Its Not That Bad: The Plight of Atheists in America

Social biases have existed throughout human history, and while they are ameliorated in some societies, they cannot be extinguished. Social bias is a natural expression of mankind resulting from an individual’s inclination to fear what is unknown or unfamiliar. This natural fear of the unknown has obvious advantages in the natural world, but the expression of this fear in the civilized world has deleterious effects on the cohesion of society. It would be inaccurate to suggest that these natural tendencies are not dangerous, but compared to the ill-effects of institutional discrimination, isolated social discrimination is relatively non-threatening. From a pragmatic perspective, it is also advantageous to focus on eliminating institutional biases for two reasons: institutions have far greater power to subjugate minorities and to promote tolerant and enlightened views on social relations. Thus is seems hasty of Wendy Kaminer, author of “Atheists Need Not Apply,” to compare the uncomfortable yet relatively minor discrimination experienced by Atheists in America to the much more serious and degrading institutional biases experienced by other minority groups today and in recent American history. Kaminer’s comparison of the plight of Atheists to the institutional discrimination of other minority groups detracts from her argument regarding the relative lack of progress of Atheists and belittles the discrimination experienced by other groups.

Kaminer does not fail to articulate the social bias experienced by Atheists. Some key survey statistics cited by Kaminer help describe how pervasive these biases are:

“A majority of Americans consider belief in God essential to morality, the Pew Forum confirmed in 2007.”

“Resistance among people affiliated with a religion to intermarriage with atheists may be stronger than their resistance to gay marriage: seven in ten religious people surveyed by Pew would oppose or resist intermarriage with an atheist.”

“In their 1983 book, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe About Civil Liberties, Herbert McCloskey and Alida Brill reported that 71% of people surveyed believed that atheists ‘who preached against God and religion’ should not be permitted to speak in civic auditoriums, as opposed to 59% of survey respondents who believed that gay liberation groups should not be allowed to use public halls to advocate for gay rights.”

What Kaminer doesn’t lack in survey statistics she lacks in examples of clear institutional discrimination against Atheists. I don’t feel quite comfortable stating that these examples do not exist; I do not, however, have an aversion to stating that any ostensible examples of institutional discrimination against Atheists are relatively minor compared to the discrimination experienced by other minority groups.
Kaminer attempts to avert possible backlash against such comparisons:

“I don't mean to set up any grievance competitions between historically maligned groups, much less suggest that being an atheist in America is harder than being gay. In general, closeting your lack of faith is probably easier and a lot less stressful than closeting your sexuality.”

Nonetheless, doesn’t the act of comparing the plight of Atheists to other more maligned groups set up a sort of competition? What other point could be present? Kaminer states that her goal is to compare the progress of other discriminated groups to what she believes is a lack of progress in the experience of Atheists. But the reason for this difference is clear: Blacks, women, and gays have had much more ground to make up. In general, Atheists have not experienced difficulty in marrying, finding employment (and earning fair wages), joining sports teams, and enrolling in schools under the institutions present in America. Thus the title of her article “No Atheists Need Apply” is not only irrelevant to the arguments she presents, it is also inaccurate and inconsistent with the experience of Atheists.

Further, it may be self-centered and arrogant to suggest that the apparent social bias experienced by Atheists is something unique to the Atheist situation rather than mainstream religions in general. Is the condition of the Atheist really that different from that of the Buddhist, the Ba’hai, or the Jainist? In fact, research regarding the relatively low status of Buddhists in America suggests the point I made above: that an individual’s familiarity with a particular religion corresponds to his/her comfort with the practitioners of that religion. I’m not sure that there is anything inherent in Atheism that makes its adherents subject to greater discrimination than other relatively obscure religious groups. If Atheists want their case better represented, they are better off not comparing their experiences to groups that experience serious and disparaging discrimination.