The Honors Platform
Vol I, Issue I, Spring 2013 21
all over the country, it is difficult to tell whether the difference in immigration attitudes is due to a rural/urban distinction or a Dutch/American distinction without controlling for place of birth (where students spent most of their time living). The differences in religious sentiments between the Dutch and Americans in my study support findings from past research on the subject. The low rating of Atheists and high rating of God by Americans in my study sustains the claim made by Edgell, Gerteis, and Hartmann (2006) that American society holds a negative view toward those who do not believe in a God. However, Americans in my study did not rate Atheists extremely poorly, especially when making comparisons to the ratings of other identities. I suspect that ratings for Atheists would have been lower had the Americans in my sample not actually read the “Atheists as Other� article as a class homework assignment a few weeks before I collected the data from them. This was a methodology issue not mentioned earlier. Also according to literature, there have been drops in Dutch church attendance and traditional Christian affiliation as well as a weakening in religious beliefs/attitudes over the past few decades, which reflect some of the findings in my study. But it is still difficult to explain Dutch students’ high regard for Atheists (Dutch ratings were not just simply higher than American, they were quite high objectively). Future research should investigate Atheism within the Dutch context. Is there a large portion of the Dutch population that endorses Atheism? If so, what societal trends in the past have lead to this outcome? On a final note, it would be useful and interesting to extend the samples of both nations to different age and social groups outside the realm of higher education.