If atheists are amoral due to their lack of belief in a god or gods?

Question

or refusal to follow a religion, why is the prison population of atheists (in US prisons) disproportional to the atheist population among citizens?

And it is glaring. .209% (209 one thousandths of 1 percent) of the prison population is atheist. While, over 8% to 14% of the US population is atheist!

Sources:
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0193644.html
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/129492.htm

Answer 1

I think it's because atheists more often recognize the consequences of their actions and don't rely on a 'god' to absolve them of responsibility for things that happen in their life or decisions they make.

Answer 2

When I answered a question about what agnosticism is, I was given this helpful information by the Asker. He explained that agnosticism is a matter of knowing and admitting to ignorance regarding the answer to this question - Does existence have intention or not? "Everyone else is ignorant when it comes to that question - some just don't know it - and some (mostly atheist) are such know-it-alls that they can't seem to accept their own ignorance." Those are his words, not mine! This would mean, then, that you are either an atheist or an agnostic, because to say you don't know if existence has 'intention' or not is quite different to all the atheists who DO proclaim that existence has no 'intention'. They say that existence is just random chance and meaningless in itself. So they have made their mind up on that matter. An agnostic could only go so far as to say that they don't know whether existence has meaning / purpose or not.

Answer 3

The first thing most atheists do when they go to prison is: they except some from of GOD to fit in. Other wise the other groups will beat the hell out of them. So your percents are not really true, and are much higher than they appear to be. How may of these converted atheists stay converted once out of prison: that is the question I ask?

Answer 4

Check out this link. Now this is logic.

"There is no sociologically valid basis for comparing "theists to nontheists" with regards to incarceration rates (or any other sociological measure) because "theists" do not constitute an identifiable social group. The fact that non-practicing (functionally nonreligious) people are highly over-represented among prisoners is a separate issue, apart from questions relating to belief and philosophical position.
To consider incarceration rates of "atheists" vs. "theists" is like comparing Hispanics to non-Hispanics. While it may be possible to group figures that way, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do so. Non-Hispanics are better broken down into Asians, African-Americans and Whites (if one doesn't further break them down by other factors such as age, education, etc.) Likewise, it makes no sense to group all non-atheists together, as if Amish, Muslims, Quakers, Baha'is, Hindus, Presbyterians, Orthodox Jews, Baptists, Deists, Lutherans, Unitarians, Rastafarians, Wiccans, etc., all exhibited similar behavior. Obviously some of these groups exhibit relatively little criminal behavior, while others would exhibit relatively more criminal behavior. Certain crimes are more prevalent among certain groups. 85% of Americans cite a specific religious affiliation. So if you combine figures for people of all religious affiliations you get essentially the same figure that you would get for the whole U.S. population. The figure would only be different if essentially all religious groups were skewed in one direction, which they are not."

"There is no monolithic group of "theists." This is a term that describes a philosophical position (as identified by atheists), not a self-identifying group of people. People may congregate with other Catholics, other Muslims, other hockey fans at a sports event, other Stephen King fans at a book club, other mothers at a play group, other gays at a bar, etc. but "theists" do not come together as a single group, and do not exhibit an identifiable pattern of social behavior. Likewise, atheists are not a monolithic group, and most atheists are not formally affiliated with any organization based on their atheism. Like theists, atheists are found among all races, ages, levels of income, religions, etc., and those factors are going to correlate far more readily to statistically predictable patterns of social behavior, including levels of incarceration."

Answer 5

I agree that atheism doesn't equal immorality, but I think the prison statistics are skewed.

Prison chaplains have a great deal of influence over determining whether someone's sentence is shortened for "good behavior."

An atheist who wants a short sentence and isn't averse to lying would likely claim to be a Christian to try to take advantage of the chaplain.

Additionally, adopting strong religious beliefs is encouraged in prison.

Answer 6

I think the only reason why the religious right think all atheists are amoral is because both words start with the same letter. That's the only connection I can see.

Answer 7

i believe that this goes to prove and prove vary well that religion or lack thereof has nothing to do with criminal tendency's.
in reality, if a religious person wants to commit a crime they do, just like how lack of religion does not deter atheists to do the right and kind thing.

Answer 8

In all fairness (though I agree with you completely) the only reason Christians think atheists are immoral are because they're ignorant and are told such nonsense by their ministers and pastors.

Surely if a Christian refrains from murder and rape to escape hell while the atheist refrains simply because its wrong, we're not AS moral - we're more moral.

Answer 9

Too true. I work in the non-profit sector... and most of the people I meet while networking, etc. are agnostic or atheist. The Christians tend to work only for Christian mission related non-profits. Atheists have strong moral compasses.

Answer 10

Very good point.

When a Christian commits a crime and goes to jail, he's either "a forgiven sinner" who's "made a mistake," or not a "real" Christian.

An atheist, on the other hand, already stands guilty to potential crimes that they haven't even committed in the eyes of Christians.