US ambassador killed over a film

[Kevin]

But, again, I would be cautious in equating a link between atheism and suicide without investigating additional factors. For example, other things that might contribute to isolation, such as their profession, IQ, work habit, etcetera. It just might be that a person who is in the high suicide risk population would be there due to their high IQ, and thereby may have fewer friends who understand them. Or, it may be a contributing factor in that their may be few non-religious venues for help. Is the problem then the individuals marginalizing choice, or society's lack of equal access to counseling services?

Don't forget to factor that religiously unaffiliated individuals are often marginalized by religious people. That may be stating things too strongly, but there are plenty of religious people out there who will not date an unaffiliated person (make a fake profile on a dating site and you can see this affect fairly clearly by how members who list a religion respond to those who list agnostic, atheist, or pref not to say). This affect is likely not really any different than what any other minority feels, and the higher rates in the study may all be accounted for by that, I don't have the time to look that up.

It can be very difficult for a non religious person at times, they can feel like they are being looked down upon and persecuted. The need of many religious people to try and "save" them can also put other pressures on them. Turning on the radio or TV and hearing the admittedly blowhards that dominate talk radio these days still using phrases like "ignorant godless heathens" a phrase I heard twice, on different stations, from different people (Glen Beck and I don't know who the other guy was) when I was just channel surfing on a long trip.

Some of those negative traits listed in the study could very easily go "poof" if non religious folks weren't a minority that the majority often felt needed to be saved.