Candide

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)

“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.

These places exist IN AMERICA, they’re completely legal, and they’re only growing. It’s the new solution for parents who have kids that don’t conform blindly to their religious and political views, let me explain: After the initial shock of what I thought was a kidnapping, it was explained to me that my parents had arranged for me to attend Horizon Academy (http://www.horizonacademy.us/) because I admitted to them that I was atheist and didn’t agree with a lot of their hateful views. Let me give you a detailed run-down of my experience here: To start off it’s a boarding school where there is literally no communication with the outside world, the people who work here can do anything they want, and the students can do absolutely nothing about it. The basic idea is that you’re not allowed to leave until you believably adopt their viewpoints and push them off on others. The minimum stay at these places is a year, an ENTIRE YEAR, that means no birthday, no christmas, no thanksgiving etc.; my stay lasted 2 years. The day to day functioning of this facility is based on a very strict set of rules and regulations: you eat what they give you, do what they tell you (often just pointless things just to brand mindless submission in your brain), and believe what they tell you to believe. Consequences for not adhering to these regulations include not eating for that day, being locked in small rooms for extended periods of time and the long term consequence of an extended stay. There’s a lot more detail and intricacies I could get into, but my main purpose was to spread awareness to the only group of people I feel like could do something about this. Feel free to ask me anything about my stay, I could go on for days about some of the ridiculous things I went through.

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A certain set of American values are all about family, and giving parents the right to educate their kids at home, with no state interference. The problem is that sometimes we need the state to protect children from their own parents. This real life story is shocking and I admire the courage of the writer.

(Source: themarrowofabone)