Posted on 05/01/2011 6:06:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.
Rarely denounced by the mainstream, this stunning anti-atheist discrimination is egged on by Christian conservatives who stridently — and uncivilly — declare that the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society, rendering nonbelievers intrinsically suspect and second-class citizens.
Is this knee-jerk dislike of atheists warranted? Not even close.
A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.
Consider that at the societal level, murder rates are far lower in secularized nations such as Japan or Sweden than they are in the much more religious United States, which also has a much greater portion of its population in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Even within this country, those states with the highest levels of church attendance, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, have significantly higher murder rates than far less religious states such as Vermont and Oregon.
(OF COURSE IT's TRYING TO SUBTLY ARGUE THAT GREATER BELIEF IN GOD DOES NOT TRANSLATE TO A MORE PEACEFUL SOCIETY)
WaPo’s observations about atheistic families and individuals:
* As individuals, atheists tend to score high on measures of intelligence, especially verbal ability and scientific literacy.
* They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule.
* They are more likely to practice safe sex than the strongly religious are
* They are less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric.
* They value freedom of thought.
* Denmark, which is among the least religious countries in the history of the world, consistently rates as the happiest of nations.
* Studies of apostates — people who were religious but later rejected their religion — report feeling happier, better and liberated in their post-religious lives.
That's because Oregon and Vermont are much more racially homogenous.When you have diverse States like Louisiana and Mississippi, you tend to have higher crime rates.
And I see nothing wrong with private groups excluding atheists from their memberships, as nothing stops atheists from forming their own private groups which exclude people of faith.
Because atheists ARE angry, bitter, sarcastic, and generally unpleasant to be around.
** ...reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be.**
Unbelievers, yet they carry a “HOLIER THAN THOU” attitude against believers. Actually it’s not that they are Unbelievers, IMO, it’s that most of them are LIBERAL PROGRESSIVES, and THAT we don’t LIKE!
This writer commits the fallacy of Begging the Question right in the title of his crappy piece of propaganda.
And these “newspapers” wonder why they are going out of business. What a joke.
If I remember correctly, right up until the 1920s’, an atheist’s testimony was not acceptible in court.
After all, to whom could the atheist solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me ....?
Because too many atheists are jerks.
Next question?
Since when is atheism up there with race discrimination? Here we go.
Could it be that the dislike stems from the fact that many Christians believe individuals who espouse atheism endanger the souls of those who might question the existence of God, at that point in time when they come in contact with such a proselytizer?
“... a minority of atheists being very vocal about mocking Christians”.
I agree. I think that Americans, above any other country, simply accept that other people have different religious views or no views whatsoever. What many don’t like isn’t the fact that a person DOESN’T believe in God, or a God, but the fact that a group wants to force others to ignore/hide/discredit their God. For example, taking prayer out of schools, wanting “In God We Trust” off of currency, etc... In short, it isn’t the Atheist as a person that people don’t like but the actions of a group. IMHO
Other factors:
1. Religious believers tend to have 40% more children than atheists, and it was 1.5 for Vermont. Religious families has 2.1-2.5 kids, depending on beliefs. That more children within the population. Murder is overwhelmingly committed by 15-30 year olds. The higher murder rate may be linked to simply more people in that demographic range.
2. Broken families are a strong indicator of criminal behavior, and 2/3 of black children are illegitimate. Mississippi is majority black, though Louisiana is about 2/3 white. The majority black may explain the higher murder rate for Mississippi. And Louisiana has been a corrupt state for ages, with a high crime rate - witness Katrina “survivors” spiking the murder rate in Houston.
RE: This writer commits the fallacy of Begging the Question right in the title of his crappy piece of propaganda.
Last year, Australia elected an openly self-proclaimed atheist, Julia Gillard, who also cohabits with her partner, as Prime Minister. (Yeah, she sorta looks like Jody Foster too ).
Would someone like her ever be elected President of the United States?
Some very cogent arguments in them!
It seems to me that atheists tend to be liberals.
I am not an animal.
For good reason. But somehow, in the Land of Moral Relevancy, these differences aren't supposed to matter.
But the land of Moral Relevancy is Fictional. So stuff it.
i get sick of the elitist, pseudo intellectual garbage they carry...
that whole patronizing ‘oh you still believe in that imaginary man in the sky?’....
Because so many of them spend an inordinate amount of time on a personal crusade (pun intentional) to attack something they claim doesn’t exist - an off-putting combination of irrationality and antisocial behavior.
Most doubt the existence of the Tooth Fairy but they don’t spill oceans of real and virtual ink writing to convince others of same.
Which means there is another agenda at work.
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