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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

in response to your line 'So are atheists actually less trustworthy? I’d guess that they are, but that the difference is less than people think.' I'd like to point you to some research that shows that atheists are actually MORE trustworthy because we do not have a blessing once a week to remove all our sins and make everything ok. Nor do we have the fallback of saying after we hurt someone 'oh well i guess it was gods will' Atheists live with their faults and deal with them. While religious people go and confess and be absolved of all their guilt. Not to mention that if you really believe in heaven then what does it matter what you do or dont do here if your just going to be absolved of all your sins just because you picked the right religion? Go kill someone and then confess and you will still get into heaven... you will have eternity to make up for it! If your an atheist on the other hand, you just have this life and have to make the best of it. No do overs...

http://www.livescience.com/...

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Basically (for religious individuals) religious status is used as a substitute for reputation for those outside of ones social sphere. Non religious individuals seek other status based predictors of reputation.

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