Bruce E. Hunsberger (1946-2003) was professor of psychology at Wilfred Laurier University and the winner of the William James Award from the American Psychological Association for outstanding research in religion. Bob Altemeyer (Winnipeg, Canada) is associate professor of psychology at the University of Manitoba and the recipient of the Prize in Behavioral Science Research from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Altemeyer and Hunsberger are the coauthors of Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith and Others Abandon Religion.
Description
Introduction; How We Studies Atheists; Are the "Atheists" Really Atheists?; How Do People Become Atheists?; Dogmatism; Zealotry; Religious Ethnocentrism; Other Findings; Summary and Predictions About "Ordinary" American Atheists; Agnostics and Inactive Believers in the Manitoba Parent Sample; Responses from Members of the Atheist Organisations We Surveyed; Index.
""Who are the atheists? What sustains them? The authors have opened the door to scientific research in this area in a meticulous and very engaging way. Once you start reading this book you won't want to put it down! The reader is in for a surprise (an interesting one) and a treat at every turn of a page." RAYMOND F. PALOUTZIAN Professor of Psychology, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA Editor, The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion "This slender, conversational, but methodologically sound treatise on the inner world of atheists will pleasantly surprise readers accustomed to the soporific 'academese' of most sociological studies...The study is limited in scope, but the flaws are so forthrightly acknowledged and the writing is so fresh, honest, compelling and entertaining, that it is bound to become an important launching point for more studies of what makes atheists tick." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY