Candide

Guns don’t kill people, neither do (just) the mentally-ill.

Click read more if you want to see my opinion piece on the links between mental health and violent crime. I’ve put it under read more because it deals with the Newtown Tragedy and the media’s portrayal of Adam Lanza. Criticism would be much appreciated, as this is a delicate issue, and I want to handle it as sensitively as possible as this will likely end up in my uni newspaper.

Read More

• 29 Dec 2012

Atheists more distrusted than rapists?

mypetrockbernard:

candide94:

tzophia replied to your post: Miley Cyrus Disses Jesus!

“atheists are, alongside rapists, the most distrusted group of people.” Maybe in your privileged world, they are. Um, have you heard of race?

MY REPLY

There a number of independent studies that have shown this to  be true. I know it sounds surpising, but here are the links, so u can see for yourself:

Scientifc American article on a University of British Colombia study:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-atheists-we-distrust

The original paper:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22059841

Here is an article on a University of Minnesota study, it states the conclusions, but I can’t find the original paper:

http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheitsHated.htm

…

I’m sorry but this isn’t my “privileged” world. These are peer-reviewed studies carried out with the highest degree of scientific and statistical reliability. Of course there ia a degree of uncertainty in the sample, but it is only small, or else the papers wouldn’t be published. If you can provide me with some studies that point to race being the greatest indicator of distrust, I would be quite happy to read them.

On another note, we must always remember that the modern USA was willing to elect an African-American president, but never an atheist one. This is just anecdotal evidence, so we can’t read to much into it, but I think it gives some backing to my point, However, as I say, better to read the studies.

I hate people. People are more willing to trust those who believe in the supernatural than those who follow a more scientific standing?

Well, I think the fact nearly half of all Americans surveyed find atheists the least trusted people stems from the idea that not believing in God means you have no basis to act morally. If that were true, then I can understand why they distrust atheists policy-makers or doctors…

Of course this isn’t true. We know very few moral decisions are derived from authority. The neuroscientist Joshua Greene has done some excellent work to show that moral decisions are usually instictive and driven by emotional involvement with the concerns of others. And when we do try and reason through our moral decisions, rarely is quoting an authority sufficent justification. Even when Christians interpret the Bible and decide that Old Testament commands to stone adulterous women ought to ignored, they are appealing to a set of moral concerns, over and above that supposedly provided by God. They are depending on a moral sense we all have, atheists included.

Moving on, I think the person who replied to me was just basing her objection on the commonsense notion that most Americans would distrust black people - I mean, we know there is racism, and we know crime-figures are high in the ghetto, so it would be reasonable to believe many Americans were prejudiced against their fellow black Americans. Of course, gathering the data has shown that intuition to be unwarranted.

(via moclachanbhernard)

• 4 Mar 2012
• 5

Atheists more distrusted than rapists?

“atheists are, alongside rapists, the most distrusted group of people.” Maybe in your privileged world, they are. Um, have you heard of race?

MY REPLY

There a number of independent studies that have shown this to  be true. I know it sounds surpising, but here are the links, so u can see for yourself:

Scientifc American article on a University of British Colombia study:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-atheists-we-distrust

The original paper:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22059841

Here is an article on a University of Minnesota study, it states the conclusions, but I can’t find the original paper:

http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheitsHated.htm

…

I’m sorry but this isn’t my “privileged” world. These are peer-reviewed studies carried out with the highest degree of scientific and statistical reliability. Of course there ia a degree of uncertainty in the sample, but it is only small, or else the papers wouldn’t be published. If you can provide me with some studies that point to race being the greatest indicator of distrust, I would be quite happy to read them.

On another note, we must always remember that the modern USA was willing to elect an African-American president, but never an atheist one. This is just anecdotal evidence, so we can’t read to much into it, but I think it gives some backing to my point, However, as I say, better to read the studies.

• 4 Mar 2012
• 5