The Least-Liked Minority Group? Atheists.

[Wilikon]

Time magazine in 2012 listed “The Rise of the Nones” as one of the biggest trends in the United States. It turns out that the fastest-growing religious group in the U.S. is Americans who list their religious affiliation as “none.” A 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 16 percent of Americans are unaffiliated with any religious group; about half of them could be described as secular unaffiliated. Twenty-five percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 are unaffiliated with any particular religion. If this trend toward nonbelief continues, it’s going to be harder and harder for believers to continue to practice bigotry against atheists. Nonbelievers are their children, their relatives, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

I suspect that "othering" atheists will fall out of fashion as growing familiarity with non-believers eventually breeds acceptance.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/13/the-least-liked-minority-group-atheists

[commandrix]

Well, I'm sure Madalyn Murray O'Hair didn't help matters. She was listed as the "most hated woman in America" by Life Magazine in the 1960s and she did kinda make a joke out of herself when she tried to use the court system to force NASA to release documents "proving" that Neil Armstrong was an atheist. And she was known to hire convicted felons for her organization, American Atheists, including the one who ultimately murdered her.

[Lethn]

Really? They don't 'trust' Athiests? Of course they're going to treat them as the enemy, they are living opposites of their belief system and everything they stand for, people like me even more so, because even if god did exist and came to talk to me I'd still tell him to fuck off.

[mamichula]

It should be the least liked group when it comes to religion. Atheists are not a minority group.

[acs267]

I don't get it. Your saying the least-liked minority group are Atheists? Atheism is a religion, if you didn't know. That's just one case of being a group in the minority. Not covering ethnicity, sexuality, politics/parties, countries, etc.

I'm Agnostic, but could be considered a Apatheist by some. I don't get how Atheism is the most least-liked religion, and is a minority religion? Are you fucking kidding me? And in the U.S, what can you expect from a land built on the Bible?

[beetcoin]

It should be the least liked group when it comes to religion. Atheists are not a minority group.

and why are they not? if you are linking the term "minority" to ethnicity, then that's just wrong. women are not an ethnic group, nor are the LGBT community. minority group just means a distinguishable group of people that are.. in the minority.

[Lethn]

It should be the least liked group when it comes to religion. Atheists are not a minority group.

and why are they not? if you are linking the term "minority" to ethnicity, then that's just wrong. women are not an ethnic group, nor are the LGBT community. minority group just means a distinguishable group of people that are.. in the minority.

Glancing over this article more you're right, I think this article was written by an extremely jaded religious person who doesn't like the fact that more and more people are rejecting religion, I don't think it has much to do with Atheism just the fact that people are openly telling religious people to go fuck themselves.

[bryant.coleman]

The United States is much more religious when compared to Europe. Almost half the population in the US is religious, compared to less than 10% in Europe. Also, there are very few non-Chrisian religious groups other than atheists in the USA. That explains why the hatred is more directed towards the atheists, when compared to the other religious groups.

Proud to be a non-religious person.