I believe that terror management theory explains the antipathy toward atheists. If a person is dealing with their fear of death with religion, my assertion that faith is a delusion results in extreme cognitive dissonance and negative emotional reactions.
Atheists are a minority, and religionists are a majority. The strong feelings of the latter are going to outnumber the feelings of the former. The former has quite a bit of social advantage, though, and large portions of both sides of the line are doing as much as they can to denigrate and marginalize the other. That only contributes to the divisiveness. I would suggest approaching the issue without trying to assert that the other side is mentally deficient.
Hoops wrote:and you're wondering why atheists are disliked?
What are you getting at?
when believers want to give their claims more weight, they dress these claims up in scientific terms. When believers want to belittle atheism or secular humanism, they call it a "religion". -Beastie
yesterday's Mormon doctrine is today's Mormon folklore.-Buffalo
