Maybe atheists should just embrace it as a slogan: “Atheists: The group Americans love to hate.”
About 40 percent of Americans say atheists “do not at all agree” with their vision of America, according to a new study from sociologists at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis who compared Americans’ perceptions of minority faith and racial groups.
Grim milestone
But the study marks a grimmer milestone — Americans’ disapproval of Muslims has jumped to 45.5 percent from just over 26 percent 10 years ago, the last time the question was asked. And “nones” — those who say they have no religious affiliation, but also may have spiritual or religious beliefs — are unpopular as well. This is significant because “nones” now make up one-third of the U.S. population.
The study found:
4Almost half of those surveyed (48.9 percent) said they would disapprove of their child marrying a Muslim, up from 33.5 percent in 2006.
4The spiritual but not religious are mistrusted by 12 percent of Americans, while almost 40 percent of Americans say the rise of the “nones” is “not a good thing.”
4Disapproval rates for several minority groups have grown — Jews, Asian-Americans and Latinos experienced 10-point jumps in disapproval, while recent immigrants, conservative Christians and African-Americans grew about 13 percent each.
The study was written from data collected in 2014 from 2,500 participants. The previous study was published in 2006 by three of the same authors. (RNS)
Share with others: