Study says coming out as atheist can help reduce prejudice towards atheists

[TaraJo]

Well, basically, what it comes down to is when you ask people what they think of atheists, as a group, they'll spout all kinds of garbage. They'll either believe that we all participate in wild sex orgies or that we want to outlaw religion or some shit like that. Or the'll believe vague stuff about us like that we're un-American, that we're amoral hedonists or any number of other vague, but wrong, beliefs. When we come out as atheist, we can help distill some of those beliefs. I mean, if they think that atheists are immoral but they find someone who does a lo of volunteer work is an atheist, it helps dispel that belief. If someone thinks atheists are un-American finds out all the atheists in the military, his false belief is challenged. Just by being ourselves and openly identifying as atheist we're challenging some negative stereotypes.