Atheism Backlash Result of Extreme Religious Right

Read Time:5 Minute, 18 Second
Pic courtesy of SodaHead.com.

The Atheist population in America continues to grow by leaps and bounds primarily because of the insanity of the Religious Right.  Despite that, however, they are still one of the country’s least trusted minority.

How many atheists are there?

It depends on your definition of the term. Only between 1.5 and 4 percent of Americans admit to so-called “hard atheism,” the conviction that no higher power exists. But a much larger share of the American public (19 percent) spurns organized religion in favor of a nondefined skepticism about faith. This group, sometimes collectively labeled the “Nones,” is growing faster than any religious faith in the U.S. About two thirds of Nones say they are former believers; 24 percent are lapsed Catholics and 29 percent once identified with other Christian denominations. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, claims these Nones as members of his tribe. “If you don’t have a belief in God, you’re an atheist,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you call yourself.”

Why are so many people leaving religion?

It’s primarily a backlash against the religious Right, say political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In their book, American Grace, they argue that the religious Right’s politicization of faith in the 1990s turned younger, socially liberal Christians away from churches, even as conservatives became more zealous. The dropouts were turned off by churches’ Old Testament condemnation of homosexuals, premarital sex, contraception, and abortion. The Catholic Church’s sex scandals also prompted millions to equate religion with moralistic hypocrisy. “While the Republican base has become ever more committed to mixing religion and politics,” Putnam and Campbell write, “the rest of the country has been moving in the opposite direction.” As society becomes more secular, researchers say, doubters are more confident about identifying themselves as nonbelievers. “The collapse of institutional religion in the first 10 years of this century [has] freed so many people to say they don’t really care,” said author Diana Butler Bass.

How are nonbelievers perceived?

Most polls suggest that atheists are among the most disliked groups in the U.S. One study last year asked participants whether a fictional hit-and-run driver was more likely to be an atheist or a rapist. A majority chose atheist. In 2006, another study found that Americans rated atheists as less likely to agree with their vision of America than Muslims, Hispanics, or homosexuals. “Wherever there are religious majorities, atheists are among the least trusted people,” said University of British Columbia sociologist Will M. Gervais. As a result, avowed atheists are rare in nearly all areas of public life. Of the 535 legislators in Congress, for example, only one — Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) — calls himself an atheist. Few sports stars or Hollywood celebrities own up to having no religious faith.

Why so much distrust?

Many Americans raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition are convinced that atheists can have no moral compass. Azim Shariff, a University of Oregon psychologist who studies religious thinking, sums up how believers view nonbelievers: “They don’t fear God, so we should distrust them. They do not have the same moral obligations as others.” The antipathy may have actually grown with the recent emergence of “New Atheist” writers such as Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, who have launched impassioned attacks on organized religion. Dawkins has encouraged his followers to “ridicule” anyone who could believe in “an unforgiving control freak” and “a capriciously malevolent bully” like the God portrayed in the Old Testament. Dawkins’s harsh approach, said Barbara J. King, an anthropologist at the College of William and Mary, has confirmed “some of the negative stereotypes associated with the nonreligious — intolerance of the faithful, first and foremost.”

How have atheists responded to this negative image?

A coalition of nonbelievers is out to make atheism more acceptable, starting with last month’s “Reason Rally” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where thousands stood up for their right to not believe. Silverman of American Atheists, who helped organize the rally, said it was intended to give heart to young, “closet atheists” who fear the social stigma of being “outed,” in much the same way closeted gays do. “We will never be closeted again,” he said. Some within the movement advocate taking a more conciliatory approach to believers, too. Alain de Botton, the Anglo-Swiss writer of the new book Religion for Atheists, assails Dawkins as being “very narrow-minded,” and praises religions as “the most successful educational and intellectual movements the planet has ever witnessed.

Will atheism ever be accepted?

If growth continues at the current rate, one in four Americans will profess no religious faith within 20 years. Silverman hopes that as nonbelief spreads, atheists can become a “legitimate political segment of the American population,” afforded the same protections as religious groups and ethnic minorities. But he’s not advocating a complete secular takeover of the U.S. — nor would he be likely to achieve one, given the abiding religious faith of most Americans. “We don’t want the obliteration of religion; we don’t want religion wiped off the face of the earth,” Silverman said. “All we demand is equality.”

Atheists in foxholes

Atheists are barely visible in politics and entertainment, but they are clamoring for recognition in another area of public life — the military. The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers estimates that 40,000 soldiers identify as nonbelievers, and counts the most famous casualty of the war in Afghanistan, former NFL star Pat Tillman, as one of its own. In attempting to secure the same rights and support enjoyed by religious soldiers, the association lobbies against the idea that “there are no atheists in foxholes,” and wants “atheist chaplains” made available for the ranks of the armed nonbelievers. Jason Torpy, the association’s president, says that nonbelievers outnumber every religious group in the military except Christians, yet receive no ethical and family counseling geared to their own nonbeliefs. “These are things that chaplains do for everybody,” he said, “except us.”

 

Original article by Arjuna published at SodaHead, The Week, and Yahoo.com.

 
Follow MadMike’sAmerica on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to visit our HOME PAGE.

If you liked our story please share it at REDDIT.COM and PINTEREST as well as TUMBLR.

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

10 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Steve R
11 years ago

The United States spent much of the twentieth century fighting a monster that identified itself as atheistic. To most older Americans, the “atheist = Communist” meme still holds, and the following generation got it secondhand. Still, the old superstitions fade. There was a time when good, right-thinking people knew that their crops would fail if they didn’t plow a child into the ground every spring. Humanity outgrew that, and we will outgrow the rest, though I suspect that the shadows of the old cults will remain for centuries after their substance has decayed.

Jason
11 years ago

I am an atheist. Out and proud. If any fundie takes issue with it, a message for you….You can’t save me. 1 – the idea that you could, is stupid as hell, 2 – just as a way to piss you off so I am a burn at the stake canidate for you and not an option to convert, I did the one thing that is unforgivable in the bible. I will repeat it for the world to see now. “I deny the Holy Spirit”. Granted, most of the knuckle draggers can’t read, much less a website like MMA, but should one of your “sheepherders” you call a pastor, happen to read this, I hope you fuck yourself instead of your alter boys. Sorry to the rest of you who might not like what I am saying, but agree with the message, I am just tired of feeling like a second class citizen in the USA. I was born here, I live here, I should have the right to be who I want to be. In most states, people like me cannot hold public office. Granted, my mouth would probably screw me, but other atheists should be able to be open about who they are. Not many of us can be, which is sad. We deserve better.

Reply to  Jason
11 years ago

I’m with you Jason! 99% of the so-called xians I know don’t even attend church except for weddings and funerals. How’s that for hypocrisy? It’s because they can’t take the time to think about what they THINK they believe, and who the hell would want to admit that watching televangelists would be their favorite pastime? I had a deacon teacher friend of mine tell an educational assistant that she was going to hell if she didn’t go to church on a regular basis. When she told me this, he was no longer a friend! He would never tell me because I would have told him what to do with his Holy Spirit! This was a time when my ex-wife had told me to ‘fuck-off’ because her new boyfriend was GOD. When someone tells you the most important thing in their life is an invisible, imaginary, mythical character made up by ancient men, you really have to wonder what is wrong with our society. Born Again?? My Ass!!!

11 years ago

Jim and I will never be full-blown atheists, but we are agnostic. And for me, it definitely is because of the right wing. They have taken the message of love and acceptance preached by Jesus and twisted it into something so ugly and hateful that it makes me sick. If THAT’S “God,” I want nothing to do with him. I’d rather just try and be nice and forgiving and kind, and let the chips fall where they may. If I wind up in a lake of fire, oh well. That’s where all my friends are going. 😉

Gary William Green
11 years ago

I was told if you believe in something you cannot see and is not there, you are crazy. Yet millions of people pray to an invisible man in the sky who is responsible for over 2 million deaths in the bible alone.

11 years ago

Weird that not being afraid of an imaginary tyrant (god), makes us untrustable. I would trust me, before I’d trust someone who worships a murderer, a bigot, a misogynist, a pedophile, a slave-driver, or a god who creates a hell for his own creation. There is no critical thinking involved within the Christian mind when it comes to truth and justice.

Reply to  RickRay
11 years ago

Of course there is no critical thinking with the religious. That’s one of the things like facts, and logic that are always fatal to any religion. That’s why all religions try to suppress those things and especially, free speech.

Dale Fisk
11 years ago

There’s always a price to pay for everything we do, and the twisted fanaticism of the Republican Right is paying that price as once loyal followers rise up and leave them, many dumping their crazy religious crap as well. I say good on ’em!

Previous post Critter Talk: Chronic Active Hepatitis in Dogs
Next post A Cruel Universe Indeed
10
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x