Even Atheists don't trust Atheists?

From the "Another amaaaazing study!" department, another amazing study.

A unusual social study has revealed that atheists are more easily suspected of vile deeds than Christians, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists -- strikingly, even by fellow atheists, researchers said Monday.
This suggests that in an increasingly secular world, many -- including some atheists -- still hold the view that people will do bad things unless they fear punishment from all-seeing gods.
The results of the study "show that across the world, religious belief is intuitively viewed as a necessary safeguard against the temptations of grossly immoral conduct," an international team wrote in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
And it revealed that "atheists are broadly perceived as potentially morally depraved and dangerous."

Myself, I would not go so far as "morally depraved and dangerous" but I might extend to "deluded and extensively disinformed try-hards."

The thing I notice most about "professional" atheists these days is that they don't dismiss God. A proper atheist is somebody for whom God is not an issue, because they don't believe in

God. The same way that ghosts are not an issue for me, because I don't believe in ghosts. If other people do, that's their problem.

Lately, atheist leaders actively and loudly DIS-believe in God. That's not the same thing at all. They -hate- God, and they want to fight you about it. They want to run around and dismantle all the churches, temples and what have you. People can't be allowed to believe in God. (Except Mooselimbs, see Dawkins.)

Its a little religion, really. The religion of "God is Bad!!!" The ultimate in Leftist retardation. Impossible even to lampoon, due to being too ridiculous already.

And they wonder why nobody likes them.

The Phantom

Update: The AFP link at the top died, here's a couple more: The Guardian, the BBC, the original article in Nature.