TY - JOUR
T1 - Atheists as "other"
T2 - Moral boundaries and cultural membership in American society
AU - Edgell, Penny
AU - Gerteis, Joseph
AU - Hartmann, Douglas
PY - 2006/4
Y1 - 2006/4
N2 - Despite the declining salience of divisions among religious groups, the boundary between believers and nonbelievers in America remains strong. This article examines the limits of Americans' acceptance of atheists. Using new national survey data, it shows atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups. This distrust of atheists is driven by religious predictors, social location, and broader value orientations. It is rooted in moral and symbolic, rather than ethnic or material, grounds. We demonstrate that increasing acceptance of religious diversity does not extend to the nonreligious, and present a theoretical framework for understanding the role of religious belief in providing a moral basis for cultural membership and solidarity in an otherwise highly diverse society.
AB - Despite the declining salience of divisions among religious groups, the boundary between believers and nonbelievers in America remains strong. This article examines the limits of Americans' acceptance of atheists. Using new national survey data, it shows atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups. This distrust of atheists is driven by religious predictors, social location, and broader value orientations. It is rooted in moral and symbolic, rather than ethnic or material, grounds. We demonstrate that increasing acceptance of religious diversity does not extend to the nonreligious, and present a theoretical framework for understanding the role of religious belief in providing a moral basis for cultural membership and solidarity in an otherwise highly diverse society.
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U2 - 10.1177/000312240607100203
DO - 10.1177/000312240607100203
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33744749598
SN - 0003-1224
VL - 71
SP - 211
EP - 234
JO - American Sociological Review
JF - American Sociological Review
IS - 2
ER -