Date of Graduation

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

Committee Chair

Corey Colyer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religious dogmatism and support for civil liberties of atheists and homosexuals. Utilizing data from the 2002 GSS, the assertions of the theory of religious dogmatism (Jelen & Wilcox 1990) were tested by utilizing three increasing measure of religiosity: religious preference, church attendance, and Biblical perception in predicting support for atheist and homosexual civil liberties. The results support the notion of religious dogmatism as influencing acceptance of nonconformist civil liberties, with Biblical perception being the most potent predictor. Additional findings indicate education as a significant predictor of support for civil liberties, while blacks are shown less supportive of atheist civil liberties than whites, and females more supportive of homosexual civil liberties than males. The results indicate that the theory of religious dogmatism can apply to demographic groups other than White Christians.

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