Discrimination and Stigma Against Atheists

Are you publicly open about your atheism or agnosticism? To your family and friends? At work or in school?

I'm comfortable opening up about my atheism with close friends, if the subject comes up. Otherwise, I'm rather guarded. In my family, I've opened up only to my closest sister. My other siblings are extremely religious and/or conservative, and we've already been alienated by politics, so I avoid those subjects with them to avoid further straining the bonds of kinship.

My mother, when she was alive, would sometimes ask me, "Have you ever considered coming back to the [Catholic] Church?" (I dropped out in my late teens.) When I moved to Madison, I joined a Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregation - for a social outlet, not because I'm particularly spiritual.

(In case you are unfamiliar, contemporary UUs - altho it varies from congregation to congregation - include and embrace atheists, agnostics, humanists, Christians, pagans, Jews, members from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds, etc.)

When I told my mother, she was happy for me. So my membership in First Unitarian served as a kind of shield to ward off unwelcome probes into my religious affiliation. That Unitarians and Universalists were historically Christian made it all the better of a shield.

At work, in a corporate environment, I certainly kept a closed book. One boss had a decorative "Praise the Lord" plaque on her desk. If a co-worker said "I'll pray for you/your mother/your father", I'd say thank you. And "I go to First Unitarian" would satisfy any questions.

So, I'm sorry to admit I haven't exactly been a courageous warrior for atheist visibility. And I think visibility - public examples of atheists who aren't skulking, murderous, drinkers of baby's blood - are an important way forward for greater acceptance by the god-fearing rest of the population.

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Some excerpts from a couple of articles:

"The 2019 U.S. Secular Survey was ... a groundbreaking survey of nearly 34,000 nonreligious people living in the United States. ...

"Nonreligious people frequently conceal their nonreligious identities and beliefs in various contexts, particularly when they are likely to face stigmatization or discrimination. Nearly one third (31.4%) of participants mostly or always concealed their nonreligious identity from members of their immediate family. Nearly half of participants mostly or always concealed their nonreligious identity among people at work (44.3%) and people at school (42.8%). ..

"Perhaps contributing to the frequent concealment of their nonreligious identities, nearly half (47.5%) of survey participants were sometimes, frequently, or almost always asked or felt pressure to pretend that they are religious. ...

"Our research shows that one in six (17.2%) of survey participants are likely to be depressed and about one quarter (25.6%) of participants often experience one or more indicators of loneliness and social isolation."

• United States Secular Survey, 2019
  [secularsurvey.org]

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"Half of Americans have a negative view of atheists. Similar percentages categorically refuse to vote for atheists for public office and believe that it is impossible for them to be moral people. Courts in some states routinely discriminate against them in -custody battles. ...

"Numerous polls show that hostility toward atheists is more widespread than that toward any other minority group. ...

"Perhaps the most important is discrimination in -custody cases. ...

"... the most striking indication of prejudice against atheists is their almost total absence from political office, even as compared with other relatively unpopular groups. ...

"There is probably no legal remedy for the exclusion of atheists from public office. ...

"Although religious discrimination in -custody cases warrants legal action, the political and social exclusion of atheists cannot and should not be remedied by government coercion. ...

"Thus, atheists will not achieve political office unless there is a change in public attitudes."

• Ilya Somin, "The Final Prejudice" in Legal Times, April 17, 2006 • Vol. XXIX, No. 16
  [law.gmu.edu]

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"The courts upheld references to God in pledges, oaths, prayers, and anthems on the ground that they were not actually religious. The phrase 'ceremonial deism' was coined by a Yale Law School dean in 1962, and in the decades since it has been used by court after court to explain exceptions to the First Amendment. Like saying 'God bless you' when someone sneezes, the courts concluded, these 'under God's and 'In God We Trust's are innocuous; they belong to the realm of patriotism, not prayer. ...

"Lawsuits to end the recitation of the Pledge in public schools began almost as soon as the words 'under God' were added, and while 'ceremonial deism' long thwarted those challenges, nonbelievers have lately begun to pursue a different strategy. Instead of arguing that the Pledge violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, they have started arguing that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause, because it presents an occasion for nonbelieving to be ostracized. David Niose, the legal director of the American Humanist Association, is one of many who have suggested that atheists might even be a suspect class, the sort of minority who deserve special protections from the courts. ...

"In fairness, contemporary American atheists may be inclined to wage war on religion because religion has been waging war on them for so long."

• Casey Cep, "Why Are Americans Still Uncomfortable with Atheism?" in The New Yorker, October 22, 2018
  [newyorker.com]