University of Minnesota Study on American Attitudes Towards Atheists & Atheism

[Valjean]

Fascinating survey. "Cultural elites who think they know better than anyone else" seems to me to describe Christians more than atheists.

It occurs to me that those dwelling in houses of straw would tend to be hypersensitive to any perceived threat and quite militant in their defense.
The religious, perhaps subconsciously, realize that their identities and worldviews are built on sand, (ie: faith), and are threatened by anything that might undermine them. Those standing firm without mythological support might look very threatening.

 

[JMorris]

A fair point. ETA: Still, when's the last time you heard of someone being attacked or killed because they were an atheist?


I don't deny that there are anti-atheist bigots out there. I just have trouble swallowing the idea that they're more numerous, violent, and/ or influential than homophobes.

thats not what the study or the article was about. it was about an an underlying general distrust of atheists. of course hate crimes against atheists is going to be minimal, the number of openly atheist people is quite small. thoughtcrime (atheism) is a much easier thing to keep hidden than race or sexual orientation. and if atheists were a more identifiable group, if we had weekly meetings in a special tax free building; there'd almost certainly be more violence against them.