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DiscussionWhy are 68% of American atheists MALE?
Hi! It usually surprises me that American atheists are mostly male with only 32% of them being female (thankfully, genderspecials weren't included in the study because that would have butchered the data). There are examples of atheist men complaining about their inability to find a godless wife. Well, it looks like MOST atheist guys will have to settle for a religious girlfriend in the US. Why is that?
It's astounding to me that any women continue to follow patriarchal religion. Reading the bible was enough for me to reject religion.
I started to get really angry about it in my 20s and eventually left but damn that indoctrination and socialization ran deep
I think a lot of male American atheists (at least who make it a loud part of their identity) are so repellant and awful it actively pushes quite a few women back towards religion, whether in belief or practice, by giving the impression that men need religion in order to not just be shamelessly degenerate porn addicts.
Editing to add: wonder if there's a split between atheism and agnosticism in that statistic, too, and if women maybe skew more agnostic when it comes to labeling it (saying as an agnostic-atheist American woman).
This was my thinking as well. I don’t believe in god but identify as agnostic because I don’t feel comfortable with the claimed certainty in atheism after being grifted by religion. I’m comfortable with an “I don’t know and I don’t think it’s possible to know, but I believe it’s unlikely.” Males are very comfortable asserting loud and aggressive opinions as if they are truth.
Also, women tend to be the biggest adherents to religion because of the heavy socialization. It’s hard to find the agency to leave unless you’re ready to be labeled a bad or evil woman.
Responding to the women as biggest adherents to religion part, think it also tends to cost us more to leave, as we tend to be more enmeshed in communities, families, etc, and a lot of our support and security can come from that (and a number of religions also actively reduce/impede women's access to things that would allow us to thrive more independently, such as resources and education). And the penalty for leaving the faith tends to be harsher on women, as religions often require us to be more obedient than men, and so rather than straining relationships we're more likely to lose them entirely.
Same. Calling it that is a reminder to me to have and show a little humility, not approach religious people like they're stupid and I'm right and they're wrong, the end, and introduce something of a degree of separation from those obnoxious, smug, perverted atheists who give it a bad name (a number of whom seem to ultimately end up not even really BEING atheists based on a lot of consideration but more just all-purpose assholes who have found it a way to rebel against and feel superior to and put down their religious relatives, and particularly religious women, in particularly nasty, painful ways).
Yeah American male atheists are so fucking awful. I know a lot of atheists women who say agnostic because they don’t want to be associated with those men. Personally I consider myself an atheist, but it’s definitely hard to be associated with those men.
If they are anything like the male atheists I've encountered, it seems a lot of them are only in it for an excuse to argue with or bully religious people. Women atheists exist, obviously, but I've never seen one deliberately go out of her way to be antagonistic in the same way men do.
They're atheists for superficial reasons. No porn, no alcohol, no weed, no sitting on your fat ass gaming all day.
American males are motivated by those four things and they're threatened by anything that interferes.
The far better and more interesting question is why the hell women are so religious
Religion is more cultural than belief and women are more like to engage in cultural activities. Women are more likely to volunteer and engage in preparing for holidays secular or religious. I don't think this is unique to the USA. Women are more concerned about preserving culture. Side note, why are you obsessed about the USA, OP??
I would like to know more about this fascinating country. I have never met an American IRL. I have never even chatted with Americans very much. Your country is so interesting because it's distinctive on many levels in terms of religion, politics, demographics and culture.
I've seen it theorized that patriarchal religions, in encouraging men to be active and women to be passive, put men in a better position to think their way out of the religion itself.
It could also be possible that women get involved in more religious activities, and end up making it a bigger part of their identity than men.
Yes - the onus on "purity" and "devotion" etc is vastly disproportionately indoctrinated into girls and women, rather than boys.
I would agree and say religion invests a lot more into socializing girls into being devotees and socializing them out of their human nature, while leaving boys with most of theirs.
Maybe also can consider how STEM tends to be very male-dominated and has a reputation for being hostile towards women. And while religious people can also be scientists, it does skew somewhat away from that. But when women are actively pushed away from science, religion is there, recruiting.
It can also be a main source of community for women and we tend to gain more from being part of a community and risk more without it
In the US, atheists aren’t just people who don’t believe in God, they’re perceived as people who feel superior to religious believers and make conflict with religious institutions a big part of their identity. Those people are more likely to be male.
More women in heaven sounds good to me.
I had no idea this was the case. Maybe women have a lower sense of agency. Maybe it's because women tend to have more diversified coping mechanisms, such as spirituality and social support.
Think the coping mechanisms is an interesting component too! We're living in a society that often puts women in demoralizing, mind-numbing conditions, often doesn't take our pain seriously (including our very real medical conditions, which are often treated like an afterthought by healthcare), often over-burdens us with work and expectations (sometimes ones that are outright impossible), isn't sympathetic or helpful when we falter or fail. We rarely get justice for the violence we experience. We often aren't given the resources or tools or opportunity needed to improve the things we're unhappy with in life, and are generally expected to just stuff whatever we're feeling down and plaster on a smile, no matter what. Many women turn to substance abuse or other forms of self-harm in the face of the sheer amount of shit we take. Religion offers a different way to cope when people feel at the end of their rope; offers hope, promises justice in the end, promises a reward for your suffering, tells you that someone is watching and appreciating everything you do that gets taken for granted, tells you that you CAN endure it when you can't do anything else but endure it.
Whereas men aren't expected to put up with a fraction of what women are, aren't expected to just suffer through crap situations, but to change them, and are usually given much more power to do so.
Do the non-atheists include people who don't state to be religious but merely spiritual in some ways? Because if so, I think there is truly nothing to be surprised about in regards to these statistics. I believe it's much more common for women to have, for example, a deeper contact with nature and non-human animals, it's also more common for women to do things like meditate, do yoga, all practices that can have deep links to a spiritual experience of life in general, which has nothing to do with religion.
However, if this has ONLY to do with actual religion institutions, then I would also be wondering why... Tell us more about these statistics please!
Only 3% of Americans are prepared to identify as atheist (in the UK around 37% of the population are atheist.)
This suggests that social conformity is the issue, and its most likely to be men who feel safe about declaring a socially unacceptable identity.
At the same time American women are more likely than men to be TRAs.
Being a TRA is to conform socially, especially for people on the left. Social conformity has to do with fitting in with a group, which is why there are so few people on the left who are willing to speak out against trans madness, but plenty of people on the right.
Women being higher in social conformity than men is pretty well-supported in social psychology as far as I know. American women are probably also more likely to be on the left than American men (I’m guessing) which adds another layer to the explanation.