Yes, but Tick, you just said that every faction faces discrimination, while that might be true, it does indeed downplay the point of the OP.
Yes, making the point that the thread was unnecessary. WE ALL are discriminated against. Why not just have a broader topic called, "Discrimination?
See my point?
No?
Don't care anymore.
More than 2,000 randomly selected people were interviewed by researchers from the University of Minnesota.
Asked whether they would disapprove of a child's wish to marry an atheist, 47.6 percent of those interviewed said yes. Asked the same question about Muslims and African-Americans, the yes responses fell to 33.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively. The yes responses for Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and conservative Christians were 18.5 percent, 18.5 percent, 11.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.
When asked which groups did not share their vision of American society, 39.5 percent of those interviewed mentioned atheists. Asked the same question about Muslims and homosexuals, the figures dropped to a slightly less depressing 26.3 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively. For Hispanics, Jews, Asian-Americans and African-Americans, they fell further to 7.6 percent, 7.4 percent, 7.0 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.
The study contains other results, but these are sufficient to underline its gist: Atheists are seen by many Americans (especially conservative Christians) as alien and are, in the words of sociologist Penny Edgell, the study's lead researcher, "a glaring exception to the rule of increasing tolerance over the last 30 years."
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1786422&page=1
From a study conducted by the University of Minnesota in 2006.
Alright, I read the paper last night. Here's a few points I thought to be relevant. First, and parenthetically, science reporting still sucks.
Anyway, it's probably reasonable to conclude that the country is still distrusting of atheists, with a few caveats. The study is framed as evidence that religious America is intolerant of atheists, but apparently 17 percent of the nonreligious population, defined by the study as people who consider religion "not at all salient to them" have the same view of atheists as the typical evangelical.
Also, although atheists still lag behind other minority groups in terms of social acceptability - willingness to vote for them in elections, for example - the public is becoming more tolerant of them as a group: "political tolerance for atheists has indeed moved in the same direction as has tolerance for other groups," though at a slower rate than the other groups. The authors also say in the conclusion that the upward trend of acceptance will probably continue.
There also may be another correlation to fish out of the study. It may not be people's religiosity that fuels their disdain for atheism, but their stupidity. The more education participants were, the less likely they were to view atheists as a threat.
Most importantly, the study didn't look at mistreatment of atheists, but how people view them. And if they're not disenfranchised or denied any other legal rights, I don't think there's much to complain about. And really, why do people's opinions matter so much? If a person is happy with his or her life and atheistic worldview, what does it matter if Pastor Joe Bob Jones of First Baptist church in Dyess, Arkansas doesn't like them?
Topic: Do atheists face discrimination? (Read 25181 times)
