Are there more male atheists than female atheists? As my school’s resident Obnoxious Atheist and a member of Prob/Stats class, I “proved” that there were more guys willing to call themselves atheists than gals. Was this a statistical anamoly?
Are guy teenagers more likely to rebel agaist their parent’s church or something?
The closest information I can find on google is this article, which mentions a study conducted by the International Social Survey Program (whatever that is). The article states that the only factor that correlated with atheism in the study was gender, with men more likely have atheistic beliefs.
How’d ya do that? Just a small sample?
IME, you do get more guy atheists than girl atheists, but my experience is somewhat limited.
I’ve also noticed more guy atheists, but most females I’ve met haven’t been religious/nonreligious in any way I knew.
So maybe the male atheists are more overt about it?
The perevious posters are correct. Males are generally more willing to advertise their beliefs, whereas females are less likely to admit to being in a minority so publically. This isn’t to say there are fewer female athiests, it just says they don’t go around yelling it.
Well you admitted to being an Obnoxious Atheist, and maybe that’s part of it. Guys are perhaps more likely to hang out and listen to their Obnoxious Atheist buddy. But I think it may be part of the rebellious tendency where the male tries to branch out on his own and redefine himself. But you are seeing more and more women thinking “outside of the box” these days, so it may balance out after a while.
Besides, it’s fun to be a cocky bastard, and admit it, a lot of Atheists are. That’s not an insult, I’m a cocky bastard Christian, and most Christians don’t get along with me because of it, go figure. Church community my ass.
That’s interesting. I had never considered that there is a gender component to atheism. My personal experience seems to indicate that I know more godless women than men. But none of the atheists I know are particularly vocal about their beliefs. In fact, I only know a handful of people whom I would not consider atheist or at least agnostic (outside my family.)
So perhaps there are more vocal male atheists out there, but I’d be surprised to learn that there is a demonstrable gender component to atheism. I’m not saying it’s impossible; I certainly could find reasons for that being so. It just goes against my experience.
The reverse certainly seems to be true - the single women at my church are always complaining that all the good, Christian men are taken…
Gb