4 Things Religious People Should Know About Atheism

[Grant]

Some points for AJ and others to consider:

http://mic.com/articles/111804/4-things ... ut-atheism

"In 2014, the Pew Research Center asked Americans a series of hypothetical questions about how they would feel about a relative's potential spouse. When asked if they would be upset by a family member marrying someone of a different race, 11% said they would object. When asked the same question about a relative marrying someone of a different political party, 15% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans said they would be unhappy with the prospect. But when asked to consider a family member marrying someone who doesn't believe in God, 49% of Americans disapproved.

Atheists are widely distrusted and disliked in the United States, even as the number of Americans who consider themselves religious has declined. A 2011 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that Americans consider atheists about as morally suspect as rapists in some scenarios, and in 2014 a Pew poll showed that Americans prefer an adulterer or a marijuana smoker to a non-believer for president.

What's the source of this animosity toward atheists? Religion, primarily in the form of Christianity, is inextricable from U.S. history, but the Founding Fathers were primarily deists who held a complex and skeptical relationship with the Christian faith and set into motion one of the most successful experiments in secular governance in history. Antipathy toward atheism today is more likely a vestige of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union's atheism was presented by the U.S. as proof of communism's moral bankruptcy. More recently, the rise of a haughty and combative "New Atheism" movement has tarnished the reputation of the godless.

But the religious shouldn't fear atheism. Popular misconceptions about atheism have presented a distorted view of what most atheists actually believe, while obscuring the areas where religion and godlessness overlap. There's a significant amount of things the religious can learn from atheists without discarding their own beliefs altogether.

If believers are able to set aside some atheists' thunderous critique of gods and their rules, they'll find that many of the widespread misconceptions about atheism are often virtues in disguise."

The article goes on to specifics.

[AgentOfChaos]

It would be funny if they didn't believe in anything you or that article has to say too.

[AbdiJohnson]

Grant,

Your religion says having dark skin is a curse from God and nonwhites werent allowed to become priests for over 100 years

I am sure well over 49% of Muslims in America would disapprove of a Muslim marrying a Christian or a Christian disapproving of a Christian marrying a Jew or a Jew disapproving of a Jew marrying a Hindu so I don't see the issue here.

Most Americans would rather have an adulterer as president than a Muslim or a Hindu or a Scientologist

I am,

Abdi "You have ridiculous beliefs" Johnson

[0sman]

America you say? 'Nuff Said.

[Grant]

AJ,

I will give you that you read the first paragraph.

Now, let's see if you can read past the first paragraph of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_peop ... _Mormonism

and this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_ ... _Islanders

It wasn't a "dark" skin. It was a black skin. And Blacks were Mormons and some held the priesthood from the very beginning. Joseph Smith was an abolitionist but believed in sustaining the law of the land. Brigham Young, the second Mormon prophet, was less an abolitionist and established the no-priesthood-for-blacks rule. With respect to Polynesians, the ban was lifted in 1855; with respect to African Blacks, in 1978. There are now several missions in West and South Africa:

http://africawest.lds.org/

They are struggling in Africa and the internet has not been kind to the international missions. As I understand it, the temple in Aba, Nigeria, has been closed and it was clear during my last trip to the Philippines that Church facilities there are way under utilized.

FYI: I was raised Mormon, but left the Church when I was able to do so at 18. I taught English in Somalia rather than serve a Church mission in Germany. I am a Deist with secular tendencies. Please do not ascribe to me beliefs that are not there.