NEW STUDY: Christians More Tolerant And Open-Minded Than Atheists

NEW STUDY: Christians More Tolerant And Open-Minded Than Atheists

The left has long claimed that people of faith are more close-minded and intolerant than atheists. A new study says that is not so. We all knew that, but someone actually put it in writing. It was conducted by Dr. Filip Uzarevic, a researcher at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. In his study, the exact opposite of current thought is the truth here… atheists tend to be less tolerant of differing opinions. No offense to atheists, but I have found that to be very true.

And I would go even further here to say that both atheists and Christians have those among them that are tolerant and intolerant, which this study bears out. Those of faith and particularly Christians, are taught to be tolerant and understanding. It is part of our faith and it is ingrained in our teachings. Slapping a label on either side though is judgmental and really, people should be evaluated individually on their tolerances and reactions to others. Otherwise, you risk pigeon-holing whole classes of individuals. That leads to very bad things. See Nazi Germany.

From TheBlaze:

A new study has upended long-held assumptions that religious people are more closed-minded and intolerant than atheists.

The study, conducted by Dr. Filip Uzarevic, a researcher at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, revealed that while atheists might consider themselves open-minded than religious folk, they are actually less tolerant of differing opinions.

“The main message of the study is that closed-mindedness is not necessarily found only among the religious,” Uzarevic told PsyPost.

Uzarevic’s analysis determined that religious believers “seem to better perceive and integrate diverging perspectives.” The study revealed, though, that the level of closed-mindedness depends on the issue at hand.

“The nonreligious compared to the religious seemed to be less closed-minded when it came to explicitly measured certainty in one’s beliefs,” he said. “However, and somewhat surprisingly, when it came to subtly-measured inclination to integrate views that were diverging and contrary to one’s own perspectives, it was the religious who showed more openness.”

“The idea started,” Uzarevic explained, “through noticing that, in public discourse, despite both the conservative/religious groups and liberal/secular groups showing strong animosity toward the opposite ideological side, somehow it was mostly the former who were often labeled as ‘closed-minded.’ Moreover,” he continued, “such view of the secular being more tolerant and open seemed to be dominant in the psychological literature.” You don’t think that’s by accident do you? The psychological arena has long been disposed to slamming Christians and labeling them as stupid, backward and evil. It’s a lie they have used forever to try and turn people away from others of faith and have them embrace only the here and now. To them, you are just a body and not a soul or a being.

The study also shows that how strongly a person’s belief in religion or atheism is directly impacts just how tolerant or intolerant they are. Researchers surveyed 788 adults from the United Kingdom, Spain and France. The majority of participants identified as atheists (302). The next largest group was Christians (255), then agnostics (143), Muslims (17), Buddhists (17) and Jews (3). Fifty-one described themselves as “other.” How sad is it that the majority are now atheists? The study was a Western European one… I wonder how it would pan out in the US.

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at NoisyRoom.net. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - trevorloudon.com. She also does research at KeyWiki.org. You can email Terresa here. NoisyRoom can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.

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