Mocking of atheism

Sam Harris

Concerning various views on atheists, research in the American Sociological Review finds that among several groups listed, atheists are the group that Americans relate least to in terms of their vision of American society and are the group most likely to be mentioned as one that Americans would not want to have marry into their family.

A UK study found atheists widely distrusted - even among themselves (see: UK study regarding the public's views of atheists). Psychologists at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon published a study which reported that Americans and Canadians distrust atheists as much as rapists (see: Views on atheists#Americans and Canadians distrust atheists as much as rapists).

Dr. Sam Harris is one of the founders of the New Atheism movement. Sam Harris is quite aware of the stigma surrounding atheism and has even advocated that atheists no longer call themselves atheists. In fact, Harris has said concerning the label of atheist, "It's right next to child molester as a designation." See also: Atheism and social outcasts and Closet atheist

Reddit post on the mocking of atheism

See also: Reddit atheism

Reddit atheism, also known as r/atheism, is one of the largest internet groups of atheists. See also: YouTube atheism

A 2016 Reddit post entitled Why is everyone mocking atheism all of a sudden? declared:

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Now making fun of religion gets you labeled as a neckbeard or edgy, when like 2 years ago atheism was the main driving force of reddit?

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A member of Reddit responded to the post indicating:

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A few years ago r/atheism had a "faces of atheism" campaign where people submitted pictures of themselves with some comment on atheism on them. It was so embarrassing and cringeworthy that the reddit mods removed r/atheism from the frontpage/main reddits because the reputation of the site itself was being tarnished. Since then, people started combining the (already existing) "fat neckbeard" stereotype with atheism and made parodies of the faces of atheism, like some ugly/underage fedora wearer saying cringe stuff like "intellect is my blade" etc.

”

The American contrarian blog Half Sigma declared:

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...atheists are most likely to live alone. This is not surprising. Atheists are less desirable...partners. I observed this once when I was living in Washington, DC, and I wandered by an atheist convention happening on the mall. The atheist were predominately male, and significantly uglier than average. This is because ugly people become social outcasts, and social outcasts are more likely to be attracted to outcast movements like atheism, libertarianism, communism, etc. Jay Fink writes: If you are attractive and have a good social life you will generally not be interested in out of the mainstream groups or ideas. Why buck the status quo when it's working in your interests?

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In 2011, only 2 of the Miss USA contestants thought evolution should be taught in schools. Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the theory of evolution which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists or agnostics.

The Audacious Epigone blog, which specializes in collecting data relative to stereotypes, writes about atheists having an above average propensity to live in single person households:

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The low rates of multiple person households is part of the explanation, but the high number of lone wolves among their ranks illustrates their social marginality in another way relative to the cognitive endowments they enjoy. This does little to dispel stereotype I hold of atheists as cynical, single white guys who live in apartments downtown, work at used record stores, love George Carlin, and watch Adult Swim.

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See also: Unattractiveness of atheism