by uNkNowN ElEmEnt » Thu 30 Mar 2006, 14:30:30
While the study was conducted by the Univ or Minn. it was apparently a sampling of people all over the US. (I found a few much better sources for this article)
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')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.
And it sounds as though ignorance (as in "not knowing better", not "being obnoxious on purpose") is a large part of the equation...
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')"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.