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July 15th, 2013
02:50 PM ET
Behold, the six types of atheistsBy Dan Merica, CNN (CNN) - How many ways are there to disbelieve in God? At least six, according to a new study. Two researchers at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found that atheists and agnostics run the range from vocally anti-religious activists to nonbelievers who still observe some religious traditions. “The main observation is that nonbelief is an ontologically diverse community,” write doctoral student Christopher Silver and undergraduate student Thomas Coleman. “These categories are a first stab at this," Silver told the website Raw Story. "In 30 years, we may be looking at a typology of 32 types.” Silver and Coleman derived their six types of nonbelievers from 59 interviews. We're pretty sure we've spotted all six in our comments section. 1) Intellectual atheist/agnostic This type of nonbeliever seeks information and intellectual stimulation about atheism. They like debating and arguing, particularly on popular Internet sites. (Ahem.) They're also well-versed in books and articles about religion and atheism, and prone to citing those works frequently. 2) Activist These kinds of atheists and agnostics are not content with just disbelieving in God; they want to tell others why they reject religion and why society would be better off if we all did likewise. They tend to be vocal about political causes like gay rights, feminism, the environment and the care of animals. 3) Seeker-agnostic This group is made up of people who are unsure about the existence of a God but keep an open mind and recognize the limits of human knowledge and experience. Silver and Coleman describe this group as people who regularly question their own beliefs and “do not hold a firm ideological position.” That doesn't mean this group is confused, the researchers say. They just embrace uncertainty. 4) Anti-theist This group regularly speaks out against religion and religious beliefs, usually by positioning themselves as “diametrically opposed to religious ideology,” Silver and Coleman wrote. “Anti-theists view religion as ignorance and see any individual or institution associated with it as backward and socially detrimental,” the researchers wrote. “The Anti-Theist has a clear and – in their view, superior – understanding of the limitations and danger of religions.” Anti-theists are outspoken, devoted and – at times – confrontational about their disbelief. They believe that "obvious fallacies in religion and belief should be aggressively addressed in some form or another.” 5) Non-theist The smallest group among the six are the non-theists, people who do not involve themselves with either religion or anti-religion. In many cases, this comes across as apathy or disinterest. “A Non-Theist simply does not concern him or herself with religion,” Silver and Coleman wrote. “Religion plays no role or issue in one’s consciousness or worldview; nor does a Non- Theist have concern for the atheist or agnostic movement.” They continue: “They simply do not believe, and in the same right, their absence of faith means the absence of anything religion in any form from their mental space.” 6) Ritual atheist They don't believe in God, they don’t associate with religion, and they tend to believe there is no afterlife, but the sixth type of nonbeliever still finds useful the teachings of some religious traditions. “They see these as more or less philosophical teachings of how to live life and achieve happiness than a path to transcendental liberation,” Silver and Coleman wrote. “For example, these individuals may participate in specific rituals, ceremonies, musical opportunities, meditation, yoga classes, or holiday traditions.” For many of these nonbelievers, their adherence to ritual may stem from family traditions. For others, its a personal connection to, or respect for, the "profound symbolism" inherent within religious rituals, beliefs and ceremonies, according the researchers. - The authors of this study have graciously agreed to field questions from our commenters. If you're interested, please post your question below or tweet it to us at @CNNBelief. We'll take the best questions to the authors and the Q&A will be posted in a follow-up article. Please try to keep your questions related to the study itself. Thanks, soundoff (9,518 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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So lets see, of the 1000+ news worthy items you could have chosen to look at today, you choose to run yet another story on atheism? Sure this is the "Belief Blog" but an amazing number of the atheist posts make your front page. CNN is not even attempting to give balanced coverage to religion, they are advocating atheism pure and simple.
Okay, here is a little hint to everyone. Actors and actresses have absolutely zero credibility intellectually unless they bring something else to the table. Quite a few of these other folks actually have proven time and again that they don't even understand what they are talking about when it comes to what theists mean when they talk about God (hint, its not the God of the Gaps). Oh, and here is a hint to Penn Jillette, you are basing your argument on assumptions that can't be proven; it took man 100,000 years to develop empirical science, get rid of it and there is no way you can be sure it would be recreated. But if one of the religions is true then it seems likely that it would be revealed again.
Did you read the article?
Hint: it has nothing to do with the pictures. They have used those same pictures numerous times and they have nothing to do with the article.
Hint: You don't let a little thing like observable facts get in your way do you? Now you've backed yourself into a corner because you have to get the 6 billion people on earth to all agree to your 'truth" in order for it to be "revealed again".
The front page depends on the person surfing to it. They track your clicks, just like every other web site.
So it's quite possible that you have made these articles appear on your own front page. Taste the irony.
Really, so the story on Christians being happier than atheists (on twitter) was advocating for atheism? This is a business. They draw money from the number of people they can draw to this site. Right now the two biggest competing views about which people intheUS (most of the audience) argue are atheism/secularism and Christianity. They are going to post a mix of stories that appeal to people who care about that tension. Most of them are Christian stories, but to keep the audience active it'll be a mix. This isn't a plot to spread Christianity or Atheism. It's an attempt to make money. If you don't like it go to a non-profit forum. I don't particularly like the emphasis either and would prefer more stories on other world views, but it's just not going to happen unless they can make money off it.
Belief in God or religion is a very personal thing, You either believe or you don't! You can't have half feelings one way or another. All of the people here who say they are a little of this or a little of that are lying, They do believe in God, they just want proof so bad that they will say anything to get someone to prove it! These are tortured souls who have lost their way and truly want to find their way back! But people will not or do not know how to help them. As they hate us that believe, I feel sorry for them that don't.
Wrong. But if it makes you feel superior, and helps you sleep at night believing that, have at it.
Please seek professional mental help as soon as possible.
Thanks for playing
Ron, I hold to the motto, "Hate the belief, but not the believer."
Atheists have nothing against theists except their willingness to believe really stupid sh!t. We just want you to realize how absolutely ridonculous it is to believe big magic sky wizards chanting spells to make the universe and you saying magic spells so that the sky wizard can act to save you from himself because he killed himself to make himself less mad at the beings he made himself to do as he allowed himself. Ridiculous.
"Atheists have nothing against theists except their willingness to believe really stupid sh!t. " I'll have to remember this quote. Funny and so true. 🙂
(note the Flying Spaghetti Monster of Kansas)
Believers would be amusing if only they were harmless.
Yes like something you saw at the carnival with the bearded lady or in a history museum next to the Neanderthal mannequin trying to figure out how to make fire.
Religion is the oldest "protection racket" going, blackmail writ large. An omnipotent being who requires money, what a joke! And why doesnt god pay the churches taxes? It should be illegal for any organization to collect money on an unproven basis. Simple as that. The richest country in the world , per capita, is the vatican. Funny how all the other heavily catholic countries don't seem to fair quite as well?
It's dangerous to base your beliefs about others on your own psychology. People are a lot more diverse than that. This is like a sociopath saying "People can't really care about others; they're just lying".
I am an apathetic agnostic. I don't know and I don't really care.
What a pathetic atti*tude, dude.
I wouldn't care either except this world is the result of religion having its way for too long...and the fact that periodically believers have tried to eradicate any that don't believe as they do....and with todays weapons .......
less lunacy= better.
Atheism isn't something you can categorize.....You either give weight to magic or you don't.
It is that simple.
That magic the believers so convinced of,is possible thanks to our planet being a certain mass, the right mix of chemicals and elements, our sun being the right size, the right chemical make up...our planet being in this exact orbit and distance from said sun..having a moon etc,, etc ,etc. Had anything been off on the incredibly long list, humanity and its various gods and spirits would never have happened. I see the whole issue as simply that...anything else is simply indulging in fantasy at best...forcing a nightmare on others at worst.
Technically an atheist can believe in magic (or unicorns or whatever). Atheism is just a belief about gods. You may be referring to materialism or something else. You also might want to look up the Baylor/Gallup belief study that measured supersti tion among atheists....I think you'll get some surprises. I can relate to fellow non-believers on the god issue, but I know atheist who believe all sorts of stuff from free will, to qi, to homeopathy. And according to the data there are a lot of atheists who believe in even more classically recognized supersti tion.
I've never heard the term before, and I find it hard to believe this is the smallest group, but of the definitions you've supplied I"m a non-theist.
I"ve never cared one bit about religion and while I carry a high IQ I've never attempted to learn much of anything about religion. There's not point in it.
To be recognized in the survey, non-believers had to be surveyed.
Non-theists don't spend a lot of time worrying about religion, so they are less likely to be identified as targets for this survey.
I suspect that were all the "nones" surveyed, the percentage of non-theists would increase dramatically.
Agreed. This group will have been very under-represented.
The interesting thing is when it comes to daily life athiests and believers are no different.
The atheists have more free time on Sundays.
YES!! As a child I dreaded the Sunday morning slog to boring church. Now I love Sunday mornings! It's quiet and peaceful, and all the churchy folks are occupied elsewhere.
I second that. I remember watching my friends, tortured in their Sunday best, while I played in the nearby woods.
Yes and up until the point church lets out the driving is really nice. Great time to get the shopping done.
It's also a good time to hit the store if you need to shop. But mostly I just try to sleep in.
I disagree completely, JimK57. I would say that my life as an atheist is more involved and requires more precise thinking and introspection, but that my sense of joy and value and beauty with the universe in all its presentations has become a thousand times richer and more "alive." It was horrendously difficult at my old age, but pain in learning always turns out to be worth it, even if you carry the pain with you as well. Bittersweet.. more sweet than bitter, bitter then sweet–as Big Head Todd puts it.
I was thinking more like mundane things. We all eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, watch tv, listen to music, ect..
I do a few of those things every once in a while.
i'm a theist, that believes in 2 kinds of atheists. The angry ones who hate the idea of an all loving all powerful God allowing evil to exist and the ignorant atheists that can not comprehend how an all loving all powerful God would allow evil to exist. Plugging creationscience.com/onlinetextbook for any hard working atheists. Short bus kids get your flame on.
It's actually creationscience.com/onlinebook/ You're welcome. Copy and paste technology must not yet exist under your bridge.
It's not the atheist's fault that you're too stupid to comprehend an idea that doesn't align with your predetermined viewpoint. You see things in black and white because your god's a disgusting azzhole who can't help being the biggest dovchenozzle in existence. It's understandable you'd be this way.
What a ridiculous assertion. I doubt you know any atheists at all. Atheists don't believe in any gods, therefore hate is an emotion they wouldn't use in relation to any gods. And most atheists are former deists that saw through the blatant hypocrisy of organized religions, and all of the accruments that went with it. You're only here to "get your flame on", and not to contribute anything meaningful to the conversation.
Total fail.
Yes! "...most atheists are former deists that saw through the blatant hypocrisy of organized religions, and all of the accruments that went with it." I think this is a really important point that many theists miss. Many of us spent the first 20 years of our lives steeped in all things religious before we saw the light. We are NOT ignorant about religion. We have just grown out of it, and now it seems silly and childish, like believing in Santa.
Believing in a god is just as ridiculous as believe in Santa! The first few years of your life, you don't know any better and you are captivated by the magic and the potential. But once people step out of their comfort zone and start asking questions, they can move on to a better understanding. I don't mean to say that theists are idiots, although many appear that way, but at some point in their lives, they should start questioning why.
Wow, Luke. That's just like me saying that there's only two types of believers: Those that are to stupid to understand that there is no proof of any god, and those who are too cowardly to acknowledge that there isn't any proof of any god.
But I don't make judgements like that. I understand that people believe what they do for reasons that I am not privy to. I understand that everyone has different life experiences and that some may need to believe in a fantasy because it gives them the strength to get through life. I also believe that there are some who choose to believe because it's the only thing in their life that gives them happiness.
Then there are those who embrace religion because it gives them implied permission to insult and hate strangers who don't believe exactly what they do. You have to wonder if those people honestly believe in what they're preaching, or if they just like the safety found in numbers.
I am a hindu, i am confident there is life force energy in every living being, that is why we worship gods in the form of humans, monkeys and elephants. It is simply an energy that can make or break the world, and we r all just a minuscule piece of that energy. Religion is all about how to live life righteously, and has nothing to do with god in my opinion. I am a seeker agnostic.
The proper attire for the belief blog runs along the lines of say, paintball shootin'. Just a friendly warning.
That seems to be your tactic, lol??.
Makes complete sense to me, Ava. I don't see any reason why you should change that viewpoint. The Hindu gods just sort of idealize certain concepts inherent in the universe and the human experience, yes? That's what our myths should provide. A way to imagine the difficult concepts we struggle with in daily life and in the moments of beauty and horror. Stories are incredible and myth is the mechanism of providing truth through fiction. Why not? 🙂
Right cap'n you got yours all wrapped up and caste in stone.
Is it telling that I'd like to understand how they decided what the dominant view of each subject was, given that agreeing with one type does not preclude agreement with the others in most cases? I would be a mix of what they describe as the intellectual atheist/agnostic, seeker-agnostic, anti-theist, and ritual theist, which tells me there is some opportunity for refinement. I think questions of the why and how and when and where to are very interesting and should be pursued as a catalyst for scientific discovery, but given the limits of our ability to prove any of it, it all seems rather silly to pretend 'knowledge' when at best we can form educated hypothesis. I consider religious texts some form of philosophy and, if nothing else, interesting point in time historical references. I meditate and practice yoga because I find it beneficial to my body and my mind and because my focus in life is on becoming my best self, regardless of what caused my existence or what occurs after it.
I would hope that future studies would use a more classic cluster analysis based on a list of identified traits. Still, an interesting start.
I see what they did as a sort of color palette. They tried to define the basic colors that we then blend into millions of shades.
My blend would include mostly 3 & 6 with a little 1 & 2 thrown in to make it interesting.
Wow another religious nut trying to make it seem as if Atheism is somehow a diversified religion in unto itself and that somehow they are not united in the common element of common sense. I flatulate 6 different ways too....are we going to classify that now also?
I actually classify flatulence in two categories. Silent yet violent, and loud but proud.
My gift to gays for their honeymoon is 2 dozen oatmeal cookies.
Don't lie. You likely don't know any gay people, and if you did, you would attend the wedding with your pitchfork and torch.
The author of the study:
Christopher F Silver served as board member of the Chattanooga Free Thought Association for 2 years. He currently served as the public relations co-chair for the Chattanooga Free Thought Association. He has assisted in organizing and scheduling speakers for Skeptics in the Pub, a lecture and debate series in Chattanooga. Mr. Silver also serves as the faculty advisor to the UTC Secular Student Alliance. Mr. Silver’s research has focused on a variety of topics including religious deconversion, spirituality, new religious movements, and research theory. He has co-authored a variety of academic publications and has served as a speaker for different types of groups. He is currently completing his doctoral degree in learning and leadership from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he teaches psychology courses in research methods and tests and measurements.
Doesn't sound like a religious nut to me.
Nobody warned him about Freud's foul up?? Hope the taxpayers know about his dream with him doin' all that leadin' in TN.
You seem to eschew psychology/psychiatry. Are you afraid that someone will diagnose you with a borderline personality disorder?
Get past Freud. He was outdated decades ago.
this could have been done for any religious faith, buy simply separating individuals by the degree to which they believe in their god. are you a christian who goes to church every month ? do you refrain from preaching the word of god to your neighbour ? ok then you are a part time Christian. i think it is obvious that this study was conducted on the bible belt, as someone took it upon themselves to label and divide atheists.it is much more complicated than simply separating us into categories. Because i consider myself to be passionate about political cause such as feminism,gay rights, and the environment does not mean i preach my atheist views to others. also i find it unsettling how caring about these issues is viewed as an atheist tendency instead of a universal one that transcends religions.
Did you read the study?
The purpose of this study appears to be an attempt to refute the notion promoted by the religious right that all atheists are militant religion haters (the anti-theists). The categories exist to separate out these people.
The study demonstrated that about 15% of the non-believers surveyed self-identified as anti-theists.
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Albert Einstein
Don't let your skepticism stop at just religions guys...keep looking at the whole scene.
Duuude, you're like, blowing my mind.
Goodness, once again CNN comes off telling the public why it is important to be anti-religious. Why haven't they published an article explaining the many different types of atheists who are belligerent?
I think they did mention that. I think it was number 4. Did you actually read the article?
I've never seen an article that told people why it was important to be anti-religious.
Christians get their knickers in a twist when CNN doesn't publish the propaganda they want.
I agree. The Southern Baptists are complaining that they are being persecuted because of the stand of the Supreme court on gay rights. Me? I am an anti-theist.
Nowhere in this text did the author extol the virtues of atheism. It is purely an informative article. If you had bothered to read it, you would have found that the intellectual atheist, anti-theist, and activist are all prone to belligerence.
You obviously didn't read the article. You probably haven't read the bible either. Freaking read something!
Number 4. People who believe simply haven't thought this one through. If it were harmless I'd let it be, but the human energy wasted on who's sky daddy loves them more could have a profund effect on short changing efforts to find solutions to some of our very real problems. Unfortunately people who believe everlasting life is coming to them don't have a big enough stake in something called reality to be of much help. Most disturbing is the generally accepted indoctrination of young inocent minds into this complete nonsensene. A large percentage will never find a path out of this darkness. Granted religion, as a force of order and authority may have contributed in a beneficial way to harness our energy in our civilizations infancy, but that time has now passed. The never ending conflict that is fed by these self serving beliefs is clearly a powerful drain, the cost of which may be impossible to precisely quantify. Grow up people, wishing something is so doesn't make it so.
D'accord!
Money, government, politics, borders, countries, credit, the value of shiny things, beauty, ugliness, best, high end, top of the line, best customer, style, movies, ownership. Think about it.
Clever list, but "movies" aren't imaginary. The narrative your mind creates while watching the movie is imaginary to a degree. The movie basically supplies your imagination which as much information as it can to imagine the experience the way the director wanted you to imagine it.
Yup, exactly. God, like everything on your list, is nothing but a man-made abstraction that requires people to act in a certain way to make them "exist."
The only one of these that I'm not is anti-theist. That's just obnoxious. Belief is just something that I wasn't meant to have. Liturgy or not, there is a way that humanity will unfold. Belief is a part of that, it will always be a part of that, no matter what the belief is, religion or otherwise. I simply don't have the ability to believe. I would not condemn anyone that does, no matter what their beliefs may be, nor would I defend my lack of beliefs to someone who was a believer of something.
Chucago style atheist, "We are not here to create disorder, but to preserve it!"
And here I thought it was "Never bring a knife to a gun fight."
Ah, but that was Mayor Daley, devout Catholic, who said that.
Is your middle name Guy, the detective on public radio??
It is funny how Atheists are so sure there is no God, they must be all knowing. Hey wait a minute....
Johnny Boy, we atheists can't help the fact that we were born with the intelligence and good looks sorely missing in religious folks. Apparently God doesn't like you as much as you'd like.
Have you been reading the comments? I directly asked all atheists if any know there is no god. Not one said yes.
Have you been reading the comments? I asked atheists if any know there is no god. Not one said yes.
Not one atheist on this board said they know there is no god.
Not one said they know there is no god.
It's funny how John believes he knows how all atheists think. I guess he thinks he's all-knowing. A lot of christians are arrogant like that.
So you do believe in God, you atheists are so darn confusing.
I don't believe in god, that doesn't mean that there is not one out there. It just means that based on the current evidence I see no reason to believe in any of the gods offered up so far.
Too small a sample, bosty. besides you know the majority of A&A's that hang on the belief blog are nutzo.
Kettle, of course, being lol??.
I don't know that there is no God. Nothing I know suggests that there is one.
I'm 3, 5 and 6 all in one, so I that makes me 14.
*guess. Guess that makes me 14!
Me too! Let's start a cult! lol