This is kind of scary. A recent University of Minnesota survey [1] has found that atheists, which only number slightly more than 3% of the population, are more distrusted than any other ethnic or religious group.
From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that 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.
Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.
Dr. Edgell goes on to note, “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious.” She interprets the data as representative of a fear of moral decline resulting in social disorder. The study showed that Americans associate atheism immorality of all kinds from rampant materialism to criminal behavior.
Is it just me or does anyone else hear the sound of pitchforks clanking against each other as the villagers brandish them in the air? I know I've been stressing the conspiracism angle lately, but let's face it. We're part of the conspiracist narrative. We're part of the evil secular humanist agenda that is hell bent on undermining the United States. That conspiracist narrative reaches millions of people every day through right wing hate radio and TV. I'm sure there are many on the right that are as appalled by that hate speech as we are, but they use it because it helps keep them in power.
Pharyngula has picked up [2] on this too.
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