How America Views Atheists

Reprinted with permission from Atheist.org (originally published March 26, 2006).

THE ULTIMATE OUTSIDERS? NEW REPORT CASTS ATHEISTS AS "OTHERS" BEYOND MORALITY AND COMMUNITY IN AMERICA

new study by the University of Minnesota Department of Sociology has
found that Americans perceive Atheists as the group least likely to
embrace common values and a shared vision of society.

   Worse yet, Atheists are identified as the cohort other Americans do
not want to see their offspring marrying!

   These are just some of the result from a forthcoming article slated
for publication in the American Sociological Review by Penny Edgell,
Joseph Gerties and Douglas Hartmann. The research is part of the
American Mosaic Project which monitors attitudes of the population in
respect to minority groups. AANEWS obtained an advanced copy of the
study that was based on a telephone survey of more than 2,000
households.

   Researchers concluded: "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."

   Disturbingly, Atheists are "seen as a threat to the American way of
life by a large portion of the American public," despite being only 3%
of the U.S. population according to Dr. Edgell, associate sociology
professor and the lead researcher in the project.

   Edgell said that Atheists "play the role that Catholics, Jews and
communists have played in the past" in that we provide "a symbolic
moral boundary to membership in American society."

   In addition, says the study, "The reaction to atheists has long been
used as an index of political and social tolerance."

   The U. of M. team acknowledged that general levels of tolerance and
acceptance have been on the rise. Indeed, they cited studies like the
Gallup polling organization that indicated growing willingness by
voters to support Catholic, Jewish, Gay and other candidates
identified with groups once considered out of the mainstream.
Atheists, however, linger at the very bottom of this list, although
there has been limited progress in this category since the mid-to-late
1950s.

   Statistically, the picture is much the same regarding the perception
of Atheists sharing a common vision with the rest of the American
polity. When asked to identify the group that "does not at all agree
with my vision of American society," 39.6% of respondents listed
Atheists, well ahead of Muslims (26.3%); Homosexuals (22.6%); and Jews
(7.6%). Conservative Christians drew a negative response from 13.5%
of those surveyed, slightly ahead of recent immigrants at 12.5%.

   Other results found by the researchers illuminated the status of
Atheists in respect to various groups.

    ¶       "Church attenders, conservative Protestants, and those reporting
high religious saliency are less likely to approve of intermarriage
with an atheist and more likely to say that atheists do not share
their vision of American society..." In respect to the former, the
survey presented respondents with the following statement: "I would
disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group."

   Once again, Atheists were at the apex of this negative-image cohort at
47.6%, followed by Muslims (33.5%); African Americans (27.2%); Asian
Americans (18.5%); Hispanics (18.5%); Jews (11.8%); conservative
Christians (6.9%) and Whites at 2.3%.

    ¶       "Attitudes toward atheists are related to social location,"
observed the team. "White Americans, males, and those with a college
degree are somewhat more accepting of atheists than are nonwhite
Americans, females, or those with less formal education."

   Respondents from the South and Midwest were less accepting of Atheists
than those living on either coast. Curiously, this seems to reflect
the political divide of "Red versus Blue" states from the last
presidential election.

    ¶       Researchers also tried to discover any correlations between negative
attitudes toward Atheists and similar views of homosexuals and
Muslims. "None of these correlations is large," reported the
researchers. "We believe this indicates that the boundary being draw
vis-a-vis atheists is symbolic, a way of defining cultural membership
in American life, and not the result of a simple irrational
unwillingness to tolerate small out-groups."

    A significant finding of the new study is that despite growing
acceptance and tolerance of different groups within the religious
community, Atheists are viewed as outsiders, "others," who do not
share a common community vision. "What matters for public acceptance
of atheists -- and figures strongly into private acceptance as well --
are beliefs about the appropriate relationship between church and
state and about religion's role in underpinning society's moral order,
as measured by our item on whether society's standards of right and
wrong should be based on God's laws." The study found that
conservative Protestants especially rejected the "possibility of a
secular basis for a good society." This, more than anything else, may
be the driving factor placing Atheists outside the cultural mainstream
in the minds of nearly a majority of Americans.

    The University of Minnesota study drew upon other research measuring
the prevalence of explicit Atheism and nonbelief throughout American
society. Fully 14% of Americans claim "no religious identity," and 7%
told the General Social Survey that they do not believe in a God or
are not sure.

   "Respondents had various interpretations of what atheists are like and
what the label means," investigators found in discussions following
the initial interviews. Perceptions fell into two categories.

   "Some people view atheists as problematic because they associate them
with illegality, such as drug use and prostitution -- that is, with
immoral people who threaten respectable community from the lower end
of the social hierarchy." Presumably, this might be rooted in the
claim that only religion can provide an authentic moral compass, and
that without a deity (and the presumed punishment in an afterlife),
people have little to lose by engaging in certain immoral, sinful
behaviors.

   "Others saw atheists as rampant materialists and cultural elitists
that threaten common values from above -- the ostentatiously wealthy
who make a lifestyle out of consumption or the cultural elites who
think they know better than everyone else." In both cases, atheists
are perceived as "self interested individuals who are not concerned
with a common good."

    ¶       The issue of elitism surfaces in the study findings, with
respondents using the Atheist "as a symbolic figure to represent their
fears about ... trends in American life." These included crime,
rampant self-interest, and an "unaccountable elite."

   "The atheist is invoked rhetorically to discuss the links, or
tensions, among religion, morality, civic responsibility and
patriotism."

   As for elitism, Atheists appear to have replaced groups that in the
past have been identified as constituting an over-influential clique
subverting American values.

   The researchers note that in the public imagination, Atheists are
linked "with a kind of unaccountable elitism," a phenomenon that has
purportedly surfaced in public debates. Indeed, Charlotte Allen,
author of the 2004 book "The Twilight of Atheism," expressed fears
that Atheism "may yet be experiencing a new dawn: a terrifying new
alliance of money and power, of a kind even Marx could not have
foreseen."

    ¶       The debate over Atheists, Atheists and the issue of religion in
civil society has been fueled by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The
Minnesota team devoted a section of their report to quotes from
leading officials such as former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who
in public statements invoked religion as a guarantor of freedom and
human dignity. The 2004 presidential campaign witnessed similar
rhetoric.

    The study underscored the role of Atheists as "symbolic" of angst
permeating American culture. "Negative views about atheists are
strong," noted the researchers, although "survey respondents were not,
on the whole, referring to actual atheists they had encountered."
Instead, the Atheist is a sort of boundary marker distinguishing
members of a wider policy from "others," outsiders, those not sharing
assumptions about morality and the role of religion. Religion is
widely perceived as providing "habits of the heart," and a disposition
which includes one in membership within a larger community. Americans
"construct the atheist as the symbolic representation of one who
rejects the basis for moral solidarity and cultural membership in
American society altogether."

   Other groups have suffered a similar fate over the year, including
"Catholics, Jews, and Communists." Today, say the researchers, the
Atheist plays this role.

   There may be a crucial difference, however. "Our analysis shows that
attitudes about atheists have not followed the same historical pattern
as that for previously marginalized religious groups. It is possible
that the increasing tolerance for religious diversity may have
heightened awareness of religion itself as the basis for solidarity in
American life and sharpened the boundary between believers and
nonbelievers in our collective imagination."

    Finally, in all of this, there is a flicker of hope for Atheists.
The Minnesota survey references an earlier Gallup Organization poll
(listed as "Figure 1") measuring "Willingness to vote for Presidential
candidates." Voter attitudes toward Catholics, Jews, African
Americans, Atheists and Homosexuals were tabulated with displayed
results from 1958 through 1999. Gallup conducted the survey as
then-vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman was running on the
Democratic Party ticket with Al Gore. Willingness to consider voting
for a Jewish candidate had climbed from about 61% in
1958 to over 90% in 1999. There was similar progress for candidates of
other religious or ethnic groups. Voters looked favorably on possible
Mormon candidates (79%) as well as Roman Catholics and women.

   Atheists were at the bottom of the cohort, however. Gallup research
indicated that "close to half of Americans, 48%, (were) unwilling to
support an atheist for president while 49% say they would."

   The bad news may not be THAT bad, though. About 19% of respondents in
1958 expressed willingness to vote for a qualified Atheist candidate
seeking public office. By 1978, that figure had climbed to 40%,
rising approximately another 10% in the next 11 years. The only group
making comparable dramatic headway in terms of public acceptance was
African Americans. That cohort lingered below the 30% mark in 1958,
but skyrocketed to over 90% in 1999.

   American Atheists President Ellen Johnson said that while Atheists are
the "others" in the current cultural and political milieu, the figures
demonstrate the need for this segment to become more engaged. "We
need to keep speaking out, organizing, running for public office,"
said Johnson. "Some might see this as an omen to retreat; it's really
a call for action."