By Meagan Barrrett ‘15

Think about it: if someone told you he didn’t believe a god existed, how would you react? Think he’s stupid? Agree with him? Question his morals? According to statistics, religion has become so integrated into American society that people who regularly practice a religion are assumed to be better people.

In fact, the University of Oregon did a study that asked its subjects a hypothetical question: If a teacher hit a parked car and failed to leave his insurance information, is he most likely to be a Muslim teacher, a Catholic teacher, an atheist teacher or a rapist teacher? Almost no one suggested it was a Muslim or Catholic teacher. So what does that mean for the atheists, or those who don’t believe in a god? Unfortunately, they were guessed just as frequently as the rapists to have committed the unethical act. Statistics taken from across the United States reflect the same information. In the eye of society, atheists are seen to have less morality.

The logic behind this is that people glean morals – the ability to determine right from wrong – and values – things which are important to an individual, such as family, freedom, education, etc. – largely from the religions they are raised in. The assumption is, if you have never had a religion or reject the religion your parents taught you, you lack all of the morals and values that come with it, as if it is a package deal. However, Christian novelist Billy Sunday popularized the notion that going to church and claiming to follow a religion do not automatically make you a good person. It’s your actions which dictate that. In the same way, being an atheist doesn’t automatically make you a bad one – it’s your choices towards others that decide that. The average atheist will still be respectful, responsible and morally upright as long as he or she is raised that way.

People almost universally agree that seriously harming or killing another person is morally wrong. Surprisingly enough, many European countries, which have much higher rates of atheism than the United States, also have much lower rates of homicide. Obviously, many factors influence a country’s crime rate, but the number of religious or non-religious citizens does not appear to be one of them.

What’s important to consider is that perhaps morality varies by the individual based on his or her own personal fibers and what they’ve been taught and experienced. And what many people overlook is that learned experiences don’t necessarily need to have been colored by religion. While a religious person may watch a kind act and tell their child it was inspired by the love of God, an atheist would say that it was simply a kind act, and that in itself can be inspiration enough to do good things. While different, the effect is the same, and produces the same moral action in each individual.