Atheists; what do you base your morals on?

[Angrboda]

It is often assumed that someone who doesn’t believe in God doesn’t believe in anything, or that a person who has no religion must have no values. These assumptions are simply untrue. People can reject religion and still maintain strong beliefs. Being godless does not mean being without values. Numerous studies reveal that atheists and secular people most certainly maintain strong values, beliefs, and opinions. But more significantly, when we actually compare the values and beliefs of atheists and secular people to those of religious people, the former are markedly less nationalistic, less prejudiced, less anti-Semitic, less racist, less dogmatic, less ethnocentric, less close-minded, and less authoritarian (Greeley and Hout 2006; Sider 2005; Altemeyer 2003, 2009; Jackson and Hunsberger 1999; Wulff 1991; Altemeyer and Hunsberger 1992, 1997; Beit-Hallahmi 2007; Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle 1997; Batson et al. 1993; Argyle 2000).

Concerning political orientations, atheist and secular people are much more likely to be registered Independent than the general American population, and they are much less likely to be right-wing, conservative, or to support the Republican party than their religious peers (Kosmin 2008). Keysar (2007, 38) reports that 50 percent of American atheists are Independent, 26 percent are Democrat, and 10 percent are Republican and that 43 percent of American agnostics are Independent, 22 percent are Democrat, and 15 percent are Republican. Greeley and Hout (2006) report that only about 21 percent of people claiming ‘‘no religion’’ voted for Republican candidates in recent elections. In the 2008 presidential election, specifically, 76 percent of atheists and agnostics voted for Obama, and only 23 percent voted for McCain (Barna Research Group Survey 2008). Grupp and Newman (1973) and Nassi (1981) have found that irreligiosity is strongly and consistently correlated and with liberal, progressive, or left-wing political perspectives, and Gay and Ellison (1993) found that – when compared to various religious groups – nonreligious Americans are the most politically tolerant, supporting the extension of civil liberties to dissident groups.

— Zuckerman, 2009. ()