quote:
The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation”with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts.
This could also be taken to indicate another trend in the US which a decline in the overall education of Americans. It is of interest that the East and West coasts where the largest concentrations of institutes of higher education are located are more accepting. Also strong religiousity, particularly fundamentalism correlates well with lower education levels.
I am curious though how they defined atheists in the study..or did they not define it at all?...what would happen if they had used the term agnostic and done the same poll?
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