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Atheists distrusted as much as rapists

Discussion in 'Politics & Religion' started by mob, Dec 10, 2011.

  1. #1
    A new study finds that atheists are among society's most distrusted group, comparable even to rapists in certain circumstances.

    Psychologists at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon say that their study demonstrates that anti-atheist prejudice stems from moral distrust, not dislike, of nonbelievers.

    "It's pretty remarkable," said Azim Shariff, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and a co-author of the study, which appears in the current issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

    The study, conducted among 350 Americans adults and 420 Canadian college students, asked participants to decide if a fictional driver damaged a parked car and left the scene, then found a wallet and took the money, was the driver more likely to be a teacher, an atheist teacher, or a rapist teacher?

    The participants, who were from religious and nonreligious backgrounds, most often chose the atheist teacher.

    The study is part of an attempt to understand what needs religion fulfills in people. Among the conclusions is a sense of trust in others.

    "People find atheists very suspect," Shariff said. "They don't fear God so we should distrust them; they do not have the same moral obligations of others. This is a common refrain against atheists. People fear them as a group."

    Shariff, who studies atheism and religion, said the findings provide a clue to combating anti-atheism prejudice.

    "If you manage to offer credible counteroffers of these stereotypes, this can do a lot to undermine people's existing prejudice," he said. "If you realize there are all these atheists you've been interacting with all your life and they haven't raped your children that is going to do a lot do dispel these stereotypes."

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-12-10/religion-atheism/51777612/1
     
    mob, Dec 10, 2011 IP
  2. boblord666

    boblord666 Member

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    #2
    Really?

    I've known people for decades and could not tell you what religion they are. I suspect that most of my family have a christian leaning but if they have a church they attend I could not tell you. It is the last thing I care about when I meet a person.
     
    boblord666, Dec 10, 2011 IP
  3. Rebecca

    Rebecca Prominent Member

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    #3
    @Mob, that's an interesting find. :) Still, I can't help but wonder a bit about this article. The first sentence of it says, "A new study finds that atheists are among society's most distrusted group, comparable even to rapists in certain circumstances." It sounds like sensationalism, considering the content. The responders of the question aren't really comparing atheists to rapists on their own initiative, they're just answering the single question posed to them. It says the study simply asked, "to decide if a fictional driver damaged a parked car and left the scene, then found a wallet and took the money, was the driver more likely to be a teacher, an atheist teacher, or a rapist teacher?" It's a very strange question, personally, I wouldn't assume widespread distrust for atheists based on it.

    On a side note, I thought this was kind of interesting:

    Self-described Religious Identification in the US (PDF)

    There doesn't appear to be a large group of atheists, but they seem to be growing
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2011
    Rebecca, Dec 10, 2011 IP
  4. Jackuul

    Jackuul Well-Known Member

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    #4
    "Last edited by Rebecca; Yesterday at 9:48 pm. Reason: communists"

    lmfao.

    Okay, now that I have that out of the way...

    Athiests often join churches and pretend that they aren't atheists just because of the social stigma. It is likely that there are more of us "in the god closet" than most people think. We know that there is no god, but we don't want to be outed.

    It's worse than being gay in many places, in fact.
     
    Jackuul, Dec 11, 2011 IP
  5. Rebecca

    Rebecca Prominent Member

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    #5
    It's so nice to see you Jackuul! I'm not sure why I blamed it on the communists, but, it's been a long month. :)


    Closet Atheists. LOL.
     
    Rebecca, Dec 11, 2011 IP
  6. Jackuul

    Jackuul Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Yeah, those darn communists. Always taking away the rights of the people, forcing everyone to distribute wealth while the richest get even richer and...

    ...oh wait.

    >:3
     
    Jackuul, Dec 11, 2011 IP
    sunfyre7896 likes this.
  7. warloky

    warloky Peon

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    #7
    Why not a student, atheist student and rapist student? Or professor, atheist professor and rapist professor? The classification rather seems to be discriminatory. Wrecking a parked car and even taking someone's money can happen by accident or design, and these traits could very likely refer to psychological conditions that occur in the mind of the person doing it in the context of the circumstances of time and place. They may not always refer to a religious background of that person. Otherwise, why do some religious persons get charged with violations involving money and sex offenses as seen in the news?
     
    warloky, Dec 12, 2011 IP
  8. oo87

    oo87 Well-Known Member

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    #8
    Well, as both an Atheist and a former rape victim, this is encouraging.

    I am not ashamed of my lack of belief, and I would be less inclined to know someone if they mistrusted me just because I choose to be a good person for personal reasons versus as invisible man in the sky telling me to. That would be like me distrusting Christians or Jews or Muslims because of their holy beliefs. I don't care one way or another, and I am close to many people of different faiths.

    Let's hope this study isn't accurate.
     
    oo87, Dec 13, 2011 IP
  9. ApocalypseXL

    ApocalypseXL Notable Member

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    #9
    Well IDK maybe because atheist have displayed a complete lack of ethics in the past , maybe because they engineering the biggest genocides in the history of man kind , maybe because they invented methods of torture that make the Spanish Inquisition look like kids and today maybe because they have a quite a few people on the Internet that have nothing better to do then to try and demonstrate that you're stupid and they right , when they run out of arguments they trow a avalanche of slurs and rage quit .

    So I can safely put those guys in the same spot with other religious propagandist , but whit a far more foul language . So that just paints all the atheist in a bad light , no matter what , if muslim = terrorist , atheist = guys who'll call you stupid and think of you as a lesser human . Now why would you hate someone that thinks you're a subhuman and doesn't have the decency to STFU ?
     
    ApocalypseXL, Dec 13, 2011 IP
  10. oo87

    oo87 Well-Known Member

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    #10
    I am not usually antagonistic, but it is hilariously strange and angry posts like this that make me want to become the stereotype and make fun.
     
    oo87, Dec 13, 2011 IP
  11. warloky

    warloky Peon

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    #11
    A little clarification here may be in order. It was the ardent believers in God, Religion, Church or same such things, that were the real killers and torturers of innocent people during the Spanish Inquisition. Torquemada, the head inquisitor rounded up whole villages and had citizens burned at the stake and had their bodies stretched until they broke and their torsos split open while alive as the victims screamed for mercy, were forced to confess their "crime" against God (witchcraft) and then were killed just the same afterwards.The killers were "godly"? I'd rather spend my time in hell away from God and his monsters..
     
    warloky, Dec 13, 2011 IP
  12. Rebecca

    Rebecca Prominent Member

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    #12
    .............
     
    Rebecca, Dec 13, 2011 IP
  13. ApocalypseXL

    ApocalypseXL Notable Member

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    #13
    Don't worry darling people saw you're a troll when you faked the rape victim status :eek: So don't waste you're time trying to become something that you already are :)
     
    ApocalypseXL, Dec 14, 2011 IP
  14. The Webby

    The Webby Peon

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    #14
    And then these assholes talk about religious being morally superior than atheists...
     
    The Webby, Dec 15, 2011 IP
  15. sunfyre7896

    sunfyre7896 Peon

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    #15
    Wow. How do you know she faked it? I don't agree with what atheists believe, or is it don't believe....., anyway, that's still harsh and I have nothing against athiests other than disagreeing with their lack of belief, but they're still people with human feelings and rights. This whole war between the religious right and atheists is out of control.

    The funny thing is that many of the times, though, I get caught in the middle. Atheists tell me I'm stupid for believing in God and hard rightists tell me I'm going to hell for not going to church or belonging to "organized religion," and just being spiritual and having faith without believing in organized religious faiths. It's crazy. You just can't win with some people. You share a belief in God but you are wrong for not believing their exact way or following the bible or you're just wrong for believing in a deity that science can't "prove." Well you can't disprove God either so.....

    As to this study. Despite there being many flaws to the study in terms of design, sample size, validity, reliability, etc., there's still I think a rational point here. It seems that quite a few people are more mistrusting to atheists. The reasons can vary wildly, but I think it has something to do with atheism becoming a more modern movement that hasn't always existed, some people see atheists as somehow being closer to satanists since, once again, it's a newer movement and highly misunderstood, people somehow think that without a religion that you're somehow morally bankrupt (I fit in this category to some people too), and a whole slew of other reasons. It's pretty ridiculous.

    I have a friend who's atheist and his beliefs are pretty whacked out but they're also grounded in many ways to science alone. His hope is that one day, people will all agree with him that there is no God and his prediction is that in a few hundred years, religion and a belief in God will have run its course with all of the advances of science. He thinks a belief in God is akin to middle aged thinking. I disagree but you can't argue with people of either camp. Once I show him the number Rebecca provided with only 2.5 million either atheist or agnostic and less than 1%, I think he'll realize there's a long way to go.

    Closet atheists. . . lol
     
    sunfyre7896, Dec 15, 2011 IP
  16. serena85

    serena85 Peon

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    #16
    serena85, Dec 16, 2011 IP
  17. ApocalypseXL

    ApocalypseXL Notable Member

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    #17
    And all this duplicate accounts try to troll . Didn't your ban expired yet ?

    You're not in the US , it's not gonna happen .

    Let see , why would you want to remind yourself of a horrible experience , then post it on public forum at the very mention of a related word ? It's a classic troll tactic . She couldn't form any valid arguments so she went on the emotional side . I know it's pretty gruesome put people fake this kind of stuff more often then you would think . In the past 60 days alone I've met two people who suddenly developed cancer , one that was diagnosed with HIV , a cancer survivor and two more "rape victims" . Fortunately due to their sheer amount of stupidity they always play this card so badly that you can spot the fake from a mile .
     
    ApocalypseXL, Dec 16, 2011 IP
  18. Rukbat

    Rukbat Well-Known Member

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    #18
    Reality isn't a popularity contest. Vista was thought, by the masses, to be a great operating system. Usually popular trends are counter-reality.

    And to atheists, used car salesmen are trusted more than theists.

    Since most of them think that religion and morality are the same thing.
     
    Rukbat, Dec 16, 2011 IP
  19. Wulkanen

    Wulkanen Well-Known Member

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    #19
    Stupid questions get stupid answers.

    If you want to argue about the answers then we can also say that teachers is the most distrusted profession in the world.
    And where's the option to point out the RELIGIOUS TEACHER?

    Also, where I live, the answer "A teacher" would automatically mean "An atheist teacher" since we got more atheists than religious people.
    Again, stupid survey.


    Being an Atheist doesn't mean we look past the law, only a religious person would think that.
    The law applies to everyone, and we're capable of following it just fine without some imaginary man in the sky.


    How about some new answer options?
    A: A Christian.
    B: An Islamist.
    C: A Jew.

    What would be the outcome in a society populated with mostly Christians?
    Not that hard to guess that option A would do very well huh?
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2011
    Wulkanen, Dec 16, 2011 IP
  20. oo87

    oo87 Well-Known Member

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    #20
    I didn't fake anything. Everything he has said shows a bitter, angry person who isn't worth responding to further. He also doesn't seem to know what a "troll" is, in the Internet sense, or he wouldn't have accused a long standing member with a post count of being one. I mentioned it because it is relevant to the conversation: I am a rape victim. I am not discussing the details, but I am like a lot of women who went through it. I am also an Atheist. His lack of cognitive thinking skills that prohibit him from seeing why I brought the two topics up is a fault of his own, and his opinion doesn't affect me much.

    I feel sorry for any women in his life, though.
     
    oo87, Dec 16, 2011 IP