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thomblake comments on Talking Snakes: A Cautionary Tale - Less Wrong
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Why exactly is it rare for atheists not to be rude jerks? This isn't something I've observed strong evidence for.
Atheists are generally self-selected intellectual people, therefore generally nerds, therefore generally lacking in social skills.
Also, religion is harming and killing a lot of people, so a lot of atheists get up in arms about that and come off as jerky.
Hum, depends of where you live. Here in France, atheists are common, recent surveys show almost an even three thirds split between atheists, agnostics and religious. A significant part of many social professions (teachers, nurses, social helpers, journalists, ...) are atheists, for example.
But that still holds true for vocal atheists : they tend to be intellectual and nerdy, even if vocal atheists also include a part of the traditional working-class (factory workers, construction workers, transport drivers, ...) due to still strong anarcho-syndicalist and marxist currents in French unions.
Indeed, I was speaking US-centrically, and I don't doubt Eliezer was too at the time.
Though even here, atheists of some sort or another are more common than people think. Almost a quarter of Americans answered "no religion" on the 2004 census. Of course, a BBC poll from the same time suggested that North Americans were about 9% atheist, and those categories might mean different things.