Note to Atheists: Low Incarceration Rates Are Not a Sign of Morality

[rug]

April 7, 2016
Greta Christina

There’s this thing being shared a bunch on Facebook: a piece from 2015 by Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist, about the disproportionately low percentage of atheists in the U.S. federal prison system. Mehta himself wrote in the piece that “It would be foolish to use this information to suggest atheists are more moral than religious groups,” but some people are sharing it around, declaring it to one more piece of evidence for atheists’ morality.

No. No, no, no, no no.

Can we please, please, not equate immorality with being in prison, and morality with not being in prison?

Incarcaration in the U.S. is hugely unjust. (Link, link, link, link, link, link.) Among many, many other things: It targets black and brown people in wildly disproportionate numbers: black and brown people are arrested more, are more likely to be convicted, and are more likely to serve longer sentences. Class is a big factor in incarceration rates, including the ability to afford high-priced lawyers, and the ability to shape the laws in the first place. Poor people are regularly incarcerated for minor crimes, while white-collar thieves of millions of people and billions of dollars go free. Plus, incarceration is often self-perpetuating. The often absurd and impossible demands of the parole system turn parole into a revolving door; a prison record makes it harder to get work, get into school, etc. — and given how racist U.S. incarceration is, removing the right to vote from people with prison records contributes to the systematic disenfranchisement of black and brown people, and diminishes their ability to change the system.

http://the-orbit.net/greta/2016/04/07/atheists-low-incarceration-rates-not-sign-morality/

[stone space]

1. Wish I could rec this 1000 times.

[FBaggins]

2. There are also reportedly few athiests in foxholes.

That doesn't mean that they're less likely to defend their nation in wartime.

The OP is self-defeating. You can argue whether there is or isn't justice in the system, but in order for athiests to benefit from it, they would have to be part of the dominant power structure. That is, the people who control incarceration would have to prefer athiests.

[stone space]

3. This atheist will never be found in a foxhole.

That doesn't mean that they're less likely to defend their nation in wartime.

Might be found in jail during wartime, however, attempting to defend this nation from the evils of Militarism.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027534502

[cpwm17]

4. You can't read too much into the low incarceration rates of atheists,

but it is certainly a data point against the claim that atheists lack morals.

[safeinOhio]

5. As a group with one of lowest rates

of divorce might say more.

[edhopper]

6. Note to believers

how religious you are not a sign of morality either.

Are we suppose to ignore that many use the term Godless Heathen for atheists?

[rug]

7. Actually, Greta is talking about lame arguments, not bruised feelings.

[Cartoonist]

8. The champion of all lame arguments

Can you prove there isn't a God?

[rug]

10. . . . . is whom?

Speaking of lame arguments, if you had bothered to check the links in the article yoou may realize how domibnatibng the role or racism is in incarceration/

Her point is that atheism is as irrelevant to that discussion as your hoary question is.

[Cartoonist]

12. I didn't ask a question

The content of my post was the question that is put forward by those who think it is a valid argument. I wasn't asking the question myself.

[edhopper]

9. So was I

and the lamest is morality comes from God.

[rug]

11. Ah, bruised feelings make a lame argument.

I agree.