Sunday Sermonette: To Be or Not To Be
Atheists are not the most popular people. To the religious, we’re fools (it says so in the Psalms - twice!) who push God off his throne so that we may supplant him. We lack morals and deny God so that we can sin without let or hindrance. Even the moderate accuse us of arrogance, though we’re not the ones making claims to be besties with the Creator of Universes. By considering only natural evidence, we are called closed-minded to the possibility of undefined supernatural evidence. Let’s face it, they don’t think we’re very nice people.
But according to a study published last year in the Social Psychology and Personality Science journal, the real reason atheists are unpopular is that we remind them of their impending deaths.
Humans have the unique (so far as we know) ability to comprehend and anticipate our own mortality. There will come a day when we will cease to be, when everything we ever were or hoped to be will vanish save in the memory of our friends and loved ones, who will themselves die not long thereafter. This prospect of utter annihilation terrifies most people - it’s called Existential Dread. As a race, we have created cultural myths that reassure us that we are valued and important beings living in an ordered and meaningful universe. Some of these myths involve us being reborn into another plane of existence, or another life, where we would life forever. The afterlife must be wonderful, because so few people ever come back to complain.
A team of researchers assembled 236 American college students, including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews, as well as 34 self-proclaimed atheists. Two groups were formed. The first were asked to write down, as specifically as they could, what they think would happen to them physically when they die, and describe the emotions the thought of death aroused in them. The second group were given a similar task, but instead of death they were asked to consider extreme pain.
After a brief distraction, all were asked to rate on a 1-100 scale how they felt about atheists or Quakers, how trustworthy they thought each group was, and whether they’d allow a member of either to marry into their family.
Atheists were viewed more negatively than Quakers, but the negative reaction was more pronounced among people who had written about their own deaths.
The second experiment involved 174 students. Two thirds were asked to write how they felt about dying or extreme pain, the remaining third were asked to write down, as specifically as they could, what atheism meant to them. They were then given a test to determine whether they had mortality on their minds with a word completion test, where the word fragments could be either death-related or neutral. COFF** could be completed as COFFIN or COFFEE, e.g.
Those who had been considering their own deaths were more likely to think of mortality-related words than those who had written about pain. Oddly, the third of the group that had written about atheism were also primed to come up with death-related words.
Atheism = death, apparently. Our very existence raises doubt about the comforting belief in everlasting life.
I remember a similar study on homophobia back in the Seventies. It found that gay people were frightening in part because they weren’t seeking vicarious immortality by having children. It’s interesting that as lesbians and gays have become mainstream, marrying and either having or adopting children, they have become much more accepted in the broader society.
Sadly, the only way atheists will become more accepted is if our comforting religious myths lose their appeal. I’ll probably be long dead before that happens.
But according to a study published last year in the Social Psychology and Personality Science journal, the real reason atheists are unpopular is that we remind them of their impending deaths.
Humans have the unique (so far as we know) ability to comprehend and anticipate our own mortality. There will come a day when we will cease to be, when everything we ever were or hoped to be will vanish save in the memory of our friends and loved ones, who will themselves die not long thereafter. This prospect of utter annihilation terrifies most people - it’s called Existential Dread. As a race, we have created cultural myths that reassure us that we are valued and important beings living in an ordered and meaningful universe. Some of these myths involve us being reborn into another plane of existence, or another life, where we would life forever. The afterlife must be wonderful, because so few people ever come back to complain.
A team of researchers assembled 236 American college students, including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews, as well as 34 self-proclaimed atheists. Two groups were formed. The first were asked to write down, as specifically as they could, what they think would happen to them physically when they die, and describe the emotions the thought of death aroused in them. The second group were given a similar task, but instead of death they were asked to consider extreme pain.
After a brief distraction, all were asked to rate on a 1-100 scale how they felt about atheists or Quakers, how trustworthy they thought each group was, and whether they’d allow a member of either to marry into their family.
Atheists were viewed more negatively than Quakers, but the negative reaction was more pronounced among people who had written about their own deaths.
The second experiment involved 174 students. Two thirds were asked to write how they felt about dying or extreme pain, the remaining third were asked to write down, as specifically as they could, what atheism meant to them. They were then given a test to determine whether they had mortality on their minds with a word completion test, where the word fragments could be either death-related or neutral. COFF** could be completed as COFFIN or COFFEE, e.g.
Those who had been considering their own deaths were more likely to think of mortality-related words than those who had written about pain. Oddly, the third of the group that had written about atheism were also primed to come up with death-related words.
Atheism = death, apparently. Our very existence raises doubt about the comforting belief in everlasting life.
I remember a similar study on homophobia back in the Seventies. It found that gay people were frightening in part because they weren’t seeking vicarious immortality by having children. It’s interesting that as lesbians and gays have become mainstream, marrying and either having or adopting children, they have become much more accepted in the broader society.
Sadly, the only way atheists will become more accepted is if our comforting religious myths lose their appeal. I’ll probably be long dead before that happens.