Study: Religious people harbour deep mistrust of atheists, about equal to rapists

This has been pretty much true in my experience. Most religious people I know hold much greater (often misplaced) trust in people who share their views than those who don't. But I think it's more those who share their religion or one very similar than just a religious belief in general.

Also, I've never met a Christian who trusted a Muslim or Scientologist, so I think they're a step below athiests on the trust scale.

I wouldn't trust an atheist on issues spiritual issues and issues of faith. I wouldn't have an atheist care for my future children because I want my children instilled with God's word in their hearts and minds.

That doesn't mean that I think atheists are bad people. We just have different lines of thinking.

FreakyLocz14 said:

I wouldn't trust an atheist on issues spiritual issues and issues of faith. I wouldn't have an atheist care for my future children because I want my children instilled with God's word in their hearts and minds.

That doesn't mean that I think atheists are bad people. We just have different lines of thinking.

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2Cool4Mewtwo said:

Well, atheists that I've personally seen usually have "down-to-Earth" and excessively negative views, like God is a cynical being and/or Bible/Quran/whatever book that you believe in are all just dystopian "fairy-tales." Therefore I have notions that atheists are bad influence because from what I've been hearing and seeing, they instill negative and pessimistic viewpoints on other. However, it's only my generalized opinion. I don't know if rest of the atheists in this world are like that.

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Let me just set you both straight here. FreakyLocz, I'm an atheist. Does this mean you will refuse to let me care for your children if I happened to be working at your local daycare? I think that's discrimination, for one thing. For another, there is a big difference between something like childcare and religion - or at least, there should be. If I work at a daycare, I'm not going to sit the little kiddywinkles down and say 'Hey, guys. There's no God! Let me tell you why.' People's religious beliefs - or lack of them - should not bar them from any job whatsoever. Saying otherwise is being unnecessarily prejudiced, unless we're talking about some kind of cult where it has been proven that every single member is a cannibal that likes to abduct children and eat them.

2Cool4Mewtwo, well . . . If that's what atheists you know are saying, that the Bible is a fairy tale and so on, that's fair enough, because as an atheist, that's how I see it too. The only reason you see it as pessimistic and negative is that you don't agree with what they say. If a religious person talks about how God is real and the Bible is the ultimate authority, I'll see that as negative because I don't agree with them. It runs both ways, and it means that what you're basically doing is judging people's character because they don't believe what you do. It might not be active discrimination, but in essence, that's what you're doing.

FreakyLocz14 said:

I wouldn't trust an atheist on issues spiritual issues and issues of faith. I wouldn't have an atheist care for my future children because I want my children instilled with God's word in their hearts and minds.

That doesn't mean that I think atheists are bad people. We just have different lines of thinking.

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Keep in mind that a civil atheist will either keep their views on religion out of childcare entirely or, if prompted by the children to answer a question and they feel the child is old enough to understand that there are people with different views on things, they will state their views with qualifiers such as "but that's just my beliefs". Or I would, at least. Of course, with many atheists who would take this approach, you may not know they're an atheist unless you ask them, since they won't wear it on their sleeves for fear of persecution.

2Cool4Mewtwo said:

Well, atheists that I've personally seen usually have "down-to-Earth" and excessively negative views, like God is a cynical being and/or Bible/Quran/whatever book that you believe in are all just dystopian "fairy-tales." Therefore I have notions that atheists are bad influence because from what I've been hearing and seeing, they instill negative and pessimistic viewpoints on other. However, it's only my generalized opinion. I don't know if rest of the atheists in this world are like that.

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Atheists have a silent majority just like society does, and you probably won't even know if someone's an atheist unless you outright ask them in most cases, since many would rather not be persecuted for not believing in a higher power. I know I never mention my religious beliefs unless prompted, so most people assume I'm Christian. Also, sounds like you're paying attention to the "brash and loud" atheists who publicly bash religions and completely denounce them instead of trying to be tact and reasonable to get people to accept them for who they are.

In terms of childcare and raising children, by the way, I feel strongly that children should be taught about different religions early on. I was indoctrinated as a child into the Catholic faith, and I didn't even realise there were any other religions for several years, and when I did I was just told that they were wrong, straight up. It wasn't until I grew up that I was able to work out for myself that different people genuinely believed different things. My dad is an atheist, but Mum never let him tell us because she wanted us raised Catholic like that. I thought of this because of Freaky's comment about how she wanted her future children raised with the Word of God. I don't think children should be raised with any religion. By indoctrinating them like that, you remove a large portion of that civil liberty that you seem to love so much.

Broken_Arrow said:

I never dealt with people according to their religon before....and IMO it's not trust him\her or not..i want to ask an athiest..why did you choose to be an thiest,what makes you not believe in god?..from his\her answer i can know if he\she would be trusted or not....however,there are people who prefer to deal with the others who have the same religion as them...i saw that a lot specially online...

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That's the same thing, though. If you don't like the answer they give to your question and then decide to mistrust them because of that, you're still discriminating against them because of their (lack of) religion. You're just giving them one chance more than some people. For that matter, what would be an 'acceptable' answer to that question, for you? My answer, for example, would be 'Because I've looked at the so-called 'evidence' for the religion I was raised in and decided it was all a load of sensationalism and rubbish, and because I'm a very literal, cynical person who believes in what he can see, hear, touch, taste and smell, and nothing else. Gods, demons, fairies and wizards belong in fantasy novels.'

Generalizations can be used to form expectations and such, but you should be aware that not everyone will fit the generalization and not really base any important decisions off of that.

Also, story is sad. Probably a bunch of extremist fundamentalists in the survey. Ball rolls both ways, guys. I trust people like that less than rapists, too. If I had kids, I wouldn't let those folk anywhere near them. Tit for tat.

TRIFORCE89 said:

I just wouldn't high a daycare worker. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my own children (not that I have any) with anyone other than immediate family. So... does that make me anti-everyone or something?

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I don't get how this is relevant lol - there is quite a difference between choosing not to place your child in childcare and specifically singling out an atheist as somebody you would not trust to care for your child.

As for the study itself, my first thought was "yeah, sounds about right". There is nothing worse than to be Godless, after all. Personally, I find that people who think that religion and God are necessary for a moral code are the same people who do need religion and God to form their moral centres... and couldn't distinguish "right" from "wrong" without it. That's not to say that religion is necessarily a reliable source for what's right and wrong lol.