Researcher Gregory Paul and professor Phil Zuckerman state what we all know is true in the Washington Post:

… there is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.

They go on to say there’s *no* reason any of these stereotypes are warranted, citing study after study.

… the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious… … … murder rates are far lower in secularized nations such as Japan or Sweden than they are in the much more religious United States… … … those states with the highest levels of church attendance… have significantly higher murder rates than far less religious states… … … atheists tend to score high on measures of intelligence, especially verbal ability and scientific literacy. They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule. They are more likely to practice safe sex than the strongly religious are, and are less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric. They value freedom of thought.

You won’t hear a lot of pastors admit any of this, though. They get followers and money by demonizing non-Christians, and atheists are an easy group to target.

Paul and Zuckerman didn’t mention that we’re also people who often volunteer and give to charity in large numbers — perhaps that was omitted because studies haven’t confirmed that yet. But groups like Foundation Beyond Belief are just tapping into the generosity that’s already in our community.

So how do we get Christians (and other theists) to stop pushing these nasty stereotypes about us?

It starts by coming out of the closet as an atheist. If someone believes atheists are bad, but they happen to know you very well and they know you’re a good person, nothing will create more cognitive dissonance in their mind than finding out you don’t believe in a god. So start telling people. Tell one friend first. Tell others acquaintances later. Maybe tell your family after that. Whatever order is the most comfortable for you.

The faster we can do this, the more quickly I believe those studies will start to swing in our favor.



