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Atheists most distrusted in society?: Study

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Fun from Kimberley Winston at the Washington Post (“Study: Atheists distrusted as much as rapists,”December 10, 2011):

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 sounds like junk, and the motive becomes pretty obvious when one of the authors advises,

“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.”

Most of us haven’t been interacting with “all these atheists” all our lives, so if there were anything in the find, it would probably relate to the “new atheist,” of the sort we are always having to see off Uncommon Descent.

For them, atheism means never having to say “I should be sorry.”

Comments
I would bet clowns would make the list. :razz:Joe
December 12, 2011
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You’re on Family Feud. The category is “Types of people you wouldn’t leave your child alone with.” Who do you think would make the list?
Catholic priests, obviously. No doubt the accuracy of this reply will be deemed abusive but it remains the case that while Uncommon Descent thinks nothing of declaiming the perils of 'ungrounded' secular morality it has steadfastly refused to even mention the fact that the Catholic church, including its current Pope, have been engaged in the systematic cover-up of child abuse. Presumably Catholic morality isn't objective enough? Or maybe it's the wrong kind of objective? So the question needs to be asked - why has Uncommon Descent, that vocal bastion of the correct moral path, simply ignored such an horrific scandal?Street Theatre
December 11, 2011
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What the cited study seems to be showing, is that when Americans hear “atheist” they tend to think only of outspoken atheists rather that the vast majority who keep their views on religion to themselves.
Really? Where does the cited study refer to such famous atheists?William J Murray
December 11, 2011
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"... was the driver more likely to be a teacher, an atheist teacher, or a rapist teacher?" Compare to: "Was the driver more likely to be a human, an atheist human, or a rapist human?" Since the last two categories are subsets of the first, the answer is that the driver was more likely to be a human (or the inclusive category). Who thinks up these questions?bunnybreath
December 10, 2011
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Who answered these questions? Given that there are more teachers than atheist teachers and certainly more than rapist teachers, the answer should be fairly obvious. I'd be much more interested in a survey like this: If you had an 8 year old child and an emergency forced you to place him or her in the care of a complete stranger you know nothing or almost nothing about and who would be unsupervised, which would you choose first, and which would you choose last? 1) A name from the phone book 2-n) list several different categories of people. A random person who is a janitor. A random person who sells used cars. A random person who is a college football coach. Use your imagination. Or make the question a round of Family Feud. (That's a game show where contestants guess the most common results of a survey question. It's not multiple choice.) You're on Family Feud. The category is "Types of people you wouldn't leave your child alone with." Who do you think would make the list?ScottAndrews2
December 10, 2011
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Most of us haven’t been interacting with “all these atheists” all our lives
Oh, you have. You probably never noticed, because they are no different from other people except that they don't attend Church as often. You may not have been interacting with outspoken atheists. But there are very few of those. For most of the people that I interact with, I have no idea what are there views on religion. And I suspect that it is much the same for you. What the cited study seems to be showing, is that when Americans hear "atheist" they tend to think only of outspoken atheists rather that the vast majority who keep their views on religion to themselves.Neil Rickert
December 10, 2011
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How do you go from damaging a parked car and leaving the scene to raping children? If the study sez anything it sez they will either take or side-swipe the children.Joe
December 10, 2011
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