Atheist-Prejudice in India as Related to Religiosity

Abstract

This study highlights the levels of Anti-atheist prejudice in relationship to religiosity in Indian population. Religiosity is the state of being religious, having a belief in God or higher power and is inclusive of institutional practices or rituals together with a commitment to organized religion. Anti-atheist prejudice is the negative attitude towards people who do not believe in God which is inclusive of attitudes like perceived immorality, untrustworthy and even criminal intent. This study has incorporated the use of standardised questionnaires of ‘Dimensions of Religiosity Scale’ to measure religiosity; and ‘Negative attitude towards Atheist Scale’ and ‘Atheist Negativity Scale’ to measure anti-atheist prejudice in people of Indian nationality (N=166) gathered with use of convenience and snowball sampling. A significant positive relationship was found between anti-atheist prejudice and domains of religiosity in Indian population. Religiosity along with its dimensions of Pre-occupation, Conviction, Emotional Involvement and Guidance, have also found to be significant predictors of anti-atheist prejudice. This paper can support the findings done by researches in the western countries wherein the relationship between religiosity and anti-atheist prejudice have been explored and has replicated similar results in the Indian setting.