Scientific evidence suggests that, in United States, atheists are considered the most distrusted minority.
This fact deserves to be fully understood and studied.
The purpose of this post is to examine if the REASONS hold by most Americans against atheism are JUSTIFIED (given the evidence), or if it's a pure product of the Christian religious "bigotry" or prejudices supposedly typical of most American citizens.
According to this poll: "American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity does not 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"
What reasons do have the American citizens to hold such view against atheists? According to the study: "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."
Let's to summarize the reasons posed by American people to distrust atheists:
1-Fear of moral decline and social disorder
2-Rampant materialism
3-Cultural Elitism
Please, keep in mind the 3 above reasons, when examining this post. I'll provide EVIDENCE which prove that the above 3 traits are typical and very common in many atheists (specially in the militant materialistic atheists and metaphysical naturalists), and fully explains the American people' distrust on atheism.
Note, for the record, that it doesn't mean that ALL the atheists are like that (or that religious people cannot share traits like the 3 ones mentioned above). The point is that many atheists are like that, and this explains and warrant the inference that atheism (as a WORLDVIEW) will have the consequences feared by most Americans.
Also for the record, the point of this post is NOT to justify, induce or promote any kind of discrimination or persecution against atheists (or believers of any other belief system or worldview, for that matter). Rather, the point is to examine if the REASONS to distrust atheists hold by American people are justified and warranted given the evidence. This is a purely intellectual examination of the evidence and its implications to understand the poll.
If you confront strong believers in naturalistic atheism with this empirical evidence, their reply will almost certainly will be "This is a product of religious bigotry and prejudice. Most people are bigoted against atheists, by religious motives". Or some reply like that.
I think this atheistic reply is false (or irrelevant), and demostrably so. I don't deny that some people is bigoted against atheists by religious motives; but I DO deny that such religious motives are the only reason behind the distrust regarding atheists.
Moreover, the atheistic reply mentioned above is a red herring, and reveals an absolute unability by these atheists to be self-critical and rational, and give us more evidence that their cognitive faculties don't function properly in order to find the truth. This supports other lines of evidence (which I've discussed in depth my blog) suggesting that many materialistic atheists and naturalists are irrational.
Note that in the above poll, the first reason to distrust atheists is essentially of a MORAL kind. In other words, American citizens think that atheism poses a risk to USA in terms of the moral order (i.e. American people think atheism could cause a moral decline and, as consequence, a social disorder).
Let's to examine the evidence to see if the belief of most Americans is true (or at least plausible).
EVIDENCE FOR THE MORAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE ATHEISTIC WORLDVIEW:
Let's to see how morality is seen by one of the most prominent apologists and influential propagandists for atheism, Richard Dawkins.
According to Richard Dawkins: "If I say something is wrong, like killing people, I don't find that nearly such a defensible statement as 'I am a distant cousin of an orangutan... I couldn't, ultimately, argue intellectually against somebody who did something I found obnoxious. I think I could finally only say, "Well, in this society you can't get away with it" and call the police" (Reference: This interview)
I ask my readers: is not that Dawkins' view on morality a straightforward confirmation of what most American people think about the likely moral decline entailed by atheism and the inability of atheism to provide a solid foundation for moral values and judgments?
More broadly and making explicit the worldview considerations underlying Dawkins' atheistic beliefs on morality, Dawkins argues: "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference." (River Out Of Eden, p.155.)
If Dawkins' atheistic worldview is right, then there is, at the bottom, no evil and no good at all. Is not Dawkins destroying the basic concepts of ethics (like the concept of "good" and "evil")? If evil and good are non-existent, then how the hell is Dawkins' atheistic worldview going to account for moral beliefs and actions?
Is not Dawkins' materialistic atheistic worldview going to cause a "moral decline" (as believed by most Americans in the poll mentioned above)?
In his debate with William Lane Craig, atheist philosopher and biologist Massimo Pigliucci argues: "There is no such a thing as objective morality. We got that straightened out. Morality in human cultures has evolved and is still evolving, and what is moral for you might not be moral for the guy next door and certainly is not moral for the guy across the ocean, the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean, and so on"
I ask the objective, rational and neutral readers: Is not Pigliucci's atheistic relativistic belief that "what is moral for you might not be moral for the guy next door" a belief that, if followed and assumed consistently, would destroy the social order? Is not such belief a potential cause of moral decline? Is not justified the fear of Americans regarding the destruction of morality entailed by atheistic beliefs like that?
Keep in mind that one of the findings of the poll was that "Americans believe they share more than rules and procedures with their fellow citizens—they share an understanding of right and wrong"
Do you think that the atheistic worldview that Dawkins and Pigliucci share might offer an understanding of right and wrong? Is not Dawkins and Pigliucci destroying the basic objective conditions for sharing common stable and rational criteria to understand what's right and what's wrong (or what's good or evil)? Suppose that people like Dawkins or Pigliucci were the controllers of society and apply CONSISTENTLY their atheistic materialistic beliefs: What social consequences would you expect from that?
I think the answers to all of these questions are very obvious, but I let you to decide. Think hard about it.
EVIDENCE FOR THE ATHEISTS' RAMPANT MATERIALISM:
I'll skip this point, since a large part of my blog is dedicated to critically examine atheistic materialism and naturalism, so I don't want to repeat me here.
EVIDENCE FOR THE ATHEISTS' CULTURAL ELITISM:
One of the most obvious traits of atheists (at least, of many of them) is the extreme arrogance and feelings of superior rationality and intelligence of these individuals. This is clearly a delusion, rooted probably in psychological disorders and spiritual causes.
But my interest here is not to speculate about the origin of these individuals' irrationalities and delusions, but provide EVIDENCE which confirms the cultural elitism mentioned by the poll.
Perhaps the most interesting (and funny, I concede) evidence of this is the attempt by some materialistic atheists and naturalists to label themselves as "brights" (implying that non-atheists are not brights), an obviously puerile, monumentally silly and ridiculous self-gratifying label intented to increase their elitistic delusions and irrational fantasies of intellectual superiority.
In the naturalistic website www.the-brights.net, you can read this ridiculous definition of "bright": "
What is a bright?
* A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview
* A bright's worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements
* The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview
Note that a bright is, by definition, someone who accept the naturalistic ideology. If it's true, then most of the people on Earth (who believe in God or some supernatural or mystical realm) are not brights. Therefore, actual brights belong to a very select group of superior people, hence to an ELITE (and this is a cultural elite, since what make you to belong to it are cultural factors, like the kind of beliefs which you hold: in this case, the belief that the naturalistic ideology is true).
Expanding on the silly self-centered and self-gratifying definitions given above, that ridiculous website continues: "Think about your own worldview to decide if it is free of supernatural or mystical deities, forces, and entities. If you decide that you fit the description above, then you are, by definition, a bright!
On this website, you can simply say so and, by doing so, join with other brights from all over the world in an extraordinary effort to change the thinking of society—the Brights movement"
Perhaps you're laughing after reading the definitions and arguments given by such a sectarian and elitistic movement. But the topic is serious: it provides independent EVIDENCE which confirms the "cultural elitism" mentioned in the poll above. Note, by the way, that one of the findings of the researchers of poll reported that
As has argued Thomistic philosopher Edward Feser: "Several years ago, Dennett famously suggested in a The New York Times piece that secularists adopt the label "brights" to distinguish them from the religious believers. His proposal doesn't seem to have caught on (perhaps because a grown man who goes around earnestly chirping "I'm a bright" surely sounds rather like an idiot. But whatever the rhetorical deficiencies of "bright", it perfectly encapsulates the self-satisfaction of the secularist mentality: "We're intelligent, informed, and rational, while religious believers are stupid, ignorant, and irrational, not at all bright like us" (The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism, p. 3)
The "secularist mentality" mentioned by Feser is another name for the "elististic mentality" typical of atheistic materialists and naturalists.
Note, by the way, that the use of silly labels like "brights" (applied by naturalistic atheists to themselves) reveals an obvious egocentric, self-centered, self-gratifying, self-interested kind of personality very common in these individuals. And one of researchers of the poll reported that "Our findings seem to rest on a view of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the common good"
Now, I ask you: calling oneself "bright" while considering the rest of people on Earth "non-brights" (and therefore, inferior to the "brights") is not evidence of being obviously self-centered and having not actual concern with the common good? Do you contribute to the "common good" stigmatizing, discrediting and undervaluating (as "non-brights") the great majority of people on Earth who disagree with you? Is it not evidence for a purely elitistic, sectarian, egocentric, self-interested concern to benefit the "bright" and his own small sect, while discrediting the "non-brights" (i.e. the overwhelming majority of people on the Earth)?
So, I ask you my dear reader, being absolutely objective and given the evidence, are most Americans wrong when they link atheism with cultural elitism?
Judge by yourself. Don't be fooled by the atheists' red herring speculations about bigotry and prejudices of most American citizens. Stick to the EVIDENCE and draw your conclusions from it.
In my view, Americans are right to think that atheism (more specifically, the naturalistic-based atheism, which is the culturally predominant one discussed in this post) would cause a moral decline and bring a severe and dangerous social disorder. I'd add that the naturalistic ideology is dangerous on the intellectual level too, since it tends to impair and destroy the ability to think logically and rationally, as I've discussed in several posts in this blog (also, this explains for example the puerile and ridiculous use of labels like "brights" to define themselves. They are intellectually unable and blind to see their own irrationalities, and how their own behaviour reinforces the justified negative view which most people have about them)
As Feser mentioned, a person who seriously call himself a "bright", sounds like an idiot. And I submit that such person IS probably an idiot, and so unworthy of intellectual respect.
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