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Atheists likely to be wealthier

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SLD

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Religious ‘Nones’ Have Soared In Recent Years, But Why Not The Number Of Atheists?

(ANALYSIS) The number of individuals in the U.S. who do not identify as being part of any religion has grown and “the nones” are now larger than any single religious group. According to the General Social Survey, religiously unaffiliated people represented only about 5% of the U.S. population in the
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Interesting article about identifying as an atheist. The nones have risen rapidly. But many, even those who say they don’t believe in god, refuse to categorize themselves as atheists. There’s an obvious and unfortunate stigma associated with atheism.

But then article notices a significant anomaly whereby the wealthier one is, the more. Likely one is to be a none or an atheist. With wealth there is no need to worry as much about the stigma associated with being an atheist. This makes sense. But it is also due to the fact that money provides with a comfort for the vicissitudes of life. So does faith for poorer people.

I’m a little skeptical of that last part. Religious people seem to me to suffer more anxieties. Their faith doesn’t really give them the abilities to face life’s challenges, they’re just told that it will. But without wealth and income life’s challenges are overwhelming regardless of faith. I’ve represented a lot of people in desperate financial straits. They often cling to faith, but it really doesn’t help them cope. They claim that they are praying for a solution, they just know god will see them triumph. But then they’re in tears and need serious psychological help.
 
SLD said:
Religious people seem to me to suffer more anxieties.
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Right? Not to confuse the issue, but it also seems to me that anxious people are more prone to succumbing to religion.
I'm thinking about the young lady who used to cut my hair. She started her own Company, sold it to some east coast conglomerate for 4+ million$, then had a falling out with the buyers about her continuing employment agreements, became very embittered and angry about it and in the last few months has turned into a full blown Jesus freak. I roll my eyes; she has a six figure number of followers on facebook, and simply can't get enough attention. Now telling all her lemmings what verses to read, depending on their ailment/complaint. Calls herself a "life coach". WTF.
 
Elixir said:
SLD said:
Religious people seem to me to suffer more anxieties.
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Right? Not to confuse the issue, but it also seems to me that anxious people are more prone to succumbing to religion.
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Could be. Religion offers a solution to anxieties but it’s a false one. They keep praying to god, but he keeps kicking them in the teeth. This causes even more anxiety. They don’t think they are worthy of god’s grace because he doesn’t solve their problems. When I was religious, I couldn’t understand why god was always fucking with me.
 
SLD said:
They don’t think they are worthy of god’s grace because he doesn’t solve their problems.
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B-b-but my ex-hair cutter spends her time telling her admiring followers about the trials and tribulations of being a self made millionaire, and thanking Jesus for giving her the strength to withstand such extreme slings and arrows.
It’s comical, but sad. Not even tragic, just sad.
 
The Philosopher's tutor once commented on wealth and poverty, observing that "one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent." That a well-educated and pale-skinned demographic is also more likely to be wealthy than one beset by social inequalities, this is clearly true. But neither wealth nor faith can make a person happy. Our unhappiness comes from a different and deeper place than an empty bank account or a stripped altar creche.
 
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I think it's more likely that educated people tend to be more atheist, and educated people tend to be wealthier.
 
I don't know about wealth, but atheists do have more fulfilling sex lives.

None of that Christian guilt.
 
As materialists, atheists can only direct their desire toward material things: sex, money, status.
 
No Robots said:
As materialists, atheists can only direct their desire toward material things: sex, money, status.
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None of your three examples is a material thing.

I suspect you don't know what the phrase "material things" means, and have doubts that you know what "materialists" are, either.

But I don't need suspicion as a guide for my observation that you don't know what atheism means; There is no connection between atheism and materialism, and athiests can (and do) have any beliefs and ideologies at all - other than a belief in the existence of gods.

The idea that atheists are materialists isn't an observation or a credible extrapolation; It's just an extremely old and highly popular insult, which appears to have originated with the Roman Catholic Church.
 
Yet again Robot, atheist can be anything, except theist.


ma·te·ri·al·ism
/məˈtirēəˌlizəm/
noun
noun: materialism

1.
a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.
"they hated the sinful materialism of the wicked city"
2.
Philosophy
the doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications.
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Atheists meaning no gods can be quite spiritual context of materialism.

Which meaning of materialism do you mean?

The Abrahamics as in Jews, Christians, and Muslims are quite materialist as in definition 1, and there are some but who reject materialism outright on moral grounds.

As to definition number 2 atheists can and do believe in the 'supernatural', without any gods.


I go by naturalism. By definition all that exists is natural, there ca be no supernatural.

If I see a ghost and it is real then there is a causal link between my brain and the ghost, even if I or science can not discover laws that explain it.

Even i science you can debate philosophical semantics over material and non material. Are electrc fields 'materia;'?

However what an electric fieldd is we can dmebste repeatable cause and effect experiments. Not so with surenatural claims, like faith healing.
 
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GenesisNemesis said:
I think it's more likely that educated people tend to be more atheist, and educated people tend to be wealthier.
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You could reword it thus...

Atheists tend to be more hedonistic and materialistic so they pursue education as a pathway to wealth.

Another way atheists can stay wealthier than religious people would be to be less charitable.

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"Philanthropic studies show that people with a religious affiliation give away several times as much every year as other Americans."

www.philanthropyroundtable.org

Less God, Less Giving?

Religion and generosity feed each other in fascinating ways
www.philanthropyroundtable.org www.philanthropyroundtable.org
 
Lion IRC said:
You could reword it thus...

Atheists tend to be more hedonistic and materialistic so...
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First you would need to provide evidence that this insult is based in some kind of reality.

There are vanishingly few non-hedonistic and non-materialistic humans, and some of these are atheists; The ones who are religious tend to get promoted by their religion's propaganda machines, and most religions are careful to studiously ignore the selfless, self-sacrificing, and generous behaviours of non-members (or to claim as members good people who are absolutely not), which (completely deliberately) gives most religionists the (completely false) impression that their religion has a near monopoly on kindness.

You appear to have swallowed this propaganda hook, line, and sinker, and to magine that everyone else must agree with it as axiomatic.

But it's not an axiom, and you must prove it before using it as a basis for your reasoning.
 
Lion IRC said:
"Philanthropic studies show that people with a religious affiliation give away several times as much every year as other Americans."
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Sure. But most of it goes to enrich already wealthy church officials, or to do useless things that don't help the supposed beneficiaries, and is in fact fraud masquerading as charity.

Giving bibles to starving people isn't actually charity. Nor is donating to church funds so that the Pope can live in a jewel-studded, city-sized palace full of treasure.

Giving away money might be evidence of generosity; It might also be evidence of gullibility.

And the global multi-million dollar charity industry has made a lot of administrators very rich indeed.
 
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