I am a member of the most hated group of people in America, how about you?

[Bidet to you sir]

This Group Does Not At All Agree with My Vision of American Society
—Atheist 39.6%
—Muslim 26.3%
—Homosexual 22.6%
—Conservative Christian 13.5%
—Recent Immigrant 12.5%
—Hispanic 7.6%
—Jew 7.4%
—Asian American 7.0%
—African American 4.6%
—White American 2.2%
I Would Disapprove if My Child Wanted to Marry a Member of This Group
—Atheist 47.6%
—Muslim 33.5%
—African American 27.2%
—Asian American 18.5%
—Hispanic 18.5%
—Jew 11.8%
—Conservative Christian 6.9%
—White 2.3%
Source: American Mosaic Project Survey, 2003.

My source:http://www.soc.umn.edu/~hartmann/files/atheist%20as%20the%20other.pdf

Yes that's right, I don't believe in God, and due to that I am in the most distrusted group of people in the United States of America.
I am more hated than Muslims, the group of people blamed by Americans for 9/11
I am more hated than African Americans that have been oppressed in America (and other places of course) for hundreds of years.
More hated than the Jews, who have frankly been the scapegoats for everything bad in the world ever.
So why is this? To be fair I don't get it, Atheists as a whole have no common political agenda, and we come in all colours so it's not racism.
All I know is, it's common and it goes to the top.

Constitution of Arkansas:
No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court.
http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/ar-constitution/arcart19/arcart19-1.htm

Constitution of Maryland:
Art. 36. That as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such manner as he thinks most acceptable to Him, all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore, no person ought by any law to be molested in his person or estate, on account of his religious persuasion, or profession, or for his religious practice, unless, under the color of religion, he shall disturb the good order, peace or safety of the State, or shall infringe the laws of morality, or injure others in their natural, civil or religious rights; nor ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry; nor shall any person, otherwise competent, be deemed incompetent as a witness, or juror, on account of his religious belief; provided, he believes in the existence of God, and that under His dispensation such person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefor either in this world or in the world to come.

Nothing shall prohibit or require the making reference to belief in, reliance upon, or invoking the aid of God or a Supreme Being in any governmental or public document, proceeding, activity, ceremony, school, institution, or place.

Nothing in this article shall constitute an establishment of religion (amended by Chapter 558, Acts of 1970, ratified Nov. 3, 1970).

Art. 37. That no religious test ought ever to be required as a qualification for any office of profit or trust in this State, other than a declaration of belief in the existence of God; nor shall the Legislature prescribe any other oath of office than the oath prescribed by this Constitution.
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/43const/html/00dec.html

Constitution of Mississippi:
SECTION 265.        Denial of Supreme Being disqualification to hold office.
http://www.sos.state.ms.us/pubs/constitution/constitution.asp

North Carolina:

Sec. 8. Disqualifications for office.

The following persons shall be disqualified for office:

First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.

http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc/stgovt/article_vi.HTM
(Overturned 1979)

South Carolina:
SECTION 2. Person denying existence of Supreme Being not to hold office.

No person who denies the existence of the Supreme Being shall hold any office under this Constitution. (1972 (57) 3181; 1973 (58) 83.)
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/scconstitution/a06.htm

Tennessee:

Atheists holding office

No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.

http://www.tncrimlaw.com/law/constit/IX.html#2

Texas:
No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/txconst/sections/cn000100-000400.html

Pennsylvania: Section 4. No person who acknowledges the being of a God and a future state of rewards and punishments shall, on account
of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this Commonwealth
http://www.dgs.state.pa.us/dgs/lib/dgs/pa_manual/section2/article_i.pdf

The Supreme Court abolished all of these in 1961, however laws disbarring atheists from holding office were present only 48 years ago.
That basically means that in some of these states African Americans had the right to hold office longer than atheists.


So as I've pointed out, Atheists are the most distrusted group in America, half of Americans would not marry an atheist, and 30%+ don't consider them "real" Americans.

And that’s terrible.
But this thread isn't entirely about that (although it mostly is), it's about discrimination as a whole 27% of people would be uncomfortable with their children marrying a black person, frankly that’s disgusting, what that shows is that 30% of Americans are openly racist.
But back to what this thread is mostly about and the question I want to ask you guys.
Why is America so hung up on atheism?
It doesn't even make sense in a historical setting, while many Americans love to claim that they live in a Christian nation, the great men who founded the country and wrote the declaration of independence would probably laugh in your face if you said such a thing.

Lets go through the list:
Jefferson: was the most outspoken supporter of separation of church and state, wrote the Jefferson bible where he basically rips sections of the bible out because Jesus is made to look like a dick in them.
Was considered an infidel by some:
 "Should the infidel Jefferson be elected to the Presidency, the seal of death is that moment set on our holy religion, our churches will be prostrated, and some infamous prostitute, under the title of goddess of reason, will preside in the sanctuaries now devoted to the worship of the most High."
http://www.trivia-library.com/b/u-s-president-thomas-jefferson-quotes-about-jefferson.htm
Often considered a deist and definitely not a traditional Christian. For one (although I can't find a relevant source right now, did not believe in hell)

Franklin
"I soon became a thorough Deist"
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/bios/franklin/chpt4.htm

Washington: most likely Christian although he kept himself to himself, unlike a large section of Christian denominations in the US today.

I'm British I can't think of anymore of them lol.

Can anyone explain why I, and others like me are so hated, do you have any insights?
Do you hate me?
Also don't turn this into an evolution V creationism debate, because I know it will.

[Fleamo]

A possible reason for this is not that the US is more intolerant of atheists, but that they're more likely to admit it, whether or not that's a good thing.  Since Afghanistan at least there has been a conscientious effort to make sure we know you're not actually anti-muslim, you just hate the ones that go too far.  And with all the gay pride rallys and gay marriage debate it has become much less couth to just say you hate gays (though it's far from gone).  Atheists have no visible "rights" group or tolerance-preaching organization. 

But yeah, 78.5% of America identifies as Christian.  That has to have something to do with it.  And the next highest percentage is "unaffiliated" which still means religious[and probably means nonpracticing Christian].  Put them together and you have 90.5% of America Christian or unaffiliated.  That's not going to be good for atheism's numbers. 

You might even see these signs as positive.  Atheists disagree with Christians and the religious on a legitimate, intellectual level.  It is nothing inherent about them, it's just that they disagree with a basic religious tenet of the vast majority of Americans.  The same could be said about Muslims.  Homosexuals...depends on who you're asking.  For some that is a religious issue as well.  It's not like it's racism at the top.  They don't hate black people because they're black.  That's a step forward. 

Conservative Christian being next would also work into this framework, though it would be probably from the more moderate-to-liberal Christians and all non-Christians who feel alienated. 

"Recent Immigrant" isn't an intellectual debate, but the answerers might think they meant illegal immigrant, and disagree with that.

After that it gets into racism.

OTHER NOTES:

The second poll is about marriage.  That infers churches to the aforementioned 90% of America.  That's a biased question.

[Bidet to you sir]

The second poll is about marriage.  That infers churches to the aforementioned 90% of America.  That's a biased question.

That doesn't make any sense, why would christians be any more comfortable having a muslim marry their child in a church, he's still in the wrong religion, which means he doesn't "belong" in said church.

Also according to this study, that question is a standard used throughout studies of intolerance, bare in mind this survey was done through random phone calls, people were hardly going to think for a long time, they would most likely show their instant personal opinion of that group through this question.
It is not considerred by sociologists not to actually be a measure of whether you would actually allow your daughter or whatever to marry someone, it is whether you would allow a person to enter your community.
Think of it as the question "would you let a pedophile live next to you?".

Also surprisingly and unfortunately I had missed this point before the table only shows the "not at all" percentages (they used a sliding scale of answers), when muslims and atheists "some whats" (the second lowest grade) and "not at alls" were added, atheist and muslims were almost equal. (atheists still slightly more), I'm sure you'll agree what this shows is a clear difference between the perceptions of atheists and muslims, while the same percentage of the population distrust the two groups, they clearly have a tendency to distrust atheist Americans slightly more. (thats on page 8 of the study in the first post).

Admittedly while the factor of religion was important in these responses (as shown in table 2a which I can't post because it's difficult look at it yourself it's not hard.) I wasn't disputing that, I don't think anyone would.

What they did find although they only have a few examples for obvious reasons was a general consensus that people believed atheists did not care about other people, that they were likely to be involved in drugs and prostitution and that they filled up jails.
Frankly then it is not an intellectual dissagreement, it is basically the "us and them" mentality often found amongst racists, eg "jews are greedy, christians aren't we're all good" "black people are all criminals, white people are all sweetness and light (unless they're catholics)" etc.
Most commonly people (and this is clearly shown by the initial table), atheists are seen as unamerican and unpatriotic.
And heres the kicker, rejection of atheists is not considerred to have gone down much at all in the last 30 years, however all these other groups have, it can't be that the racists are just pretending not to be racist as you said.
 It is simple fact here, atheists are simply a larger target of distrust than muslms, blacks and gays.

[darkscar888]

Just live your life and dont give a fu*k what anyone else thinks about it. Its your life and they have no control over it.

[Carl Jr.]

 

Just live your life and dont give a fu*k what anyone else thinks about it. Its your life and they have no control over it.

  Thank you for your input there.


   Zim, the problem is that athiests (over here especially) tend to treat us like children and criticize us (vulgarly) for "believing in imaginary friends".

[Bidet to you sir]

No those are internet douchebags.
This intolerance towards atheists has supposedly been the case for well over a century, these "I'm an atheist, deal with it imaginary sky wizard worshippers" are pretty recent.
Although obviously as a whole atheists dissagree with religion and find it ridiculous, most try to express their views in a dignified manner. Although I will freely admit that dawkins and hitchens etc don't help, they lay their opinions out in a civil manner in their books and then act like morons on tv.

[Twilight Wolf]

Zim, I think that the reason Atheists are looked down upon so much is because people in America are not that intelligent and believe that if one doesn't believe in a religion, than one does not have morals; or, at the very least, not a common set of morals.  Most of the morals we have as a society and laws come from religion (Killing is against law, polygamy, cheating on your spouse is grounds for divorce, gay marriage is not okay [though that's thankfully getting overturned]). 

Arguing which came first, the morals or the religion, is at best a chicken-and-egg type argument, so please don't say that religions were built around morals.  The main point here is that if you are a member of a common religion, than its assumed that you have a set of morals and will act accordingly in society. 

[Hyruleansoldier]

Aren't you exaggerating the hatred part?  Just because 73% of your fellow Americans may not really approve, doesn't mean they're gonna beat you up, wreck your car or otherwise destroy your properties or not allow you into certain diners or stores or whatnot.  So tell me how exactly do you think you're being discriminated against?

A possible reason for this is not that the US is more intolerant of atheists, but that they're more likely to admit it, whether or not that's a good thing.  Since Afghanistan at least there has been a conscientious effort to make sure we know you're not actually anti-muslim, you just hate the ones that go too far.  And with all the gay pride rallys and gay marriage debate it has become much less couth to just say you hate gays (though it's far from gone).  Atheists have no visible "rights" group or tolerance-preaching organization. 

Fleamo provides a good point here.  Though many people may disapprove of other minorities, there's must more political correctness going for these groups (Jews, Blacks, gays).  There isn't really such a safety net for atheists, and I suppose that's why more people feel confident frowning upon them.  I also don't think its farfetched for a religious family to look forward to their also religious children marrying atheists.  I wouldn't mind personally, but I'm not an American, and I think most of them would.  Because it's apparently a more important part to them than to other peoples who may experience their beliefs in a more individual way.

Also you can't tell by a person's outside appearance whether he is an atheist or not.  Whereas you can with all the other groups (well, in the majority of the cases.  Yes, even gays, if you know what to look for.  Or where, heheh).  So that's another reason why people would not feel as bad about having negative feelings towards atheists.  But like I said in my first point, it's not like people are gonna get physically assaulted because of this.  Sure, people feel strongly about religion but most people are also pretty tolerant about it.  Unless you're totally ridiculing Christ or part of someone's faith, you don't have much to fear from someone following any religion.


Also, about what Twilight Wolf said: this is true - religion is rooted deeply into the American culture, and people might assume that if you're an atheist you do not believe or adhere to the common morals and whatnot that are part of society, which is of course rubbish.  You don't have to believe/adhere to any kind of religion to know you shouldn't kill your parents or siblings, or sleep with them, or steal... the list goes on.

[Bidet to you sir]

Aren't you exaggerating the hatred part?  Just because 73% of your fellow Americans may not really approve, doesn't mean they're gonna beat you up, wreck your car or otherwise destroy your properties or not allow you into certain diners or stores or whatnot.  So tell me how exactly do you think you're being discriminated against?

1) I'm english, so ha.
2)true, but hate does not mean actual physical violence, people who hate black people don't have to kill them or form lynch mobs, they just have to say "you aint goin near my daughter".
3)I think it's pretty clear when they say they would not want you in their family thats discrimination, heres a dictionary definition "Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice: racial discrimination; discrimination against foreigners."
Treatment based on category, not individual merit.
Pretty clear cut.
I've also already shown the counter argument for you, Muslims are distrusted as a whole to the same degree as atheists, yet when they ask people to seperate between some what dislike and definitively dislike atheists are more heavily disliked.
How can you tell a persons religion from their outside appearance?
Muslims can be white, black, arabic or not.
Not all jews have big noses and silly hats.
Catholics don't all look like the fucking pope.
religion is a category you can not discern by appearance much like a lack of religion, I was a catholic I'm now an atheist, I look exactly the same.
I never dissagreed with TW (although I don't go as far as saying Americans are stupid hicks, which he seemed to imply.)
Also your point about having nothing to fear unless you go out mocking religion, need I mention the Dover trials (I knew I wouldn't mention evolution but is hard not to) where a childs painting was burned to a cinder simply because it depicted the evolution of man?
When children are targeted by people over supposedly atheistic beliefs I think it shows an obvious trend.
Or this: http://ydr.inyork.com/search/ci_3219246

Edit edit edit edit: if you look in that sociology article and go to page 5 there is a graph, look at the leap for african americans and gays, and then compare to the increase for atheists.
It's pretty shocking really, by '99 most people will accept a black president but in over 41 years atheists still could never be president only 50% of people would vote for him and thats before taking in party affiliation. I know it's not hugely important but it makes you think, especially considdering more people would accept an atheist as president than into their family yet still not to a level where he could be in power.
In fact it ties in to the percentage of people who consider them American. It shows a strange distance in American culture in my eyes, you accept someone as having American values yet at the same time you don't, as they don't fit with your family which you would obviously see as American culture.
In fact, it's the Jim Crow laws minus the laws, you are seperate but equal I consider you an American, but I refuse to associate with you.
It is in that sense almost (obviously not as severe) to a form of segregation, which as I'm sure some of you agree is one of the worst forms of discrimination there is, it's the segregation used against blacks, more recently the gays and clearly the atheists.

[Witless]

To be honest Zim, it's all about familiarity. As a Christian, you'd rather vote for the Christian guy or woman because he's more closer to you in terms of beliefs. A Muslim would do the exact same thing. Or any other religion.

I don't believe in a deity but have the same morals ( to some extent ). Everyone ( and I mean everyone ) grew up with a certain set of morals from one religion or another. But it's not because they're from a religion, it's because they're normal in today's society. But it's a good way to guide your children so they become normal citizens when they grow up.

When you grow older, you understand things more clearly and decide what to do next, be it to believe in a god, or not.

America is definitely a bit oldfashioned in terms of religion than Europe is, but that's just what it is.

[Carl Jr.]

   Yes, the United States has a fast majority of people that are:

    close minded
    dumb
    hateful

 
   Case in point: Neo-Nazis. I'm sorry, but this group is not the klan. You can't just walk in and throw on a uniform on the grounds that you are white. If Hitler was alive today and they made him their leader, the first thing he would do is order all pure Germans in the cause (if any) to execute them.

[Fleamo]

   Yes, the United States has a fast majority of people that are:

    close minded
    dumb
    hateful

 
   Case in point: Neo-Nazis. I'm sorry, but this group is not the klan. You can't just walk in and throw on a uniform on the grounds that you are white. If Hitler was alive today and they made him their leader, the first thing he would do is order all pure Germans in the cause (if any) to execute them.

So your point is that the United States has Neo-Nazis that aren't German, thus the "fast majority" of Americans are close-minded, dumb, and hateful?

[Carl Jr.]

You were half-right, but out of order. A vast majority of people (A, not THE) of Americans are close-minded, dumb, and hateful, thus the united states has a lot of Neo-nazis that are not pure Germans.

[Bidet to you sir]

I thought this would turn into an evolution V creationism debate, unfortunately we've just ended up with Godwins law.
Well done guys!

[Carl Jr.]

 Yeah, I'd say mankind has evolved, but that statement might offend somebody.  


(Pokemon is the devil!)

[Shin Illuminated]

I thought the most hated group in America were straight white males?

[Deku]

You were half-right, but out of order. A vast majority of people (A, not THE) of Americans are close-minded, dumb, and hateful, thus the united states has a lot of Neo-nazis that are not pure Germans.

Substantiation please.  What makes you think the majority of Americans are close-minded, dumb, and hateful?  How do you define "close-minded"?   

[The_Human_Cyborg]

Well, I'm LDS, and I'm sure MANY people will lose respect for me for saying that. But I don't hate atheists. My brother is an atheist, but I still love him. I can't relate with him on some things, but I don't question his morals. Oh, and I talked to some recent converts, and according to their preacher, LDS members are heretics, and are going to hell. So it not just between Christians and atheists.