It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine, by John Lennon, 1971
John Lennon’s “Imagine” is a unique, remarkable song. Contrary to Steve Martin’s assertion, “Atheists Don’t Got Any Songs”, in fact, atheists have this one extraordinary song. I’m surprised at the success and popularity of Imagine. It was ranked among the most-performed songs of the 20th century, ranked #3 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of the greatest songs of all time, has been performed or covered by over 200 major artists and was featured in ceremonies of three Olympics.
The popularity of “Imagine” is surprising because it is an atheist anthem in a society which generally shuns and despises atheists. Polling and social research both show that a large segment of the population deeply mistrusts atheists. However, like various other minorities and “out groups”, such as Blacks, LGBTQ+, Latino, south and east Asian and other immigrants, atheists are gradually gaining more acceptance in America.
Political Polling
A series of Gallop polls dating back to 1958 tested the acceptance of various out-groups as potential presidential candidates. The polls asked participants whether they would vote for a well-qualified candidate from their own party, if that candidate were a member of an out-group. In 2019, an atheist was the most objectionable minority as a presidential candidate, relative to Black, Catholic, Hispanic, woman, Jewish, evangelical Christian, gay, lesbian, young, old, or Muslim hypothetical candidates. Only a socialist would poll worse than an atheist as a potential candidate.
Nevertheless, there is progress in acceptance of atheism. In 1958, Gallop found that only 18 percent of American voters would consider an atheist as a potential president. That number held steady in the mid-40 percent range from the 1980s to 2007, but has risen in recent years to 60 percent. That said, acceptance of atheists is lagging the acceptance of other out-groups by two-to-six decades.
Decline of Traditional Religion
Polling shows decreasing adherence to traditional religion, across all ages and political affiliation. Specific numbers are hard to tabulate, due to the personal sensitivity of the topic, and aversion to self-identification as an atheist. Given the European history of atheist barbecues and torture, that reluctance may be well-founded. Polling numbers for self-identification of atheists also suffer from nuances of language, and the failure to discriminate between atheists and agnostics.
The decline in traditional religion is mostly a 21st century phenomenon. As recently as 1996, 96 percent of Americans said they believed in God or a universal spirit, about the same percentage as in 1947. Since 2000, increasing numbers of older and conservative citizens identify as spiritual but not religious. And among younger and liberal citizens, increasing numbers identify as neither spiritual nor religious.
An overwhelming majority of citizens still identifies as either religious or spiritual. In the 2023 poll, 47% identified as religious, 33% identified as spiritual, 2% identified as both. Only 18% identified as neither religious nor spiritual. This is a strong increase from around 10% at the beginning of the millennium, but still a small minority.
There’s a significant cohort which denies the existence of God but still avoids self-identification as an atheist. In a 2015 poll, only 3% of those surveyed identified as atheists, but 9% denied the existence of God or a universal spirit. This may simply reflect a failure to provide “agnostic” as a polling option, or may reflect reluctance to openly admit to disbelief, an aversion to the label of atheist, or some nuance of belief or language.
Social scientists Will Gervais and Maxine Najle conducted a series of clever experiments designed to determine the percentage of individuals who are reluctant to admit they are atheist, even in an anonymous opinion survey. Their results suggest that 26% of Americans are atheists, but that more than half of them refuse to say so.
Atheism and Morality
In 2023, a Pew Research Poll showed that 65% of Americans said that it is not necessary to believe in God to be a moral person. The remaining 34% said that a person must believe in God to be moral. Pew noted that these percentages varied by the strength of religious and political affiliation, and age. Responses across all other countries surveyed, averaged near the American results, but with a wide range, generally depending upon relative wealth and the degree of religious conservatism. In earlier polls, Pew noted that majorities in many countries considered that belief in God was necessary for morality. Those majorities were strongest in poorer countries.
Like the political polling, Pew’s results over time show a growing acceptance of atheism in America. In general, there has been a two-decade trend of increasing acceptance of atheism. Nevertheless, there is still a strong core of people, representing about one-third of the population, who believe that atheists are intrinsically immoral people.
Social Science
Social scientists have researched acceptance of atheists in society, in this country and others. The research uses proven but indirect methods for identifying conscious and unconscious bias. Researchers deliberately chose progressively more provocative associations in an effort to elicit clear results.
Studies of intuitive perception performed by Will Gervais, University of Kentucky, showed that a significant percentage of people (up to 60%) associated atheists with various kinds of immoral behavior. In every test, subjects were far more likely to have negative views of atheists than any other religious, social or ethnic group. Curiously, a larger percentage of atheists themselves associated atheists with immoral behavior than members of established religions.
A higher percentage of Gervais’ subjects (60%) considered that an atheist was likely to be an untrustworthy, opportunistic thief, than any other religious or ethnic group. Interestingly, atheists were regarded as more likely to cheat and steal than rapists (50%). The third highest association was for feminists (30%), higher than any religious affiliation. Gervais subjects also considered that an atheist was more likely to engage in consensual incest (50%, 2.5x higher than other religious groups) or sexual perversion (60%, 3x higher than ethnic groups).
Gervais said, “I wanted to come up with one unambiguously immoral description…[I was] basically trying to come up with something so bad that people wouldn’t think an atheist would do it.” Gervais’ last survey tested associations with a pathologically sadistic serial killer. Fifty percent of Gervais’ subjects could potentially associate that description with an atheist. Interesting, of the religious groups tested, the second most likely association was Christian, ahead of Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish or Muslim.
Social science shows that there is still deeply ingrained bias against atheists in the American populace. Atheists lag behind acceptance of ethnic groups, immigrants, LGBTQ+, and the entire spectrum of religious groups.
Coming Out as an Atheist
I recently watched the delightful Pixar short film, “Out”, about a gay man coming out to his parents. It made me wonder, for adults of any age, which would be the most difficult to say to conservative parents: “I’m gay.”, “I’m a Democrat”, or “I’m an atheist”? Looking at the social science experiments, I suspect the most difficult of those would be “I’m an atheist”. I am openly atheistic on Twitter, where virtually none of my family or older friends can see my views. I conceal my atheism on Facebook, where religious family and friends see my posts.
It seems to me that religious people see atheists as a threat to their beliefs, as well as intrinsically immoral. I can imagine a conversation with my friends from my childhood church. “Well, WHY are you an atheist?” I would then point out that religion contains inescapable logical contradictions and that there is no factual basis for religion. At that point, they would feel that I was attacking their beliefs. There’s no way to explain self-identification as an atheist without saying that religion makes no damn sense.
Atheism is one of the least accepted forms of self-identification in America today. Acceptance is growing, but for now, it seems best to stay in the closet, if I would like to retain my relationships with family and old friends.
Imagine
The closing lines of John Lennon’s “Imagine” are hopeful. It’s an acknowledgement that there are others in the world who don’t believe in religion. It is an invitation to let go of things that don’t make sense, adherence to abusive institutions and beliefs that cause conflict and destruction. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.
“You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one”
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The image of John Lennon's "Imagine" album cover is used without permission but not for profit.
It will be removed upon request.
References
Political Polling
https://news.gallup.com/poll/285563/socialism-atheism-political-liabilities.aspx
https://news.gallup.com/poll/254120/less-half-vote-socialist-president.aspx
https://news.gallup.com/poll/285563/socialism-atheism-political-liabilities.aspx
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/08/10/431205042/should-we-distrust-atheists
Other Polling
https://news.gallup.com/poll/511133/identify-religious-spiritual.aspx
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/13/15258496/american-atheists-how-many
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/05/31/poll-finds-america-as-churched-as-ever/f5e38ee3-2560-4680-b926-e2829c0c23f1/
Atheism and Morality
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/20/many-people-in-u-s-other-advanced-economies-say-its-not-necessary-to-believe-in-god-to-be-moral/
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/10/16/a-growing-share-of-americans-say-its-not-necessary-to-believe-in-god-to-be-moral/
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/03/13/worldwide-many-see-belief-in-god-as-essential-to-morality/
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2005/01/24/politics-and-values-in-a-51-48-nation/
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2003/07/10/god-and-foreign-policy-the-religious-divide-between-the-us-and-europe/
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2002/03/20/part-1-religion-in-america/
Intuitive Perception
Popular Perceptions of Atheists, Will Gervais, University of Kentucky
Breaking New Ground in the Science and Religion Dialogue Workshop, University of Texas, 8/3/2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrjw6bBOqR0&t=1195s
Other Resources
https://www.cfequality.org/issues/data
https://www.baylor.edu/baylorreligionsurvey/doc.php/292546.pdf
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/01/03/faith-on-the-hill-2023/
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