March Gallup Poll: Atheists slightly less unsavoury than Scientologists
In a March /08 Gallup poll, Americans were asked their overall positive, negative, or neutral impressions of various prevalent religions and the Non-God set.
The same poll conducted in 2006 yielded higher results across the board, suggesting Americans are down on religion in general. Muslims took a serious hit, falling from -4 to -17 in the past 2 years (not blamable on Iron Man, which came out a month later at least). Mormons are at the top of the “bad” scale at -2, no doubt as a result of the recent news coverage of the largely unrelated FLDS scandal. Scientologists are the bottom of the barrel, their reputation also no doubt at the mercy of news coverage stimulated by Anonymous.
The real surprise to naive little me was that atheists are consistently negatively viewed. They dropped 2 points, but that’s within the margin of error for a poll. In any case, they’re viewed second only to Scientologists on the scumbaggery scale. Wtf, if I may ask? Theists, can you reply with a possible reason as to why atheists are thought poorly of? Potential reasons suggested to me include the idea that atheists aren’t moral creatures, which of course makes no sense. What did Einstein say…”If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed”? Word up. Atheists are good because it’s the right effing thing to do, not because Magical Dad will rain it down if we’re not. That strikes me as even more moral, because my tail isn’t on the line if I’m bad.
The comments on Framing Science’s report on the poll are thoughtful propositions as to why the downward shift in public regard for religion generally; I’m thinking it has to do with political overuse, repeated scandals (Catholic, FLDS, filthy rich evangelicals craving young men and meth, etc) and the zealotry associated with the middle east wearing on people’s nerves.
“Atheists are good because it’s the right effing thing to do, not because Magical Dad will rain it down if we’re not. That strikes me as even more moral, because my tail isn’t on the line if I’m bad.”
That sums it up nicely. Many theists are scared of the athiest viewpoint because we can choose what our morals are rather than having them dicated by a book, which is scary to some people. If Christian theists really examined where they get their morals from, they would see it isn’t the Bible either. They are picking and choosing, it is arbritary. So they are choosing their morals, the saem as an athiest does.
Posted by God Delusion on May 7th, 2008 9:03 am