Are Atheists Immoral, Arrogant, and Angry? (Psychology of Atheism Part 3) 

Part 1: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UWhz3SXPWkg.html Part 2: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xejfuTNov7Y.html

btw: in my opinion, being moral because you fear godly punishment or expect godly reward is not actually that moral

Small point but it comes up a lot. Someone angry at God is a theist. An atheist is not convinced of the existence of a God and therefore cannot be angry at one.

Something about writing that "believers are modest and reasonable" doesn't come across as modest to me 😂

It's not often you hear a theist speak so "favorably" about atheists! Even if all you're doing is sharing what the data says.

Disclaimer - I have been an atheist for the past 7 years. I wasn't angry when I became an atheist, but over the years, I have become angry and hurt. Why? My own parents criticised and abused me for being an atheist. They literally told me that I would become a failure for not believing in God. They also blamed me whenever something bad happened and told me God was punishing the whole family because of my disbelief. They tried for 6 months to convince me to become religious again. Of course, that didn't work, and everyone kinda swept everything under a rug. So yes, I am very angry with them and their religious beliefs.

i am immoral, arrogant and angry. but that's not because i'm atheist

I really liked this as a follow-up, the terms of "agreeableness" and "conscientiousness" are unfortunately pretty loaded so it's nice to demonstrate how *not* to interpret your personality test results and to also back it up with data. This series has been a great example of how to study a potentially sensitive subject with respect.

I was born into a Jewish family. My mother's side was essentially non-practising, while my father's side was more observant. However, as a child, we only ever attended synagogue on the high holy days, not routinely on the Sabbath or daily services. This changed about 2 years before my 13th birthday, the age at which Jewish boys have their Bar MItzvah and are considered to be adults and able to participate fully in Jewish religious life. Over this 2 year period, I was taken to the synagogue by my father every Sabbath and attended classes after school and on Sundays to learn to read and speak Hebrew (I never did!), study the Bible and learn the reading (from the Bible, in Hebrew, learned by rote) for my Bar Mitzvah ceremony. It was during this period, having been interested in science and technology from an early age and learning more at secondary school, plus learning more about Judaism and the hypocrisy and chicanery that my fellow Jews employed to circumvent the restrictions that religious practice imposed, that I decided the whole thing was a sham. A few months after my Bar Mitzvah, I stopped attending synagogue and essentially became an atheist, although I didn't know that's what I was at the time. I remain an atheist to this day, almost 60 years later, but that is now more firmly rooted in my scientific scepticism and deeper study of the Bible and the history of the ancient Middle East.

"Atheists are angry at God" is my favourite logical fallacy

Great video. Thanks. As an atheist who was raised without religion, I am generally very happy, have high morals, a great relationship with my father, and am a truth seeker, hence I agree with your conclusions. I also have a love of history, and am interested in religion in general, so love your channel and your charts. The more I learn from an academic standpoint reinforces my atheist beliefs. My children have not been raised with religion and are likely atheists too (their choice), however I am encouraging them to learn about the various world religions, and also learn about the bible from an academic standpoint. I have recently pointed them to your channel as an excellent source of thoroughly researched, unbiased information that is well communicated. Thanks for all you do.

It's interesting to me how the religious assume than non-religious people are somehow less moral, and that the religious are somehow more moral. Some of the least moral people in history were also highly religious.

Regarding the father component: religion is traditionally passed down by family, if the sample of atheists consists of people who grew up religious but then left it makes perfect sense that their relationships with their families but become strained because of it. As such, a strained parents relationship would potentially be the consequence rather than the cause.

The morality stereotype has always baffled me - that somehow "I get my morality from a mistranslated book" is seen as inherently more moral than "I have to think carefully and figure out right and wrong for myself."

I see plenty of religious people that are always angry. Normally when they talk about God they are screaming at someone

living in a country where 60% of the people are not afiliated to a religion. Atheism is no issue here.

I remember reading Case for Christ as a teenager. When I remained an atheist, I was told that "satan has hardened your heart." Apparently, Satan works in mysterious ways

Wow! I've been an Agnostic Atheist for a little over 12 years now, and your finding that most believers who lose their faith do so for almost purely logical reasons mirrors my journey exactly. I learned in Christianity that honesty and truth were important, and like many others, once I learned that Christianity wasn't "The Truth" it was claimed to be, I was left no choice but to abandon it. My dedication to learning and believing things that are true led me away. And I'm an INTP too, so that probably didn't hurt. But losing my faith was still the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. Changing your worldview is hard, especially when you have embraced a different one for over 42 years.

I'm an atheist and I have a very good relationship with my father. I grew up in a Catholic household, was baptised and confirmed as a Catholic, though I had never really believed in God and thought of it more like a fantasy. I never realised that everyone else truly believed in God until I was 12 and I discovered that I didn't have to. At that point I realised that what I was doing amounted to pretending and so I declared myself to be an atheist. My mother sounded heartbroken when I told her, but she came to accept it soon enough. My father is essentially non-practicing so he accepted more or less immediately.

Claiming atheists are irrational, immoral, or angry, etc. is a common accusation from those projecting.

Feels like I learned more about myself just by watching these three video than having hour-long discussions with friends and family. Even though my entire family has long since left church, but not on "bad" terms, we are simply a "-TP" dominated family. None of us have any anger with any religion, only the people who try to force their beliefs on us.

That search for the truth explanation holds a lot of water for me personally. My parents took a pretty lax, 'let's expose them to a few things and let them make up their own minds' approach to religion with my siblings and I, and at first my experience was largely one of inconvenience - mom decided to drag us to some church and now my Sunday mornings are disrupted. But as I got older I started getting more and more curious and I found I had endless questions that adults around me seemed to have a hard time answering. This was indulged for a while, but the older I got the more offense people seemed to take at what were to me sincere questions that I very much wanted the answers to, until finally the church we were attending when I was 17 asked me to stop coming because my questions were upsetting people. Frustrated as I was by the lack of answers I became the very stereotypical arrogant, angry atheist for a long time, I was very smug and utterly confident in my moral and intellectual superiority; much to my eventual embarrassment I didn't talk to Christians so much as debate or outright insult them. Fortunately I've put a lot of years of distance and understanding between me and that version of myself, and while the search for the truth remains the most important aspect of my religiousness or lack thereof I have gotten past much of the anger and arrogant, and nowadays I would even consider myself more agnostic than atheist.

My grandmother gave up religion back in the 1920s, when she took a college biology class and learned the theory of evolution. Her reaction was, "That makes so much more sense." Her daughter (my mother) grew up to be a scientist, and taught us to think critically and shift our thinking as we gained new information. I am an INTP. I don't think there was a chance in the world of me growing up religious, never mind staying religious.

I don’t know who said the quote but it’s one of my favorite and really shuts down conservative christian’s. “If you need god to stop you from doing bad things that’s doesn’t meant you’re a good person it just means you’re a bad person on a leash”.

Being dedicated to finding the truth and being not afraid to change your mind is pretty much the definition of a good empirical philosopher.

I think it's funny that you use a picture of a hoodie wearer as "immoral". Those damn hoodies are the devil's playground, apparently.

Regarding atheist morality, my favourite example is my grandfather. After watching the Nazis and their allies slaughter most of his family, including but not limited to sending his father away on a train to a camp, burning his older brother alive, and shooting his mother, all around the age of 13, he ran off into the woods with his younger brother and was picked up by the Yugoslav partisans. He spent a good part of his teenage years in the woods by a communist guerrilla group, and was thus throughout his life a devoted anti theist. He saw religion as a dangerous superstition used by the upper class to keep the workers complacent. He was also the most Christlike man I’ve ever met, and this isn’t “my grandpa was a great guy” exaggeration. A moral absolutist. His moral motivator was not belief in God but I suppose you could say he was religious, in his devotion to Marxist values. After the war, he was coordinator of youth volunteers in Herzegovina. His job was to go around with a few of his veteran buddies organizing groups of young people to rebuild infrastructure. While he was doing this, he ran into the waffenSS volunteer from his village who had killed his mother. Now, he had a band of armed soldiers, a perfectly understandable motive to kill the man, the full support of everyone in the area if he did, and if he was worried about appearances, the ability to simply make the man disappear. Hell, he didn’t need the state’s help in making him vanish into thin air, he and his pals could’ve killed the Nazi turd and fed him to pigs or built him into a road or any number of other ways to hide him. Instead, my grandpa and great uncle decided to spare him, with the reasoning roughly being “we are building a new society and everyone, even you, deserves a fresh start”. My family were pretty big landowners with large tobacco plantations and vineyards. My grandpa gave most of it away to the state to give out to poorer families to farm collectively. He’s one of very few landowners I know who did this voluntarily. The party put him through law school so naturally he went into politics, but was always getting moved from department to department and never advancing because he refused to embezzle funds, stopped his underlings from embezzling, kept catching on to his bosses’ corruption so he’d be moved before he could build a case. When he was responsible for a youth employment program later, he intentionally gave his kids last pick because he didn’t want to be nepotistic. My dad’s first job was washing toilets at a campsite as a result. A bit of a dick move but he was absolutely dedicated to not abusing his position of When he was treasurer for the ministry of education in Bosnia, he refused to give my aunt a scholarship even though she’d earned it with her grades because “we can afford to put you through school, other people actually need this”. And of course he never distinguished people based on class, always being polite to the poorer folks. While other party members tended to be dicks to the staff at party owned hotels, for example, he (and as a result of their upbringing my dad and aunt) were always very kind to them, I know for a fact this earned my family some close friends who won’t shut up about the difference between my grandparents and the other “party testicles” as they call communist bigshots, that they worked for. He was the kind of guy to order an extra a meal at a hotel and send it to the maid. He did have horrible anger issues though, a result of his trauma I suppose, and his anger at the failures of the society he had sacrificed so much to build, but he never took these out on his family. He tended to lock himself away or, one time, cut down 2 trees in a fit of rage. Sometimes it led him to be a bit absent as a father when he withdrew to battle his anger alone, but I think when you’ve seen the things he’s seen, that’s kind of understandable.

I would be dead curious to learn how you can academically study how "immoral" a demographic is in any kind of objective way.

I have been an atheist for the past two years now. I left Islam initially for intellectual reasons . But as time elapsed , I became more and more angry at the religion and its followers for the moral reasons. I still have not gathered the courage to admit to my family that I lost my faith lest they should abuse or outcast me. And I find Islam responsible for many more problems in the society.

6:45. This is exactly why I'm struggling with my faith right now. I was taught all my life that Christians are good, honest people, that they are always going to be more kind and caring than non-theists. However, after attending a private Christian college, thats the opposite of my experience. My fellow students were hypocritical with their actions and beliefs, quick to judge and arrogant about their narrow worldview. It has made me question whether or not I want to be associated with this religion at all. Obviously not ALL Christians are like this, but when you're promised love, and get hate- it makes you question what you're doing.

Here's an irony: I had an overall good relationship with my Dad. We talked about the deep issues of life. He was the one who was cynical about religion (we were Roman Catholic). He was the one who taught us to question everything. He was the one with Humanist values (though my Mom had them, too.) So, when 3 out of four of his children abandoned Catholicism and religion in general, he was very upset! It wasn't logical. Perhaps it was guilt that he led us astray, or perhaps it was that Mom was upset with our deconversion (and we don't upset Mom!). It's a mystery. My good relationship with my Dad actively put me on the path to Atheism. I'm also an anomaly. I'm a Myers-Briggs ENFJ. Was it outside influences that led me to Atheism or was it that we ENFJs are capable of deep thinking? Both? ~ Anastacia in Cleveland

I just think its not cool to push your own religious beliefs and ideals onto someone who is not and prefers it that way. By assuming that atheists are arrogant is arrogant in itself, not to mention that a lot of theists think you will be "save" by becoming theists. That seems ever more arrogant to me.

The emphasis on truth and integrity in the church is why Neitzche observed that Christianity contains the seeds of it's own destruction. A culture obsessed with truth discovered flaws and delusions in it's own foundation, which was simply intolerable

Whelp, with a title like that, you're gonna get a bunch of people who comment without watching: good luck Useful Charts :)

Thank you for your high quality videos! lot of fun watching this!

Answer: No. Some are pricks, but the majority are cool.

I've really enjoyed this series! Thank you for taking the time to make these excellent, really interesting videos.

Thanks so much for the amazing videos. I have read many other studies that reach similar conclusions. Intellectual argument is usually the main reason people become religiously disafiliated.

I am not religious, but I love learning about different religions 😅

Everyone is born atheist. They’re then taught to be believe in whatever fairytale is prevalent in their region.

I have really enjoyed watching this series! I always appreciate data-backed assertions over assertions based on people’s assumptions. Such a great way to evaluate all these claims. I may have to dig into the paper for more. I’m a strong FP BTW, and an atheist after regular churchgoing for 18 years. I am curious to evaluate that apparent dichotomy of my F with my atheism. But it seems to me that supporting people and seeing the human impact of things does not require religiosity. And sometimes I see religiosity being counter-productive to truly caring for all humanity. Just using thoughts and prayers instead of practical things, for example. Or crediting something miraculous instead of the people actually doing the work. That said, I’m all about people believing whatever they wish so long as it isn’t imposed on others. And I know plenty of religious people who do espouse plenty of F ideals not like my example above.

I’m an atheist because I dont believe in an afterlife no matter how much I want to believe there is one

I found this very interesting. In my family, my great-grandfather had an epiphany and became a traveling preacher, abandoning his family for months and years at a time. My grandfather was twelve and had to take care of the farm and younger children. After a while, my grandfather came back long enough to father another child, and told my grandpa that that child would be the only one who would amount to anything bc he was "conceived with True Love" after he had started preaching. That made Grandpa so angry he became an atheist. When he married my grandma, they agreed to raise the children atheist (this was in the 30's-40's). When my dad studied science in college he further cemented his "belief" in atheism. He married my mom, who had been raised by my Nana and Poppop both of whom had lost their faith in God. They raised me and my brother as atheists. We celebrated Christmas, but it was really just for the presents. We often spent dinner time mocking those with religion and tearing down religious traditions and beliefs. Then, I went to college and started reading a lot of different books, including one by Thomas Merton, "The Seven Storey Mountain". One day I ended up in the chapel just as a Catholic Mass was starting. I decided to observe it like Margaret Mead, and see what these primatives were up to. I was curious so I went to a couple more masses. After a while I asked for more information, and yes, I had a conversion experience. During the year long RCIA process, I didn't tell my family at all, but I finally did, just before my baptism. I've been a practicing Catholic for 30 years. I do believe that everyone has their own journey, however. Faith is something personal.

Great analysis, Mr. Baker! *AND MERRY CHRSITAMAS!*

Happy Hanukkah, Matt!

The issue of theists judging the morality of atheists is that what constitutes morality correlates almost completely with what their book says. Gay? Immoral. Premarital sex? Immoral. Abortion? Immoral. So that's where they get it from. Because to theists nonconformity = immorality. Doesn't sound very moral, does it?

As an atheist who was raised Christian and who's father is still alive and my relationship with him is strong this is very interesting. For me the things that turned me away from faith and religion were a diagnosis of Dyspraxia and investigation into other potential Neurodivergence (which is still ongoing) and also my questioning and eventual acceptance of my sexuality. I am queer. I also politically became a lot more liberal and socialist. I think these are interesting factors to consider when looking into why people do and don't step away from religion. By contrast my mother doubled down on her faith after she and my dad split and is now a strong Christian living in a very Christian country (She and my step dad live in Spain, A Catholic country) and her political leanings are a lot more traditional Conservative "Tory" (or Republican if you are in the US). I do feel that there is a correlation between political leanings and religious faith as well as factors like Neurodivergencey and queerness. I do love my mother and respect her right to have faith and stuff we wildly clash on pretty much everything. I just think it is something interesting to think about.

Your study leaves out those like me: those who haven’t left the church because they’ve never gotten in. Since I’ve been a child, I was presented with the opportunity to become a believer. I was six I think when my parents took me to the priest to give me the choice of receiving baptism or not. I remember at the time reading about dinosaurs and prehistoric men and then this priest starts telling me fantasies about Adam and Eve. It just didn’t click with me and told so to my parents thereafter that the guy was a moron trying to feed me some BS (of course I didn’t use those words but that’s what they meant). Never been a believer and don’t think I’ll ever be. I don’t think people consider me immoral, arrogant or angry. I am neither of these. Actually ,I have a very definite value system, always try to help and almost never lose my cool. It’s just that there’s science, and then there’s religion and I don’t think they go together well. And believe me when I say I hope I’m wrong and get to meet all those I’ve loved and lost in a Heavenly afterlife…

Hi Matt! I got your European family tree poster for Christmas and I’m really happy with it and recommend getting it for anyone else reading this :)

Another great video, Matt. Thanks. As an atheist who grew up Christian, I DID drift away from the faith, then, after analyzing its precepts, came to the conclusion that it didn't make sense. A loving and merciful God who gave us floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, malaria, smallpox, influenza, cholera, yellow fever, The Black Death, etc? Only a monster could torture toddlers with disease and then expect to be worshipped.

From my own personal experience, I have to agree with this. INTP here, not angry at an imaginary being, not particularly arrogant, generally moral, and still have a decent relationship with my father who was not absent.

The thing that is still irking me about this study, is that it's only about those leaving or remaining in church. I'm pretty sure the persuit for truth and willingness to change view of those not growing up in church, would point to theists. Because they'd start out non-religeous and being willing to change their mind and seek truth, will flip the other way. I consider myself a case that demonstrates this. In fact those TP vibes keep me questioning enough to kinda see both sides and occasionally struggle or wrestle to find a comfortable and true position.

i find religious people more anggressive

It says a lot about the character of people who think you need religion to be moral.

There’s an old adage in journalism that any title that ends in a question can always be answered “No.”

My father went full Evangelist. I had a good relationship before. Barely speak to him now.

I am Agnostic Atheist and I watch all your videos. Coincidentally, I am also a PhD Student conducting my research on Gendered critique of international law. Although we belong to different fields of study, but your videos have often helped me to approach a topic when I am stuck. Honestly your academic integrity and intellectual honesty is something every researcher should strive for. I am glad that I follow and subscribe to your channel. I don't know if my research is ever gonna have the impact that your videos and research have, but I am glad that you're making these videos. More power to you and your channel!

I don't personally think any less of atheists. While I don't understand it, there's nothing inherently wrong with your beliefs or anything. I just think the internet brings out the worst in anyone, regardless of beliefs. Zealotry isn't exclusive to religions, unfortunately.

I loved this series!! Thanks for explaining everything with a lot of respect and not on the judging side.

I responded to part 2. I do love your work. The assumptions that those who are negative towards atheist people is just astounding, especially when compared to my own experience. I have a very good relationship with my father. He is the theist in the family, and he felt it was important to, at a certain age, no longer require that my brother and I attend church. We of course chose not to. In trying to coax me back into attending church, my father never raised a moral or aggressive argument. He simply said "where else can you go to hear people say be kind to each other, help people (the hungry, sick and otherwise troubled)?" Every time I did end up attending, I was welcomed and shuffled off to the choir, where I am happiest. I do not attend church because I believe in God. I attend church because as a singer, I contribute to the healing experience that so many are seeking by attending church. My belief is irrelevant - my service is relevant. - I am an autistic INFJ. I especially love to sing at funerals so as to comfort the living - the dead need nothing from me.

Generally I've found that in my life the people who get angry and appear arrogant are mostly religious & church-going types.

Would less selfish people be more likely to take a survey?

Claiming to have divine knowledge and to be one of god's chosen people is the height of arrogance. Claiming moral superiority because you selectively interpret a narrow collection of ancient texts to justify your attitudes is abandonment of personal responsibility. And nowhere will you find anger like the rage of an offended collective of zealots.

I just wanna say I've always loved your videos, even as an atheist ENFJ who has always had an awesome relationship with my parents. Your dissertation is so interesting to me, and not only that, but all your videos. I can't really tell you why since I've known I'm an atheist since I was 9~10 years old, but I love your takes on religion and lack thereof.

What makes me angey is when people are using these clichéd argument to explain my atheism instead of just listening and accepting my actual reasons

I think many of the negative stereotypes of atheists are just applied from people with a motive to discredit/demean them, but I think there is also an aspect that many of the people you *hear* talk about their atheism may be more likely to be some form of aggressive. As with any type of person, a large percentage of them will just quietly go about their day and not bring it up unprovoked.

"People convert to religion for emotion reasons." ding! I think we have a winner.

Good research. I have gotten INTP on every Myers Briggs test I've taken and am an atheist so I guess I support your data. I was never religious though so not exactly the same as your study. My parents still consider themselves christian but they have never attended church or tried to get me to so anything religious.

Man I love your channel. This video has been a real eye-opener. Growing up in a Catholic country and family, I never felt like I belonged or enjoyed any of the things we do in Church or etc. I also always have this constant arguing inside my head about everything I find that don't make sense about the Christianity and whatnot (the inconsistencies, hypocrisies, etc). And theeen I also got an INTP in the Myers-Brigg test lol. Seriously, it's almost as if like all signs are telling me to become a fully fledged atheist lmao.

I think some useful information would come from those who grew up in atheist households. Your information seemed to focus on people who became atheist from religious families, while an atheist who came from a atheist family might have differences that are worth comparing.

It depends on the person not his beliefs

I'm an atheist and I enjoy reading or learning about different cultures and the religions they may have. That said, I just don't subscribe. It's fairly simple.

We do not need religion, but we need to have some sort of ethical system at least.

DISCLAIMER: I am an evangelical pastor, and this is solely based on my anecdotal experience. In my experience, I found most people transition from religious to atheist or non-religious after they make life choices that contradict their faith. They tend to continue in this life choices, but eventually start to discuss issues like Bible contradictions, evolution, or homosexuality as reasons they don’t believe anymore. These arguments generally don’t hold intellectual water as they are rejecting a very specific form of fundamentalism and not the basic tenants of Christianity. I have found that people reject the lifestyle of Christianity first, and then address intellectual objections to Christianity, and finally claim they were logically argued out of the faith in the end. Totally from my personal experience.

Wordless! From India, Kudos your efforts 👍 Continue this Logical continuum. What you make superior in my view is that unlike other, you don't get biased, and stand up clearly with reasons.

I'm curious about how "anger" was measured in these trials. This might be wrong, but I feel that many christians are very angry the whole time about lots of topics and still if you ask them they seem to think they are not angry at all (like If they couldn't realize because It is the usual behaviour). Many seem to have another threshold when evaluating themselves, so if anger is measured by asking people if they feel that or that way....mmmm.... I would like to know if there are better metrics for that.

This is a great episode. I was raised catholic, until my mom died. My dad was probably more apathetic than atheist…or I guess technically agnostic. So I grew up agnostic, but most religious people cannot differentiate an agnostic from an atheist. Having kids, including losing one, brought my wife and I back to the church. That does not mean we are better people or everyone else should too. We needed that community support at the time and it worked for us. On the Meyers-Briggs test, my wife and I and I are polar opposites on almost all characteristics lol. So much for that correlation.

These three episodes were based on atheist who left religion (mainly Christianity I assume), I'd be curious to see a similar study done with atheist who never were in or part of religion.

I would love to see a study further drilling down into that relationship-with-father thing. For example, comparing atheists who grew up religious to atheists who grew up non-religious, and asking whether their relationship with their father was good as a child vs as an adult. My hypothesis, at least, would be that a lot of those negative fatherly relationships are as a result of leaving the church, rather than the other way around.

My only problem with all of this is Generalization Saying the results are relevant for theists while it’s mainly for Christians and Ex Christians. I would love this study done with other religions as well. It’s unfair to take stats from Christians and ex Christians and say they are relevant to all theists and atheists

The personality type hypothesis makes a lot of sense to me. You can definitely see a lot of overlap when it comes to worldview preferences. I think one of the reasons as to why a lot of people have the notion that atheists are angry or just "want to sin" (aside from it being really good propaganda, I personally had a very negative view of atheists because of lines like those) is pretty similar to how other forms of discriminating thoughts form: lack of exposure. It used to be that the only atheists you heard of were the ones, well, loudly and publicly attacking religiona.

I keep finding such questions essentially bizarre. Maybe those who feel impelled to ask them, impossible to answer as they are, are trying to make sense of a very sectarian and militant variety of anti-theism. But a-theism, as such, is just that: un-belief. Not believing something that is a matter of faith does not require a special kind of analysis. By the way, I am not responding to this particular content, but to the enquiry itself. No doubt it can be useful in answering some who see the absence of faith as unnatural, but I had to say this: there is and can be no specific profile of non-believers: we are just… people. Merry Christmas, and peace on earth to all of good will!

I’m starting to _get_ angry at being accused of being immoral, arrogant, and angry.

Thanks for fighting these misconceptions with data. As a Christian turned Atheist I definitely see these expressed and remember even having them myself. The irony is exactly your final conclusions, that most people become atheist because they are seeking the truth and their path leads them there (whether you agree or not with their conclusions)... often that means sacrificing quite a bit personally, either personally in facing your own long held beliefs and breaking them down which takes a lot of willpower, or in facing family and friends who often refuse to understand. Even the caring ones will often throw little bits at you, like you'll return to the faith one day, etc. Not realizing that comments like that are equally insulting as saying they'll leave the faith one day (something I would never say to them). Your data regarding personality does align with my own case, in that my personality profile fits with your Atheist correlation too. Though I would caution cause and effect isn't as clear as you seem to imply, unless I'm missing some additional data. Even if a certain personality correlates with being an Atheist who left their faith, that doesn't show whether or not the personality came first then Atheism, or if Atheism came first that lead to their personality change. Probably some combination of both to be honest though would be interesting to know. I suspect you'd need peoples results before and after their change to really know, which might be implausible to do. My own anecdotal experience of leaving my faith might suggest a bit of both. I used to be less TP and I'd guess I shifted to be a bit more TP. Though I also think that once I essentially broke free of my self imposed restriction that I had to be religious, became atheist, I believe I became even more TP. So I suspect it's a bit of both. That becoming TP might lead one to be more likely to leave their faith, but that leaving their faith definitely leads one to being more TP.

3:00 - Of course. "With or without religion, good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. It takes religion to make good people do bad things." I don't remember where is this from, but I wholeheartedly agree. It also applies to ideology.

As an atheist, i am a human and to do something for my race is the only thing i have to do

A theist claiming atheists are dogmatic and arrogant? Now, that's rich.

I wonder how D'Souza and his fellows apologist score on arrogance...

It seems to me that evangelicals are more likely to be angry, and arrogant that Atheist or mainline theists. Can you check that out?

For one year despite hearing Matt read it multiple times I've read that title as "amazing conversations" LOOOOOLLL

The studies have low reliability and validity, due to the subjectiveness. There’s obviously going to bias if people are self describing.

I became an atheist at the age of 8 or 9 while wondering if the bible stories of (for example) the loaves and fishes was a made-up fairy story or a real event. It seemed, even to a small child, obvious that they were greatly exaggerated or completely made-up stories, and stopped believing they might be true. Of course, when I became older and started to understand how people think, and how the world is put together physically, I was confirmed in my earlier assessmentand havebeen a life-long atheist. I’m still astonished that adults actually believe these bible stories. Apparently, there are even people who believe that the old-testament stories of things like the flood are literally/actually true. I wonder what it would be like when they buy a used car.

Very interesting Matt, thank you! Myself and my two older siblings were never indoctrinated into religion -thankfully! Our mom grew up attending Mennonite church but it shunned her when she married our father. He grew up on a farm and didn’t attend church- but his mother was very religious. So the three of us grew up not going to church, no discussion of religion. It was Oklahoma so it was everywhere, but not specifically at home. I’m the youngest. The oldest is nearly 17 years older. The middle is…in the middle - he’s the one that has become religious. I think this is based on personality and needing to belong, needing a group that would welcome him. Everyone is born an atheist - the religion you adopt as a child has everything to do with the religion(s) of your parents and of the community where you grew up. Does this impact your personality as you mature? I can’t say because I’ve not done the research or sought out those who have.

"Religion Poisons Everything" ~~Christopher Hitchens

I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I could ever become one, as in my country religion is at the top. What is funny, that many religious people are often old ("church mother and they church hat"), lazy and fat. (Remember seven main sins?) After going back from the church (which they do almost only at sunday) they have no problem with drinking beer, shouting and criticizing. They go to the church only because everyone does as they were taught to do so, however, no one really reades bible or any books else (except christian propaganda books and newspapers). In the time they were young, (communism) education was weak, and so people wanted to gain it in the church, also it was a protest against the government. This situation lasts to this day. Those people can't live "better days", as they can't fix their lives. So that's how they're making their (and not only) lives worse. I believe (sic!) that the main reason, that people are running away is not the lack of job, but rather the tribal way of thinking. You're believer, you like "right party"-you're good, you're antheist-you're bad, you're a "lefty", a communist. Those people, (if they could) would crucify every atheist (Ironic, isn't it?). Of course not everyone is like that, but normal (between left and right) people are often not listened or just "muted" in government social media. I would hope for this to be only my point of view.

It's nice to have empirical data backing up what atheists have always said: of course we aren't any more angry, arrogant, or immoral than theists. It would be fascinating to have a follow up study that used the more established Big Five to find correlations with confidence of belief/non-belief. I am also curious about the social pressure aspect of belief, meaning that I suspect there is a strong correlation between maintaining belief and living within a strong belief social matrix (family, friends, community, etc) such that being a believer is the norm. If the correlation does exist, I then wonder if it exists for atheists as well.

INTP Atheist here: I’ve been an atheist since a very young age, and I am fairly familiar with personality typing, but I am skeptical of it. I find this research deeply interesting… this data is the first I’ve seen that can be considered even close to scientific… The correlation between dominant Thinking, Perceiving, and the likelihood of that type being secular is something that’s been floating about in my brain and some of the social circles i people watch for a while. I’m fascinated by a certain Cult of Personality that has come to supervene in Amateur Psycology circles headed by ENTP Social Engineer/RU-vid Guru/Cult Leader/(possible) Con-Man, CS Joseph. I think he’s developed the most comprehensive metaphysical system and method for determining Cognitive Mechanics in humans, yet he doesn’t seem to care or point to any studies that actually confirm the validity of the metrics his theory relies upon-all while claiming to be an expert. I believe that all metaphysical systems should first be corroborated by the methods of science before being accepted as literally true… which is also why am an atheist by the way. I would love someone to make an exposé on what he’s doing. Or I will do it. I’d also like to comment upon the fact that my dad has never really had a good imagination and I was able to type in as an ESTP and my mother as ISTJ. I am one of the lucky atheists who had the necessary preconditions to reason my parents out of their belief in Christianity. so despite being raised within a Christian framework, I was affectively, able to deconvert my entire family and we are all better off for it. My heart goes out to all those that nature has not given the necessary preconditions for that agreeable situation and suffered, tremendous loss and even abuse because of it. 🖤

Arrogant? Sometimes, especially to Evangelicals. Hard not to be. Angry? Not usually. But sometimes frustration grows into anger. Like at a couple of the pricks on the current Supreme Court. Immoral? Don't think so. And some bonus points for not needing the threat of a god burning me in hell for what morality I do have.

I was skeptical when I stared to see the first part because most of the videos about atheists tend to go to the route that we are inmoral, selfish, angry at god, not empathic, devil worshippers, etc. Good job.

Is C.S. Lewis really wrong if the people who have drifted away and don't participate in services greatly outnumber those who we narrowly define as atheists?