Time and time again you hear anti-atheist prejudice justified somewhere on the continuum between "you cannot be moral without religion" and "while not the only way, everyone knows that religion does foster morality." And yet what do you know:
(from this Pew survey; click above to enlarge)
Can I just say, for the record, that I am not even the slightest bit surprised?*
[UPDATE: Because I don't want you to have to go through all the data if you don't want to, lemme just sum up what I think are the most interesting parts: (1) 49% think torture is often or sometimes justified, compared to 47% who think it's rarely or never justified; however (2) those numbers go to 54–44, a torture-friendly majority, when you look only at people who go to church every week, whereas (3) the numbers go in the other direction, 42–53, an anti-torture majority, when you look at people who "seldom or never" attend religious services. In other words, a nonchurchgoer is more less likely to oppose torture than your average American (and than not), and a churchgoer is more likely to support it than your average American (and than not). Nice going, church!]
* Obviously these results are complicated somewhat by the fact that a lot of American churchgoers have allied themselves with the Republican Party because of religious issues (read abortion) and then feel disinclined to criticize anything the Republican Party does, no matter what it might be...but that in itself ought to tell you something about religion's supposed beneficial properties, moralitywise.
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