Only 45% of people hate me! YAY!

I just read an article about the Pope coming to visit the US, and the general perception/attitude towards Catholics in America. The article discusses various religious groups and our country's positive or negative views of these groups, and quantifies these positive and negative views. This is all based upon a Gallup Poll.

The point the article was making is that, overall, American's have a positive opinion of Catholics. Short version: 45% of people have a positive view of Catholics. Only 13% have a negative view of them (and 41% are neutral). The net score is +32%.

For a more eloquent and detailed explanation of this check out the original article:

Americans Have Net-Positive View of U.S. Catholics

I bet Catholics are pretty happy about that score, in light of the various scandals and negative attention they get so often.

I on the other hand, am excited for a totally different reason.

I am an Atheist. As a group, we are not held in very high esteem by the general public. This article scores us at a net -32%. In fact our scores were the complete opposite of the Catholics (45% negative, 13% positive, 41% neutral). Usually we occupy the bottom rung of the ladder. I don't really understand why no one likes us, but for some reason we are disliked and distrusted. More so than anyone else.

Until now!

Thank you Scientology! Finally someone else is hated more than us. Of all the groups mentioned in this study, Scientology came in at the bottom (by a landslide) with a net approval of -45%.

I don't know very much about Scientology. I do not pretend to be an authority on this subject. Not in the least bit. But I am pretty sure this is a "religion" based on a book that was written by a science-fiction author back in the 1950s. They believe that unhappiness, evil, and mental illness are the result of painful memories that have been planted in our brains by space aliens. In order to achieve success and joy in this life, they have to "audit" themselves to remove the alien traumas. Don't ask me what they do in these auditing sessions. I think there are electronic devices involved. They might be using electro-shock therapy to get the people to give all of their money to the church, but I'm not certain of that. They also believe in a space confederation that is ruled by an alien named Xenu. I'm not sure if Xenu is worshiped or if he(it?) is regarded as evil. He might be their version of Satan. This is where I start to really not know what i'm talking about.

I don't know any more than that because I am unable to read any more detailed information about this "religion." I can't because that is the place where my brain shuts down and refuses to let me keep reading. It is a self defense mechanism. Like when the Department of Defense detects that a hacker has breached their security and is threatening their computer systems and gaining access to top secret intelligence. There are those loud alarms and flashing red lights and everything shuts down to minimize the damage (at least, this is what movies and my imagination have led me to believe happens there). It's just like that when I try to learn about Scientology. As soon as I get to the part about Xenu, my mind shuts down.

It seems so obvious to me that this all a whole lot crazier than Atheism. But I guess the rest of America just noticed that. As far as victories go, this is not a big one. But we will take what we can get. Fellow Atheists, join me in a resounding "WOO-HOO!"

And in this time of celebration, I think we should take a moment to thank Tom Cruise. Over the past several years, he has been behaving like a retarded lunatic, and he has been very public about it. I think this is the reason America finally noticed that the Scientologists are Bat-Shit crazy and that they deserve slightly more contempt than Atheists.