Sharing Contempt with the Atheists

Atheist publications aren’t all bad. The Newsletter of the Secular Humanist Society of New York published the results of an interesting study:

• Benoit Monin, a psychologist at Stanford, has studied anticipated reproach in a number of fascinating experiments. His essential findings: The more we feel as though good people might be judging us, the lower they tend to fall in our regard. As he explains in a recent paper, “overtly moral behavior can elicit annoyance and ridicule rather than admiration and respect” when we feel threatened by someone else’s high ethical standards. (PIQUE, Sept, 2011)

Ironically, atheists believe that this explains the contempt directed against them as “moral crusaders.” However, I think that this partially explains the contempt we experience as Christians. I guess we share a lot with the atheists?