Discrimination against Atheists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discrimination against Atheists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-06T16:54:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-04T12:19:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\",\"name\":\"Discrimination against Atheists\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-06T16:54:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-04T12:19:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Discrimination against Atheists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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{"id":16378,"date":"2011-05-06T11:54:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T16:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=16378"},"modified":"2011-05-04T07:19:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T12:19:29","slug":"discrimination-against-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/","title":{"rendered":"Discrimination against Atheists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don\u2019t like much: atheists. Those who don\u2019t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can\u2019t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently \u201cspiritual\u201d in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.<\/p>\n
Rarely denounced by the mainstream, this stunning anti-atheist discrimination is egged on by Christian conservatives who stridently \u2014 and uncivilly \u2014 declare that the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society, rendering nonbelievers intrinsically suspect and second-class citizens.<\/p>\n
Is this knee-jerk dislike of atheists warranted? Not even close.<\/p>\n
A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be.\u00a0On\u00a0basic questions<\/a> of\u00a0 morality and human decency<\/a> \u2014 issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights \u2014 the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don\u2019t like much: atheists. Those who don\u2019t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDiscrimination against Atheists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discrimination against Atheists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-06T16:54:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-04T12:19:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\",\"name\":\"Discrimination against Atheists\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-06T16:54:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-04T12:19:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/06\/discrimination-against-atheists\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Discrimination against Atheists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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