejoratives coming from both sides. Stop it already.

It seems to me that atheists could use a good public relations firm. All I ever hear coming out of the atheist camp is how effed-up religious folk are. How about promoting the positive attributes of atheism, instead?

We don't have to share beliefs in order to be able to get along, do we?

I think it's because people seem to connect moral character to a belief in God. The idea is, people who believe there is an ultimate judge watching will act accordingly. That's not to say atheists have no moral character, its just that many believe an atheist moral code has no backing.

Assume there are 2 kidnappers in your house, holding you for ransom. One is an atheist, the other is a fallen-away Catholic. Which of the two would you plead your case to? Would you try to get the Catholic to see how God is unhappy with his actions? What can you say to an atheist to make him consider his actions are morally wrong?

I don't suggest either is more or less moral, I'm just stating what I think made the poll lean the way it did.

Could it have anything to do with the perception that atheists have a really bad attitude? E.g., I live in a country full of superstitious twits

We've been done this block so many times before, and yet we still see pejoratives coming from both sides. Stop it already.

So you could probably call a lot of athiests such things as fallen, or apostate.

I was threatened by a group of young men once, and my appeal to their belief in God is what stopped them.

How about smart? Realistic?

The flaw here Kevn, is I was brought up Catholic, but became an Athiest.
Most Athiests came from a family with some sort of religious input.
So you could probably call a lot of athiests such things as fallen, or apostate.

We don't have to share beliefs in order to be able to get along, do we?

Apparently we do.