Athiests are America's least trusted minority

[twitchy]

Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study

What: U of M study reveals America’s distrust of atheism Who: Penny Edgell, associate professor of sociology Contact: Nina Shepherd, sociology media relations, (612) 599-1148
Mark Cassutt University News Service, (612) 624-8038 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.


http://www.ur.umn.edu/FMPro?-db=rele...&ID=2816&-Find

I found myself a bit surprised by this.


edited to add: just noticed my damn typo in the headline. Argh, hate it when I do that.

[Luna]

It's not surprising since Atheists are a minority and people trust their own kind. I chuckle to myself when people often use their religiousity to ensure they are trust worthy when it come to business endeavors.

[MrsDark]

Are you kidding me? Even when still religious, If I wanted total honesty, I always knew to ask an atheist!

[Mr. Authority]

With all the crazy right-wing Christians and the like spouting off stupid crap every day and the lies from such fad "relgions" like Scientology, why would atheists be considered untrustworthy. I'd trus an atheist way more than some hack trying to 'convert' me to his faith.

[Lani]

ah speaking as an athiest..

*dies laughing*

I think, if anything, athiests have more interest in a common good then a lot of christians. Silly people.

[Delphinium]

I worked with a physician once who was an avowed athiest. While he was a great guy, I definitely would have been uneasy to allow him to preform surgery or something really important for my health, I felt he wouldn't be as concerned about life/death etc. Probably a false assumption on my part but the fear (rational or not) was there.

[Grimmlok]

Um, if anything he would be more concerned for your corporeal being than some religious fundie who would think "oh well, if i fuck up they'll be in heaven."

[buttmunch]

I'm still stuck on atheists being labelled a minority.

[FierceKiten]

they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public.

As an atheist, I would get along with anyone dispite their religion, views. Trust me or not, Im a honest person reguardless of my beliefs, nor am I fucking minorty.

Dear Penny Edgell,

SUCK MY KISS

[AliceInWonderland]

they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public.

thats right bitches! Athiests Unite!

[Grimmlok]

Yes, pragmatism and realism sure are way out in left field compared with a sky fairy and living your life according to some 2000 year old, mistranslated behavioral handbook.

[MrsDark]

I worked with a physician once who was an avowed athiest. While he was a great guy, I definitely would have been uneasy to allow him to preform surgery or something really important for my health, I felt he wouldn't be as concerned about life/death etc. Probably a false assumption on my part but the fear (rational or not) was there.

No way. In my experience, life is far more sacred to an athiest than someone who believes/puts stock in an *afterlife* where invisible beings exist. Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense.

[AliceInWonderland]

^thats such a good point MrsDark!

[Wonderwoman]

I frankly can't believe how the "Evangelists" have brain washed this country.

[Grimmlok]

The stupid are easily led.