Posted: Jun 19, 2010 1:32 am
By a wide margin, atheists in the U.S. were more likely to feel a sense of stigma, highest among those living in the south. For instance, 57 percent of U.S. respondents said they felt they would suffer at least minor social repercussions in the workplace if they came out as an atheist, compared to only 35 percent of respondents in Canada, 24 percent of Australians, 15 percent of residents of United Kingdom, and 12 percent of Western Europeans.
More than two-thirds of Americans said they would suffer stigma in their community and 61 percent said they would suffer stigma from their family.
This didn't surprise me at all. Religion is a big deal here, and evangelical, fundamentalist Christians are extremely aggressive in their attempts to demonize atheists. Even so, there are signs that the tide is beginning to turn. According to a recent Religious Identification Survey, written about in USA Today, the number of Americans claiming no religion at all went from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2009. That's a big jump, which is encouraging.