Atheism

Atheism has been defined and understood in a variety of ways by both scholars and the general public. Atheism as a subject of social science has also generally been ignored, in comparison with the scholarly work on religion. Only within the past decade have social scientists developed significant interest in atheism and sought to study it empirically. This has led to greater clarification of the concept for the purposes of research, and social scientists have begun to study atheists themselves, much like they have studied the religious for many decades.

Related terms such as irreligion, agnosticism, and secularism have contributed to scholarly debate and sometimes led to confusion about the meaning, presence, and role of atheism in modern societies. However, most current studies converge on the central idea that, most simply, atheism refers to an absence of belief in a god or gods. Research on atheism and atheists has tended to focus almost exclusively on Western nations—with an emphasis on Western Europe and the United States in particular—which has limited our knowledge of atheism and atheists in non-Western countries. The most recent research (especially on atheism in the United States) indicates the close connection between atheism and social deviance. As such, this entry focuses on and overviews the social stigma of atheism, the management of this stigma, the social characteristics of atheists, and atheist identities.

Research shows that atheism is one of the most stigmatized social statuses. In the United States, atheists are viewed even less favorably than many other minority groups, including Muslims and homosexuals. According to recent Gallup polls, atheists rank at the very bottom of the list when it comes to who people are willing to vote for and who parents would approve of their children marrying. There are a variety of reasons why atheism is considered socially deviant. However, in a 2006 study, Penny Edgell argues that the primary reason atheism is viewed so negatively in the United States is that atheists are perceived as an essential “other.” That is, atheists are seen by the U.S. public as having rejected the very moral foundation of a good and moral society: belief in God. All of the recent survey data regarding the public's perceptions of atheists appear to corroborate the presence of this widespread assumption. It is interesting to note, however—as some of the same research shows—that people's attitudes about atheists are generally not the result of their experience with atheists themselves. Rather, the stigma against atheism is symbolic, the product of the common idea that both private and public morality are rooted in belief in God. Atheists, explicitly not sharing this belief, are therefore seen as less moral than those who hold this belief.

Like other marginalized statuses, atheism can sometimes translate into discrimination against those who publicly claim it. For instance, a study by Joseph Hammer, in addition to demonstrating that atheists are aware of, and “feel” the stigma of their atheism, showed that some atheists report experiencing acts of discrimination, including social ostracism, slander, denial of opportunities and services, and hate crimes. The frequency with which atheists report such discrimination is based on how open they are about their atheism. This is because atheism is what the sociologist Erving Goffman would call a “discreditable” status. That is, it is an ideological, rather than psychical or behavioral, status/position, and it can be concealed and controlled by those who hold it. Thus, an atheist may choose to remain “closeted” to avoid social stigma. The research on the stigma management strategies of atheists remains limited, but the few studies that are available seem to indicate that atheists use many of the same techniques that other marginalized and stigmatized groups use (see the entry “Stigma and Stigma Management”).

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