Expert: Jeffrey Eldred - 9/7/2011

Question
Dear Jeffrey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

I want to Know the Human Behavior Characteristics and personality traits of a Atheist ?

i.e What are the reasons for the Atheist in not believing in God ?.

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

Answer
Introduction:
Very good question. Some of the generalizations that have said about atheists are stereotypes and some of them are mostly true. I will endeavor to explain both and use sociological and psychological evidence wherever it is available. The amount of research on atheism is limited, partly because the number of atheists and the public awareness of atheism has risen dramatically only very recently (since the Internet[1], the 9/11 attacks[2], and the Sam Harris' "End of Faith"[3]). Unfortunately I mostly only have sources about atheism in the US and mostly only have experience with atheism in the US. I hope that I explain it well enough that it will be clear how it applies to India as well.


False Stereotypes about Atheists:
Believers typically claim that belief in their religion brings about positive psychological changes, like moral behavior or personal happiness. Instead I think that our personalities and behavior have much more do with our upbringing, our culture, our social influences, and our biology. Whenever one makes a claim about the supposed benefits of believing in God, it naturally leads (by contrapositive[4]) to negative stereotypes about atheists: that atheists are deficient because they lack the benefits of belief. In addition, when religions contain the (self-serving) belief that those who do not believe in the religion will be severely punished, than atheists have to be portrayed as wicked in order to justify that belief. Finally, there are negative stereotypes about atheists coming from the usual consequences of competing cultural groups: in-group-out-group mentality[5] and scapegoating [6]. As a consequence, atheists are one of the least trusted groups in America [7][8][10].

One false stereotype is about atheists is that they are atheists because they "love sin". That is, that they have marginalized themselves from religion and from society because they are (especially) hedonistically obsessed with violence and sex. In fact, however, there are disproportionately less atheists in prison and disproportionately less atheists file for divorce. While I do not doubt that atheists are frequently more liberal when it comes to sexual freedom, they do not have significant difficulty maintaining monogamous relationships that they declare an intention to keep. This video [11] and this website [12] lists these statistics and others. The reasons why atheists perform better than believers in terms of crime and divorce can be explained by the wealth, education, and stability of atheists (see section on selection bias).

Another false stereotype about atheists is that they are less happy, and there have even been some studies published claiming to have evidence of this. But instead what was found was that personal confidence and close communities make people happy [13]. When one compares religiosity to happiness, there is a “U-shaped curve” - those who are in transition between devotion to religion and promotion of secularism don't tend feel comfortable with either camp and may be in a confusing phase of their life. On average atheists report a better sex life than believers of traditional religions[14][15], which is not be surprising, but this fact may also contribute to the happiness of atheists.

The last false stereotype I've encountered by atheists is that they are cowardly or are unusually afraid of death.  The phrase "There are no atheists in foxholes"[16] is astonishingly prejudiced (as if someone instead said "You know what they say about black people..." ) for how frequently it is uttered. It might seem like a natural consequence of doubting an afterlife that atheists are unable to take risks with their lives, but that's not the case [17][18]. One might sooner say "there are only atheists in foxholes"[19] because fear of death seems to be a human universal that runs contrary to the belief in divine protection as well as a divine guarantee of a happy afterlife.


Selection bias on Atheists and the Atheism Subculture:
There are some generalizations that can be made about atheists which are not caused by atheism, but rather the selection bias on people who become atheists or use the term "atheist" to describe themselves  [20]. Some of this selection bias tells us about the personality of atheists and alludes to their reasons for atheism, but mostly it just tells us about the demographics of an atheist subculture [21]. An important point to make about this section is that because none of these traits are intrinsic to atheism, we would expect these traits to disappear as the atheist movement becomes larger and more mainstream.

Broadly speaking, a lack of religion is correlated with wealth [22], education [23], and  stability [24][25] (all of which are correlated to each other). There are a couple of ways to explain these trends. For one thing, it takes a certain degree of time to think about religion and develop opinions on it and maybe most working class people just don't have time for metaphysics. Given the social stigma that is associated with atheism (especially among groups of people that already have a low incidence of atheism), it also takes a certain degree of financial and social independence to be comfortable with the idea of atheism as well as feel comfortable declaring oneself to be an atheist. Some people have suggested that religion is a type of escapism that forms as a coping mechanism that people turn to in times of uncertainty. Christian churches with a strong message of the prosperity gospel can become cons which prey on the poor [26]. Education also has the effect of disproving the false scientific claims made my religion (i.e. creationism and fine-tuning)[27], restoring the factual balance to social issues (i.e. gay marriage [28][29] and reproductive rights [30]), and learning more about other religions in general[31]. This may also explain why there are so many secular or atheist scientists[12][32][33].

Sometimes atheists (who are usually less familiar with the psychology of intelligence, the rigorous use of statistics, and the general concept of skepticism,) claim that atheists are more intelligent than believers[34][35].  I think the fact that IQ is correlated with wealth, education, and stability is sufficient to explain why atheists tend to score higher on IQ scores. The purpose of an IQ test is to examine the abstract ability of the brain to perform mental tasks, with the idea that it would measure intelligence, innate mental ability, as opposed to knowledge, mental abilities that draw on past experience. But what psychologists found was that the division between intelligence and knowledge was not as neat as one would expect, because the brain can be taught to perform better at the mental tasks found in IQ tests such as pattern-recognition, memorization, and puzzle-solving. It was also found that being good at one abstract mental task didn't necessarily apply to another abstract mental task. Moreover the health and psychology of an individual can affect IQ scores, which undermines their reliability. So if the concept of intelligence is even a coherent one, there is no evidence that atheists are any smarter than believers.

There are fewer woman atheists and fewer atheists who are racial minorities. This can be mostly explained by the demographic factors that connect atheism to privilege[36]. Nevertheless there are more women than commentators tend to think [37] and the skeptic movement has decided to promote diversity among its leaders as well as its members. A list of women atheists eligible for promotion was compiled by Jen McCreight [38] and (attempting to follow the success of the women list) a list of atheists of minority races was compiled by Greta Christina [39].

There are disproportionately more LGBTQ individuals who are atheists[40]. This is not surprising - the negative treatment LGBTQ individuals are given (by Christianity) causes them to seek alternative beliefs and feel more comfortable expressing their sexual identity. There are disproportionately more autistic individuals who are atheists [41]. Individuals who are autistic are less likely to anthropomorphize nature and call it God.


Cultural values of Atheists:
The atheist movement considers itself a subset of the skeptic [42][43] or rationalist [44][45] movement and a big part of those movements is to encourage society to have certain cultural values. It is natural to expect that atheists adhere to these values at a higher rate than the general population, because they explicitly have it as a priority. The cultural values unique to skepticism that I will focus on are freedom of speech, critical thinking, and empiricism.

Some skeptics, in particular the "New Atheists", charge that religion preserves its obviously untrue claims by maintaining a certain degree of censorship. Religions may describe their beliefs as too sacred to be questioned, necessary to be accepted on faith instead of evidence, or are beyond human comprehension but nevertheless true. But to atheists this sounds like special pleading [46] and they feel instead that religious claims should be held to the same scrutiny as scientific and political claims. Much like peer-review (for science) or democratic debate (for politics), open discourse is held as the golden standard for preserving good ideas and removing bad ideas. In the spirit of rational discourse, skeptics encourage people to welcome constructive criticism and not become emotionally bound to whether or not something is true or false [47]. Encouraging the public to be comfortable with rational discourse would not just be effective at destroying superstition, but reducing all forms of group-thinking [48]. Ideally, having this cultural value would mean that skeptics are both open-minded and well-informed.

Skeptics feel that a necessary prerequisite to rational thinking is cultivating intellectual honesty and removing personal bias. In addition to examples of outright deception skeptics have encountered in evangelical Christians [49], skeptics find that there are many ways people subconsciously deceive themselves [50][51][52][53]. Skeptics encourage people to take the time to reexamine all of their ideas and look for evidence that would tests their beliefs rather than confirm them. I think that this process not only woulds for empirical ideas, but also ethical ideas. My golden standard for resolving ethical issues is to imagine I was providing an comprehensive justification to all of the actors involved. Ideally, having this cultural value would mean that skeptics are insightful and nuanced.

Skepticism is sometimes referred to as scientific skepticism, because skeptics look to the scientific method to resolve disagreements. (As I hope I've succeeded in doing in this response) skeptics feel that informative and persuasive contentions should be grounded in experiment or observation, even when discussing issues not strictly within the domain of hard science. As I mentioned before, a disproportionately high number of skeptics are scientists and non-scientist skeptics typically have a better than average science education. When skeptics feel they are unable to understand the science or unwilling to learn it for themselves, they are encouraged to defer to the scientific consensus on the issue as a reliable source. Ideally, having this cultural value would mean that skeptics are clear and quantitative.


Reasons for Atheism:
You also asked what reasons atheists have for not believing in God. The truth of the matter is that the reasons are numerous and every atheist is a different person[54]. Because I think atheism is true, I don't think a psychological motivation is needed to explain why people are atheists. Even if one could succeed in identifying a common motivation to all atheists, one would have to commit the genetic fallacy to say that it explained away their intellectual reasons for disbelieving in the supernatural.

If you would like my reasons for not believing in God, my past answers would be a good place to start [55]. In particular you may be interested in a question in which I identify my two best reasons for atheism [56]. If you feel like you need a more specific answer to that or would like a certain argument for God addressed, feel free to bring it up in a follow-up question.

Links:
[1] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2011/08/25/on-the-internet-christia
[2] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2011/08/27/the-impact-of-the-new-at
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Faith
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapositive
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group%E2%80%93out-group_bias
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoating
[7] http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheitsHated.htm (written by Austin Cline[9])
[8] http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheistSurveys.htm (written by Austin Cline[9])
[9] http://www.allexperts.com/ep/2724-35947/Atheism/Austin-Cline.htm
[10] http://asr.sagepub.com/content/71/2/211.short
[11] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PEmSLoDwiQ
[12] http://www.thinkatheist.com/notes/Percentage_of_atheists
[13] http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/buggle_20_4.html
[14] http://www.alternet.org/sex/150978/atheists_do_it_better%3A_why_leaving_religion
[15] http://ipcpress.com/index.php?id=42
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_no_atheists_in_foxholes
[17] http://zerowing21.xanga.com/708705940/give-a-damn-plane-crash-and-me-being-insen
[18] http://militaryatheists.org/
[19] http://rockbeyondbelief.com/2011/08/12/there-are-only-atheists-in-foxholes/
[20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias
[21] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism
[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_and_religion
[23] http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2011/02/does_higher_education_cause_at.php
[24] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/dec/08/religion-society-greg
[25] http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP07398441_c.pdf
[26] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/12/did-christianity-cause-the-c
[27] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/2011/8/antony-flew-2.htm (see the links referenced in the last paragraph for scientific arguments against some religious claims.)
[28] http://zerowing21.xanga.com/697856429/the-gay-marriage-arguments/
[29] http://www.queeried.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/same-sex-marriage-flow-char
[30] http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C32
[31] http://pewforum.org/other-beliefs-and-practices/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey.a
[32] http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/why_are_scientists_atheists.html
[33] http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2010/05/studying-science-doesnt-make-you.htm
[34] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence
[35] http://www.cobourgatheist.com/assets/downloads/AtheismRise.pdf
[36] http://skeptifem.blogspot.com/2010/06/where-are-all-female-skeptics-at.html
[37] http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/11/03/where-are-all-the-atheist-women-right
[38] http://www.blaghag.com/2010/01/large-list-of-awesome-female-atheists.html
[39] http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2011/03/atheists-of-co
[40] http://latterdaymainstreet.com/2011/02/14/lgbs-atheism/
[41] http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2010/05/29/people-with-asperger
[42] http://www.centerforinquiry.net/
[43] http://www.skeptic.com/
[44] http://www.atheist-community.org/library/articles/read.php?id=753
[45] http://indianrationalists.blogspot.com/
[46] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_pleading
[47] http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/campaign_for_free_expression
[48] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
[49] http://www.liarsforjesus.com/downloads/LFJ_FINAL.pdf
[50] http://www.skepdic.com/tilogic.html
[51] http://www.theskepticsguide.org/resources/logicalfallacies.aspx
[52] http://lesswrong.com/
[53] http://youarenotsosmart.com/
[54] http://www.weareatheism.com/category/featured/
[55] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/indexExp_111189.htm
[56] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/2009/12/Best-best.htm