distrusting atheists
I don’t trust atheists. Not because I find atheism to be immoral; I believe it’s entirely possible to be an atheist and live a moral life. It’s because the typical atheist is completely insufferable. Always talking about how… atheist they are; how they once kissed another atheist in college — oh, wait: now I’m talking about lesbians, another incredibly insufferable group.
It all runs together after a while:
April 2, 2006 — Given the increasing religiosity of American culture, it’s perhaps not too surprising that a new study out this month finds that Americans are not fond of atheists and trust them less than they do other groups. The depth of this distrust is a bit astonishing nonetheless.
More than 2,000 randomly selected people were interviewed by researchers from the University of Minnesota.
Asked whether they would disapprove of a child’s wish to marry an atheist, 47.6 percent of those interviewed said yes. Asked the same question about Muslims and African-Americans, the yes responses fell to 33.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively. The yes responses for Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and conservative Christians were 18.5 percent, 18.5 percent, 11.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.
When asked which groups did not share their vision of American society, 39.5 percent of those interviewed mentioned atheists. Asked the same question about Muslims and homosexuals, the figures dropped to a slightly less depressing 26.3 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively. For Hispanics, Jews, Asian-Americans and African-Americans, they fell further to 7.6 percent, 7.4 percent, 7.0 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.
The study contains other results, but these are sufficient to underline its gist: Atheists are seen by many Americans (especially conservative Christians) as alien and are, in the words of sociologist Penny Edgell, the study’s lead researcher, “a glaring exception to the rule of increasing tolerance over the last 30 years.”
Edgell also maintains that atheists seem to be outside the limits of American morality, which has largely been defined by religion.
Many of those interviewed saw atheists as cultural elitists, amoral materialists, or given to criminal behavior or drugs. She states, “Our findings seem to rest on a view of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the common good.”
You know who I think are far more insufferable than atheists and lesbians? Journalists who continually write and publish this divisive crap.
[inherited from: Neil. apologies to: Commissar.]
UPDATE: Sigh. Nothing like having a fucking joke used to mischaracterize me completely.
04.03.2006 @ 10:54
You know what I think is far more insufferable than the message? The messenger!
Or am I reading you wrong…
04.03.2006 @ 14:16
Not quite. It’s more the presentation of the message.
I don’t object to the message or messengers at all (other than finding them annoying), although a certain “progressive” we both know along with his mouth-breathing commenters have mischaracterized this post as such. And the search for civilization continues…
04.03.2006 @ 17:52
I like your irony. Good post. Keep blogging. Lyn from Bloggin’ Outoud (but on hiatus)
04.04.2006 @ 21:48
Well I sent it over cause, as a future doc, I don’t like the idea of people not trusting me cause of my lack of religious views. I agree that your average self-proclaimed coffee shop atheist is pretty insufferable, but “athiest” is a pretty loaded word and there are those who don’t believe in any god that, while technically athiests, would never use that word as a descriptor of themselves cause of the aformentioned loadedness of the word.
Anyway, the stats were interesting if they were real.
04.05.2006 @ 10:42
I think every person on Earth who read this mentally blocked out the last line (before the update).
04.06.2006 @ 15:32
haha, it WAS a little under the radar