Religion
In reply to the discussion: Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)"Religious folk attend weekly lectures on morality, read portions of respected books about the subject on a daily basis and regularly discuss the subject in groups, so it would be inevitable that some of this guidance sinks in."
The implication that atheists would therefore be worse people is obvious. Except, that isn't true. Religious people don't behave better. For all that lecturing and reading, and whatnot, they commit just as many (and in some cases, more) crimes than the irreligious.
And the context of irreligious in this case is not simply secular, the author specifies it in the very next paragraph:
"There is also the notion that the presence of an invisible moralistic presence makes misdemeanors harder to commit. People who think they are being watched tend to behave themselves and cooperate more, says the New Scientists Lawton. Societies that chanced on the idea of supernatural surveillance were likely to have been more successful than those that didn't, further spreading religious ideas."
A non-religious yet spiritual person may well still believe in karma or some vengeful sense of cosmic justice, or any number of things that wouldn't apply to an atheist. The 'Committed Atheist' as he puts it. He does specify when he's talking about one group or the other.