Although on the one hand we nonreligious types don’t like to do what we’re told by a skydaddy god that we’ve made up ourselves in our gullible past, on the other hand, we do like to believe what we’re told by experts in the know who have used evidence and rationality to substantiate their conclusions.
It’s called sound epistemology.
So this comes as no surprise.
USA Today reports:
Carr, 55, now considers herself an atheist, part of a growing but misunderstood group that according to a recent Pew Research Center survey has the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 compared to its religious counterparts, some of whom harbor serious doubts about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines despite data indicating otherwise.
Nine in 10 Americans identifying as an atheist report being at least been partially vaccinated against the virus, according to the survey of more than 10,000 adults conducted in late August. The number was higher than the 86% of Hispanic Catholics, and 82% of Catholics overall, who reported the same.
And it was notably more than Protestants, including 73% of white non-evangelicals, 70% of Black Protestants and just 57 percent of white evangelicals.
Among agnostics, the rate was 84%.
“Part of the core of our life stance is trusting in science and reason, and making decisions based on evidence,” said Carr, who serves as deputy director of the American Humanist Association, based in Washington, D.C., and who recently received a COVID-19 booster shot. “That, coupled with our belief in the importance of compassion, is why I think we’re vaccinated at a higher rate than the typical population.
“We know the rates of vaccinated people versus unvaccinated people hospitalized due to COVID, and we trust that science.”
Anjan Chakravartty,a philosophy professor who focuses on atheism and secular ethics at the University of Miami, said that atheists were the most highly vaccinated group was “fascinating, but not surprising.”
Because self-identifying as an atheist involves questioning whether belief in religious dogma is rational and what might instead make more sense, “it’s very common for atheists and humanists… to have a very high regard for scientific investigation,” he said. “It’s hardly surprising that atheists, as a group, would be especially serious about following the advice of our best science.”
The rest of the article makes for some interesting reading regarding the cultural differences between atheists (and humanists) and the religious.
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