I don't normally post long serious posts, but this upset me. It's a study that finds that a significant number of people place atheists at the same level of trustworthiness as rapists.

	The vast majority, in fact, to the best of my knowledge, all my religious friends, whether they're Protestant, Catholic, Shia, Sunni, Sikh, Jewish, Jain, Buddhist or Hindu, or any other, are good, trustworthy people whose faith gives them comfort in bad times and inspiration in good times. They are fundamentally decent people who act in fundamentally decent ways.

	But anyone who believes that atheists are less likely to be trustworthy because they aren't afraid of divine retribution is not a good person. Anyone who believes this is a bad person, motivated by fear of retribution and greed for a reward, mirroring this inner malevolance onto others and being afraid of people who don't believe in the same system of reward and retribution.

	So if your faith gives you strength, and comfort, and inspiration, then I'm proud to know you and count you as a friend. I trust you and I hope you trust me. I know that you, like me, are occasionally tempted not to do what's morally right. You resist most of the time, but occasionally you'll fall, and you'll feel bad about it, and you'll do your best to make amends, not because you're afraid of someone or something, but because it's The Right Thing To Do.

	But if you fear me because your faith is all that stands between you and taking whatever you want, and you're afraid that I don't have the same barrier as you, then come down off your high horse, come down and be damned through all the ages as a sociopath who is motivated by only fear and greed; a thief waiting for the lights to go out; a schoolyard bully who only acts when the adult isn't looking; a criminal waiting for someone to whisper in your ear and say "that person doesn't *deserve* what they have as much as you do, that person is less than human, that person is a valid target."

But I don't know people like that.

I hope.