Study: Atheists, Christians more alike than you think

[rug]

07/01/2016
07:59 am ET
David Briggs 
Writer, Association of Religion Data Archives

Atheists and Christians share many of the core universal values that are at the heart of a just, civil society, a new study suggests.

There were no major differences between Christians and those who do not believe in God in their moral attitudes toward compassion for those who are suffering and ensuring justice and fairness for all, researchers said.

Surprised? You would not be alone.

When atheists and Christians were asked to judge one another, members of the two groups fell back on many of the negative stereotypes that fuel the culture wars in the U.S., the research indicated.

Atheists typically described Christians more negatively than Christians described atheists, but both groups often claimed the moral high ground.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/study-atheists-christians_b_10742750.html

ABSTRACT

Moral conflict between Christians and atheists is becoming increasingly heated amidst the U.S. “culture wars,” yet research has been mostly silent regarding how these groups stereotype one another’s moral values and beliefs. We used moral foundations theory to better understand the nature of such stereotypes. In Study 1, U.S. Christian and atheist participants completed measures of moral values from their own perspective as well as the perspectives of typical atheists and typical Christians. Whereas atheists believed their ingroup endorsed fairness/justice values more than Christians, Christians believed their ingroup endorsed all moral values more than atheists. Moreover, both groups held (often extremely) inaccurate stereotypes about the outgroup’s values. In Study 2, participants wrote explicitly about outgroup morality. Atheists typically described Christians more negatively than Christians described atheists, regardless of the moral foundation of concern. Also, Christians’ negative impressions drew primarily from the Authority foundation, and both groups drew heavily from the Care foundation in both their positive and negative depictions. Implications for addressing the growing conflict between Christians and atheists in the United States are discussed.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508619.2016.1167419#.V3aZWT9THcs

[TlalocW]

1. I don't know who said it but it goes something like this...

The only thing more annoying than having to listen to a newly converted Christian is having to listen to a newly converted Atheist, and the only thing worse to listen to than either of them is a teenager who has just "discovered" Led Zeppelin.

TlalocW - Relatively new atheist