Bias against atheists

As an atheist, I already knew many people don’t like us, but I didn’t know just how bad it was.  A report appearing in the journal “Nature Human Behaviour,” polled more that 3000 people in 13 countries.  These countries included somewhat secular states, like the Netherlands and Finland, and deeply religious countries, like India and the United Arab Emirates.  

I’m not going to list the actual questions (you can read them in Benedict Carey, “Research Points to Bias Against Atheists, Including in Mainly Secular Societies,” New York Times, Aug. 8, 2017, p. A8)) but respondents were given a scenario that involved a person who tortured animals and later killed five homeless people and buried them in the basement.  

The respondents in all countries thought the serial killer was more likely to be an atheist than someone who was a “believer.”

It seems to me that most of the mass killings by various terrorists are motivated by religion.  I can’t recall any mass murderer who says, “I’m doing this in the name of atheism”  In spite of that, many people still think of atheists as morally inferior.