RE: Atheism in the USA
August 5, 2014 at 12:54 pm
(This post was last modified: August 5, 2014 at 1:01 pm by Simon Moon.)
When people don't know members of the group, they will have much more mistrust of the group as a whole.
That's why homosexuals are not as mistrusted as they once were, because they've come out of their closets and almost everybody in the country knows a homosexual, works with a homosexual, knows of famous homosexuals, etc. They have a chance to interact with them, and see that all the 'evil' stereotypes are wrong.
Which is the exact reason why atheists need to come out. As soon as theists find out that the 'evil' stereotypes are incorrect about us, the same thing will happen to our perceived trustfulness and it will also increase. It's all about familiarity.
Then the most untrusted group in the US will be the Muslims, exactly how it should be
That's why homosexuals are not as mistrusted as they once were, because they've come out of their closets and almost everybody in the country knows a homosexual, works with a homosexual, knows of famous homosexuals, etc. They have a chance to interact with them, and see that all the 'evil' stereotypes are wrong.
Which is the exact reason why atheists need to come out. As soon as theists find out that the 'evil' stereotypes are incorrect about us, the same thing will happen to our perceived trustfulness and it will also increase. It's all about familiarity.
Then the most untrusted group in the US will be the Muslims, exactly how it should be
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
