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Is there a place for atheists in America?

Sunday, June 28, 2009

(Updated 3:00 am)

By TOM ARCARO

Ten years ago, few Americans would have thought an African American could be elected president of the United States. Which will be the next minority group to gain this highest level of acceptance?

Will we have an openly gay president?

A Muslim president?

How about an atheist president?

In 2006, a University of Minnesota study found that atheists are the least trusted among several categories. In that study, some 40 percent of Americans said of atheists, "This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society."

Compare this number to other groups that often experience discrimination, such as Muslims who were next at 26 percent, and gays just after that at 23 percent.

Yet, a recent survey by Trinity College in Connecticut found that 15 percent of Americans claim they adhere to no religion, making them the fastest growing group of believers -- or, rather, nonbelievers -- in the United States.

The American Religious Identification Survey also found that the number of people who self-identify as "nonreligious" is growing in every state.

With the nonreligious far outnumbering Jews and Muslims, and pulling roughly even with Episcopalians, one would assume acceptance in American society.

Atheism is trendy in entertainment.

On television, we have Dr. Gregory House, played by Hugh Laurie in the Fox drama "House," and HBO pundit and "Religulous" filmmaker Bill Maher.

We hear about major authors that the public associates with atheism -- Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens.

But where are the voices of the "everyday" atheist?

Research I conducted last fall uncovered some unsettling trends. More than 8,200 atheists from around the globe completed a survey to share examples of the stigma they encounter after they tell family and friends of their views.

A general consensus can be found in the words of one man: "People have believed that I don't have a sense of morality because I don't believe in God."

Respondents feel mistrusted and, in many cases, feel compelled to hide their unbelief. They are your plumber, the nurse who checks your blood pressure, the mechanic who fixes your car, the soldier fighting in Iraq and the pilot who lands your plane.

The stigma rears its head everywhere in America. In one woman's words: "I was asked by a religious acquaintance about my church-going habits. When I told her about my atheism she was shocked and angry. She started to berate me about the importance of church and the fact that I was condemning my children to Hell."

Preliminary data also show that professing one's nonbeliefs in the public realm is potentially harmful. Some states have laws that ban atheists from public office, as survey takers pointed out, while others expressed fear that sharing their views would damage their livelihood.

Atheists represent the last social or religious group where stigmatization is accepted. Unlike stereotypical attacks on women, minorities and homosexuals, it seems that very few public figures stand up for the rights of the nonreligious.

In his Inauguration address, President Barack Obama made specific mention that this is also a nation of "nonbelievers," a sign that everyone should have a seat at the table of public discourse where ideas can be freely exchanged without fear of hostility or hatred.

As one of those "nonbelievers," this inclusion afforded me some hope for a United States where someday atheists will be free from stigma.

My survey is imperfect, and more research must be done. The goal of the "Coming Out as an Atheist" study is to add to the ongoing national conversation about religion and its role in our society.

Just as three decades ago people may have said, "I don't know any gay people," because most were in the closet, many Americans now believe that they don't know any atheists when indeed the person sitting next to them on the bus -- or, maybe, in the pew -- does not believe in God.

The writer teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Elon University. He also directs Project Pericles at Elon, an initiative that aims to "instill in students an abiding and active sense of social responsibility and civic concern."

What do you think?

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Panacea

June 28, 2009 - 9:50 am EDT

One should also remember that there is a difference between being religious and having faith or being spiritual.

I know many relgious people who are intolerant, narrow minded, snobbish and self righteous. The woman cited for telling an atheist her children would go to Hell is a prime example.

Attitudes like these are why many people of faith are dropping out of church. They want to celebrate God, not each other.

Crimedog

June 28, 2009 - 11:54 am EDT

Interesting article. However, there are differences in those that are not only anti-religion, but the existence of GOD is also denied. I'm very anti-religion but believe that an Almighty Loving GOD not only exist, but God loves all that has been created. I was born Jewish, both mother and father being practicing Jews. I went through all my childhood religish education as all Jewish children do. During my young adult life I discovered that being Jewish was learning tradition. And, what did all of this tradition have to do with a loving and personal relationship with GOD? Going from church to church seeking GOD, all I learned was different traditions and rituals of each church. Again, it seemed that I was embracing the glory of the church, the preacher and the rituals. I was in my mid-thirties when I realized that the so-called house' of worship had no relationship with GOD. I came to realize that GOD does not hide in churches or other houses of worship. The power, love and inspirations of the almighty and loving GOD resides in your own personal spirit. I wake up in the morning and retire at night with GOD's love and guidence. Another thing I've learned is that GOD is not a He or a She. GOD is a living inspirational, loving spirit that creates everything that is. My wife, Linda is a license and ordained Christian Minister. She, too believes like I believe. Religion is ritual and tradition. GOD is the true love. Going to church is like joining a friendly country club. Fellowship and advise is always welcomed. But, never lose sight that GOD exist within our personal lives and not in the church walls. I will never step on anyone's religious beliefs. I just do not have any desire to practice the traditions of any. My wife and I are so very comfortable and really at peace with our personal relationships with GOD. The Dog's outa here.
Crimedog

wreck86

June 28, 2009 - 4:01 pm EDT

Mr. Arcaro,
I can tell that you are an insightful, intelligent person who I would enjoy playing golf with, drinking a beer with, etc. and therein lies the problem for you being an atheist. If all atheists would just be arrogant jerks that no one can like or respect, it would make it a lot easier to just not to care about you. Instead, I end up liking you and caring about your well being. So if I see you step out in front of an oncoming bus, its hard for me to just say, "well, that's his decision." So here I am knowing that there is something much worse than a bus headed your way. I am conflicted between not wanting to offend you by telling you that at least part of your understanding of life is a complete lie and letting you know about a truth that will save you for eternity. I would assume that you have pondered these issues before but in case you needed some insight into how a true believer in Jesus Christ views his relationship with you, there it is. Loving my neighbor doesn't end at loaning him tools or bringing dinner him when he's sick.

JeffMo

June 29, 2009 - 2:28 pm EDT

>So here I am knowing that there is something much worse than a bus headed your way. I am conflicted between not wanting to offend you by telling you that at least part of your understanding of life is a complete lie and letting you know about a truth that will save you for eternity.

Are you similarly willing to participate in discussions about part of YOUR understanding of life being a complete lie?

Are you similarly willing to learn about truths that will save your life from being wasted on fairy stories about eternity?

As long as you are not easily-offended by such discussions, you would soon learn that other kinds of believers and nonbelievers can be just as firm in their convictions as you are in yours. There will even be some atheists who think they can't possibly be wrong when they say they "know" something (like you, apparently), and there are others who are mindful of the fact that none of us are infallible or omniscient, and continue an agenda of lifelong learning.

Some believers think they can sidestep their personal fallibility or ignorance by pointing to a book or to respected religious leaders that represent a supposedly-higher authority. They are wrong. This is easily seen by reference to the multitude of contradictory holy books that have been written and read by fallible men, each claiming to be directly written, revealed, or inspired by a god or gods.

And even if one of them turned out to be divinely sourced, against all odds, that would still leave fallible humans in charge of interpretation of the text. Everyday experience shows us that believers collectively have consistently failed to detect the one true interpretation of ANY holy book in history.

ConfirmedAtheist

July 2, 2009 - 10:13 am EDT

Sorry Jeffmo, but if you KNEW, with all your heart, that your neighbours' love life wasn't all it could be, would you offer advice?
Isn't religion just as private? No. Maybe it should be.

rubydynamite

June 29, 2009 - 3:38 pm EDT

I have never heard anything more arrogant and condescending in all my life.

A_Pickle

June 29, 2009 - 6:24 pm EDT

JeffMo puts it quite succinctly. In effect, you're placing your own belief above Mr. Arcaro's belief -- which is perfectly normal and acceptable on a personal level. Obviously, in your own mind, you have decided that you believe the account as told by religion more than the account as told by science. Mr. Arcaro has obviously arrived at the opposite conclusion in his mind.

But the problem occurs when you, based on nothing more than your own comparison of the beliefs, assume that it is acceptable to ask someone: "Have you found Jesus?" That's a deeply personal question for anyone, and it's an area that other people have no right to go willfully probing around in.

I believe that the Bible is no more significant than the fifth Harry Potter book just as strongly as you believe that the Bible is the most significant book on the planet. You can show your respect for that belief (and my right to hold it no matter what you say) by simply avoiding the topic altogether. And before you think otherwise, RESPECT and ENDORSEMENT are NOT THE SAME THING (IE, you can still respect my opinion while holding a different one).

So, let's try this from the top now:

"Hi! My name is A_Pickle. I do not believe in any deities, I believe that humanity can and does make it's own moral framework, and I believe that the Big Bang and Evolution are responsible for putting us here."

Choose the appropriate response:

A.) "Hello, nice to meet you! My name is wreck86, and I believe that the Universe and Life on Earth came to be as a result of divine will."

B.) "You do? Well that's unfortunate. Do you know what it means to be born-again?"

Get A Clue

June 28, 2009 - 4:55 pm EDT

"As one of those "nonbelievers," this inclusion afforded me some hope for a United States where someday atheists will be free from stigma."

Dream on.
I love this country because it's big enough for all kinds of seriousness and silliness. I am not pretending my country will ever be a place where everyone is free from stigma. All I insist is to be extended the rights afforded me in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I don't really care if every other person in the country "gets me" or not. We get to believe what we want and so long as we don't persecute or discriminate in ways defined by aforementioned documents, we've all enough space to do our own thing.
So, Mr. Arcaro, try harder to not sound like you're playing the "victim card." And enjoy your Sunday mornings free of hypocricy, like I do.
P.S.--To the previous poster: Writing god in ALL CAPS doesn't give him more power or make your religion more true. It just makes you look like you're a middle schooler on MySpace. (OMG!!!!!) :-)

Tom R

June 29, 2009 - 8:59 am EDT

Thank you, Mr. Arcaro, for an outstanding representation of the situation in which we atheists find ourselves. You avoided directly criticizing theists, which should aid in a rational discussion of this subject. A respectful appeal to theists to consider why an atheist holds this worldview is the best way to be accepted in society.

To comment further, it is unrealistic to expect to "convert" theists to atheism using rational approaches if their views have not been formed through such. I think all we can do is present the basis for our worldview. Those, like myself, who were strong theists but were "converted" to atheism have done so only after deciding to "wipe the slate clean", investigate the subject objectively and be willing to accept the truth no matter where this process ends.

jkrud76

June 30, 2009 - 12:42 pm EDT

Get A Clue, when people try to oust people from their jobs simply because they are atheists, or when biblical creationism is taught in science class, or when proclamations, bills, and laws are being written by our Representatives and Senators to establish Christianity as a preferred religion, we non-believers ARE being collectively persecuted and discriminated against, according to the Constitution which you (and I) hold dear. So I applaud Mr. Arcaro for his article. I thought it was well written and got the point across in a rational manner. Some atheists are content simply enjoying their Sundays free of hypocrisy, and I think that is great. But there are also atheists out there who actively take a role in keeping government secular and who work very hard to create a more advantageous and accepting position for us non-believers, and I wouldn't for a second accuse them of playing the "victim card". I, for one, am very thankful for them.

risskia

July 23, 2009 - 12:38 pm EDT

I was one of those ousted people. One of my coworkers "found out" that I'm atheist, told my supervisor, and WHOOPS, 6 months later I'm unemployed.

Fortunately I was able to prove my case and at least have unemployment to lean on.

TXatheist

June 29, 2009 - 3:30 pm EDT

wreck86, except for one thing. The results of a speeding bus hitting me is not even remotely comparable to not believing in your god. You do not know what you claim to know but instead have a belief that is completely unwarranted, unfounded and based on something that goes against everything we know in biology about when life ceases for an individual. md457@hotmail.com

GAAtheist

June 29, 2009 - 5:41 pm EDT

Thank you for writing this article on behalf of all of your fellow non-believers! I live and teach science in Cobb County GA, and had to put the infamous stickers in the science books just a few years back (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ID/6822028/).

I can tell you that there are still many closed-minded people who distrust those of us who will admit to being non-believers!

There was a parent who wanted to get rid of me just because I am an atheist, yet I had not mentioned religon at all in the class that her daughter was in.

Does it never occur to the religous that there are many who simply claim to be believers? How do they differentiate between the "true" believer and those making the claim just to prevent the ramifications and stigma that go with admitting non-belief?

Keep up the good work, and don't think that the rest of us did not notice the differences in Bush's and Obaba's speaches. It felt good to finally be given some acknowledgement :)

Ashell

July 1, 2009 - 7:23 pm EDT

I can completely relate to this article. I am an atheist and when I told my mother this she reacted by saying “no you’re not”. Since atheism has such bad connotations associated with it people think you are a bad person and that you hate god rather than that you just do not believe in a god/gods. I had to spend a good hour or better explaining to her what being an atheist meant.

I also had another experience, I am going to school in order to work in the health care field. After the first couple of weeks at this school we had a diversity workshop and the man presenting this workshop asked people to raise their hand if they were christian, muslim etc. at the end he asked us to raise our hand if we were an atheist. At the time this was very difficult for me to do (though I still did) I was afraid of what the repercussions of this would be. I thought that maybe the friends I had made would act differently towards me and view me as a bad person although I was the same person. The only thing different about me that they now knew was that I was skeptical of the world around me and did not believe in the tooth fairy, santa, god or any other fictitious being.

I hope that one day people will be able to openly profess that they are an atheist and not be shunned or looked at any differently than before people knew what they believed or rather didn’t believe.

If anything I think I should be questionable of the people that believe in this said “god” of theirs. This is magically thinking and should not be encouraged, just look at what religion has done over time, the crusades, stoning people to death and it being okay and so on.

People have been inventing gods since mankind has existed what makes this one anymore real than Zeus, one of the olympian gods.

Think Atheist

July 8, 2009 - 11:57 am EDT

Think Atheist is a community social networking & news site focused on bringing free thinkers together & breaking the misconceptions about atheism. We are also in our final stages of becoming a non profit. A great read Tom!