Survey says: Atheists most distrusted minority

I take it this surprises no one.

Surprises me.

Never heard of anyone flying a plane into a building in the name of atheism.

You mean, religion doesn't bring out the best in people?

Shocking!

The bible-thumpers will always trot out the Nazis and Stalinist Russia in the attempt to claim that atheists have killed more people than theists have. This ignores that Hitler relied heavily upon an appeal to christianity to establish himself and the National Socialist Workers Party in the hearts of Germans, and that slaughter on a vast scale in the Soviet Union did not occur before Stalin took power in the Central Committee, and ended after his death.

No offense, but i find it rather naive of you to say you're surprised. In another thread, one of our more witless conservative fellow-members (quite an accomplishment, that) is making the suggestion that all "liberals" are atheists, openly opposed to the Judeo-christian tradition.

With all the propaganda against us and the simple minded fear people have for thoughts they disagree with, what else could one expect.

Well I didn't want to marry anyone's Samoan Muslim lesbian daughter anyway.

Atheists in Sweden...46-85%
atheists in the US.....3-9%

child poverty in Sweden...2.6%
child poverty in the US.....22.4%

Those atheists are doing some things right.

damn, just as I was going to convert.

See, for me this is kind of a cool novelty. I look very innocent and sweet in person, so people tend to make a snap decision that I AM sweet and innocent. I like being distrusted for change.

Mwaah ha ha ha ha! Fear meeee! Keep your children awaaaay from me! ! Mwaahahaha haaaaaaaa!

I'm beginning to think that studies such as these exacerbate problems. I think there are just as many good atheists as there are bad atheists. There are just as many good Muslims as bad Muslims. There are as many whatever as whatever.

These studies may point out some perceptions in society but are they done enough indepth? I know plenty of atheists and I don't have trouble trusting them.

I have trouble trusting some people. It's not because they are atheists, Christian, etc. If I don't trust them it's because they gave me a reason to.

It seems sort of odd to me that they used a sample of 2,000 households-- I thought when you get over the 1,000-1,500 range it makes studies less accurate?

I'm shocked that there really are so few atheists in America. Any theories as to why that is the case? Strong Irish heritage perhaps? Pilgram fathers, etc?

I just think it's cool as hell that as a white male living in North Carolina, I can still call myself a minority.
I'm gonna start a movement.

After basketball season.

I think that the larger the sample, the more valid the results.

I wonder what would've happened if they'd given "agnostic" as an option rather than "athiest"? Athiest has an ANTI-religious connotation that is separate from the lack of belief in a god.

Did they count the secular Jews as theists, I wonder?

The 3% figure was suspect to me, tried to see what else I could find, came up with this:



http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

That's not athiest, per se, but goes back to what kind of results they'd get if they just asked about people who don't follow any organized religion.

I was raised to think being an atheist is the worst possible thing to be, no surprise.

That does not surprise me, either. An aspect of atheism is the rejection of religion. To many religious people, that position can be very threatening to them. Atheists, (and agnostics) question not only a particular religious belief, but the entire concept of a god.

Since religion is based on faith, the logical stripping away of religious precepts can be very frightening to a person whose entire existence is based on illogical, irrational premises. It is not surprising then, that to many, there is hostility towards those people who might undermine the very basis of the religious person's existence.