Jeff Newport can cite the Bible chapter and verse.

He went to Christian schools, attended church every Sunday and delivered his first sermon at 13.

In 1996, he was called to pastor a small Baptist church in Jesup with a congregation of about 30 for Sunday morning services.

Everything revolved around church, Newport said. We would not have even thought of missing a service unless we were ill. Family Bible reading and prayer were normal activities we never had a meal, even in public, for which we didnt say a blessing.

Today, though, the 46-year-old Savannah man considers himself a nonbeliever.

He lost faith in faith.

Its not easy being a nonbeliever or a skeptic in the Bible Belt South.

Move to a new city. Start a new job. Or meet a potential romantic interest.

One of the first things youre asked is: Where do you go to church?

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RELATED:Liberal or conservative? Religious outlook can blur the answer

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Religion is big in these parts. It can be the social center of a persons life. Often friendships are built within the walls of a sanctuary. Families worship together. Faith and where you worship not only give people a sense of believing but belonging.

Still, atheism (or at least the acknowledgment of it) appears to be on the rise though slightly.

Pews 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that 3.1 percent of American adults say they are atheists, up from 1.6 percent in a similarly large survey in 2007. An additional 4 percent of Americans call themselves agnostics, up from 2.4 percent in 2007.

The Washington, D.C.-basedSecular Coalition for America, for instance, boasts 29,000 people on its mailing list and more than 130,000 followers on its various social media accounts. Its followers include atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nonbelievers or those who arent sure of the presence of a higher spirit.

Thats an increase in 2016 of more than 5,000 new subscribers on their email list, more than 7,000 new Twitter followers and more than 10,000 Facebook likes.

Turning away

For Newport, it was a gradual change. For most of his early life, he never doubted the existence of God or the doctrines of Christianity.

The more he attempted to learn and weigh evidence pro and con, the more that faith began to unravel.

He left the Baptist ministry in 1999 and converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church. During his 12 years in this tradition, he gradually laid aside some of the dogmas of Christianity the reality of a literal hell, the inerrancy of the Bible, the exclusivity of Christianity as the only way to God, among others.

At the same time, he developed a love of science and the reliability of an evidence-based approach to find truth.

In 2012, he took a job that required work on Sundays. It gave him time and space to re-evaluate his faith. My faith couldnt stand up to this scrutiny. By the middle of 2014, I had quietly, but firmly, decided I no longer believed in God or the supernatural.

He has never approached the topic with his parents, who are dyed-in-the-wool Christians.

I think they would be disappointed, and would certainly worry about my soul if they knew I no longer believed, Newport said.

Newport is a member ofthe Clergy Project, which was formed in 2011 to create a safe and secure online community for former and current religious leaders who no longer believed in God. Many of the former pastors and church leaders prefer to remain anonymous, in part because of fear of being ostracized by family and friends. For pastors, stepping away from the pulpit can also mean loss of income.

The organization has more than 750 members in 34 countries.

Initially, all were from Christian backgrounds, but its members now include Muslims and Buddhists.

About a third of its members still serve in religious leadership positions, although they no longer believe in a higher power. It runs the gamut from more scientific stuff to more theological questions, said Drew Bekius, president of the Clergy Project. They see tragedy in the world, yet you see people claiming God just got them a parking space. So God will answer the prayer for a parking space while millions of people are in poverty?

For others, its more personal. Perhaps there was a personal heartbreak or death of a loved one. Perhaps they saw immense suffering and wondered how could God allow people to suffer?

A large part of it is that people are dissatisfied with the moral teachings of some of the religions they belong to, said Casey Brescia, a spokesman forSecular Coalition for America. For instance, a lot of people are turned off by their churchs position on LGBTQ equality. But also people are beginning to find community elsewhere. Churches dont play the same role in the community they used to. Its just a wide variety of factors.

He sees a growing number of younger Americans who eschew any religions, and that, he said, is a tectonic shift. That means that people are walking away from church and walking away from institutions that used to play such an important role.

In what has become an annual holiday tradition,American Atheistslaunches billboards nationwide urging viewers to celebrate an atheist Christmas by skipping church. Several of the locations in Southern states will be up later this year to promote the solar eclipse convention the atheists will host in Charleston, S.C., in August 2017.

It is important for people to know religion has nothing to do with being a good person, and that being open and honest about what you believe and dont believe is the best gift you can give during the holiday season, David Silverman, president of American Atheists, said in a release about the holiday billboard campaign.

Doubts and discomfort

Its hard to say how many atheists there are in the United States. Even the Pew Research Center has trouble giving an exact number. Why?

Its complicated.Some people who describe themselves as atheists also say they believe in God or a universal spirit, according to Pew. Conversely, some people who identify as Catholic, Protestant or Jewish also say they dont believe in God.

According to a survey by theAtheist Alliance International, most people who identify as atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, nonreligious or secularists are male, college-educated and more than a third are between the ages of 25 and 34.

Mandisa Thomas, the founder and president of theBlack Nonbelievers, a 3,000-member organization based in Atlanta, grew up in a black nationalist household.

In this age of information, she said, a lot of traditional notions are not holding up anymore. We are beginning to see the world is not right. Were told to just have faith or pray on it. Thats just not enough for people anymore.

Its especially hard for African-Americans, she said.

Religion is still so ingrained in the black identity that to openly state that one is atheist means that youre rejecting your race and culture.

Nonbelievers often talk about how uncomfortable it can be to navigate a world that can be largely faith-based.

You get a lot of unnecessary attention, and most of it is negative, said Deric McNealy, 28, a machine operator who lives in Jonesboro. People always try to come up and save you. They try to speak to you about God all the time or badger you, and that makes work very uncomfortable.

McNealy grew up in a Christian family that included church leaders.

He began to question things in the Bible at an early age.

As McNealy became older, he began to apply critical thought to all aspects of my life, and religion just happened to be one of the main things.

His family wasnt too happy.

I think its a lot easier today than in the past because of the internet, he said. In the past, there was no community, no communications for people who questioned their beliefs. Now we go online and link with like-minded individuals.

Atlantan Ross Llewallyn, who identifies as atheist, grew up in a Methodist household in Atlanta. I had a good time going to Sunday school and the service, said the 28-year-old software engineer. Over time, he began to think more about the presence of God.

I was always someone of science and reason and tried to be true and accurate in my understanding of the world, he said.

Take prayer, for instance. He was always told that before going to bed, he should get on his knees by the side of his bed and pray. He prayed for good things to happen to family, friends and himself. Soon he questioned whether he really needed to be on his knees. Why not just in bed? And why did he have to say his prayers aloud? Couldnt God just hear his thoughts? I started thinking more critically about things like that, he said.

EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY

Sunday may be the prominent day of worship in Atlanta, but thats changing as a growing number of other religions establish congregations in our global city. This is an occasional series that examines how religion impacts life in Atlanta. You can read the earlier entries in the series onmyajc.com.

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Every Day Is Sunday: As atheism rises, nonbelievers find one another - MyAJC

Sam Harris recently appeared in a one-on-one segment on Real Time With Bill Maher to discuss Donald Trumps immigration ban, which he criticized for being poorly executed and too sweeping, though he approves of the goal of keeping radicals out. Harris leviedhis familiar chargethat the Left is an ally of Islamism because of its mindless commitment to multiculturalism and tolerance, which hes been repeating since his 2004 book The End of Faith launched his career as an anti-religious crusader. These views were the basis of his highly publicized dust-up with Ben Affleck on the show in 2014.

Its telling that the alt-Right (read: white nationalist) website Breitbart posted an approving summary of Harris comments fromthisReal Time appearance. Long before Trumps travel ban, Harris was arguing that America should ethnically profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim at airport security. Recent events should compel atheists to assess the impact of these views, proudly promoted by their exalted public representatives. I, like many other atheists who were optimistic about this movements prospects when it came alive about ten years ago, have been dismayed by how willingly some of its members subordinate reason to blind ideology.

Soon after Alexandre Bissonnette murdered six people at a mosque in Quebec City it was reported that likes on his Facebook page included Donald Trump, French far-right politician Marine Le Pen, and atheist scientist Richard Dawkins. The immediate reaction was to point to the toxic effect nationalists like Trump and Le Pen are having on our political culture, now materialized to tragic effect in what appears to be an ethnically motivated act of violence.

But these defenders of a white Christian vision of nationhood have found curious allies in celebrity atheists like Dawkins and Harris, who echo their paranoid views of Muslims to their ostensibly liberal supporters. Bissonnettes actions and personal likes highlight the weird entanglement of atheists, Christian neoconservatives and theocrats, and far-Right white nationalists, which is something reasonable atheists should reflect on very seriously.

Given the trajectory of their intensifying assault on Islamwhich is singled out as a uniquely barbaric religionit should not surprise us whenDawkins and Harris share admirers with the likes of Trump, Le Pen, and other nationalists who are leading a crescendo of ethnic tension. While Dawkins, Harris, and other New Atheists (most famously the late Christopher Hitchens, also one of Bissonnettes likes) have preached a secular gospel of scientific rationality and hostility toward religion, their harshest criticism has been reserved for Islam.

The ideological purity and relentlessly unthinking approach of people like Dawkins and Harris has resulted in disillusionment within the atheist community. Younger atheists who are intolerant of bigotry with respect to culture and identity have found Dawkins criticisms of feminism and his stereotypical depictions of Muslims as deranged religious fanatics unpalatable.

In January 2016, Dawkins was dropped (though eventually re-invited) as keynote speaker for the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism after backlash to his tweet promoting a proudly misogynistic and embarrassingly stupid YouTube video called Feminists Love Islamists. The incident highlighted the polarizing effect he has within the atheist community, which is struggling to stem a decline related to internal political tensions. The disappointing turnout for the 2016 Reason Rally in Washington, which failed to match the success of its 2012 predecessor, could only be considered a step backward for a movement with high aspirations.

But if atheists want to avoid fading back into irrelevance they would do well to consider what role they and their anointed leaders have played in the rise of a new global neo-fascist movement, which now countsthe President of the United States among its leaders. The escalating tensions reflected in Alexandre Bissonnettes terrorist attack show no signs of dissipating in a political climate where current and aspiring world leaders openly advocate racial discrimination. Atheists like Harris and Dawkins seem blissfully ignorant of the fact that the mass hysteria they have contributed to is precisely the effect that groups like ISIS are aiming for.

Harris and Dawkins claim that their issue is with the doctrines of Islam rather than with Muslims as people, but in practice they take little care to make a distinction, perhaps reflecting their general view that religion is a kind of mental parasite that takes control of its host. Whether intended or not, they have granted a veneer of intellectual legitimacy to ethnic nationalism and xenophobia. Harris has explicitly said that, in Europe, it is fascists who have the correct vision of how to deal with Muslims.

His general neoconservative position, like that of Christopher Hitchens, is representative of a wing of the movement that I call the atheist Rightthe mirror image of the Christian Rights militaristic nationalism and libertarianism. Atheists must consider whether the views of Muslims promoted by their most prominent representatives are helping or hurting the cause of secularism, given that anti-Muslim hysteria was so effectively harnessed by the Christian dominionists who have seized control of the American government through an uneasy alliance with a secular billionaire sociopath.

Thoughtful atheists have been pointing to the dangers of slipping into Islamophobia for some time, but the issue has reached a critical point in light of recent events. Many atheists see the likes of Dawkins and Harris as principled crusaders for science, reason, and a secular worldview. But to others their words can easily be heard as affirmations of intolerance and bigotry.

Theres no way to be certain of Alexandre Bissonnettes beliefs regarding religionashis Facebook likes included philosopher and Christian apologist William Lane Craig, along witha book entitled The Amorality of Atheism, in addition to the New Atheists. Its reasonable to suspect that Dawkins and Hitchens appealed to Bissonnette not because of their atheism per se, but more specifically, because of their hostility toward Islama possibility that should not inspire sighs of atheist relief.

Just as Pew Research Center reports that, in a little over 2 years, weve moved from cool to neutral on its scale of Americans feelings, atheists are faced with a stark moral and strategic imperative: they must confront the darkness within their midst and recognize that demonizing a group that constitutes over a billion individuals is a path to chaos. Trump and Bissonnette are both agents and effects of this chaos. No one would claim that Bissonnette was motivated to murder specifically by Dawkins words, but the persistence with which he and other New Atheists have uttered these words has contributed to the dismal present condition.

Advocating for reason and respect for science is a worthy cause in a world being torn apart by racism, nativism, and a corporate power structure that will destroy anything that stands in itsway. Its entirely reasonable to be concerned about religious extremism, but the most visible spokesmen of atheism are throwing fuel on the fire. The narrative of secularism must be rescued from those who would allow it to serve asa tool of fascism.

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Atheism's Dark Side Aiding the Trump Agenda - Religion Dispatches

Atheism is simply the opposite of theism. The prefix A means "without" or "not", so Atheism is simply a lack of belief in god(s). It is not a religion, just like theism is not a religion. Atheists are usually quite fond of life, since it is the only one we have.Theists if you think about it, need a god to make their existance make sense and to make them respect life.

That dog is an atheist. A new-born baby is an atheist. Most of the smartest people in the world are atheists. Coincidence?

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Soft and offensive. Just like you.

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Besides, just by being intolerant and judgemental of Atheists, you are sinning. 🙂

" 'To be godless is probably the first step towards innocence,' he said, 'to lose the sense of sin and subordination, the false grief for things supposed to be lost.' 'So by innocence you mean not an absense of experience, but an absense of illusions.' 'An absense of need for illusions,' he said. 'A love of and respect for what is right before your eyes.' " -Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat.

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Weak atheism is essentially the same as agnosticism]. It states that since we have no proof of a God, we cannot know for sure that one exists. Strong atheism states that since we live in a scientific world where the existence of things is determined solely by their observability, we cannot assume anything unobservable to exist. God isnt observable, therefore he doesnt exist (cf. Occams Razor). This doesn't mean that an atheist wouldn't WANT to believe in God, it merely means that he has no REASON to believe in it/him.

Strong atheists often question the special treatment weak atheists and theists give to religion. If they believe that the tooth fairy or Santa Claus do not exist, why are they willing to give God a benefit of the doubt?

Strong atheism is often equated with religion since it takes a strong stance on the issue. This is, however, fallacious. Religion is not based on rationality, and strong atheists value rationality over fantasy. Therefore atheism is not parallel with religion.

I do not follow atheism. I merely concur with it.

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Atheism Benefits: - Free on Sunday! - Get to focus on the now. - No guilt! - Can claim full responsibility for life's achievments. Drawbacks: - No afterlife. 🙁 - Must take responsibility for life's failures. Dang!

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A lack of beleif in God.

"I am an atheist because I do not beleive any gods exist. That's all that makes me an atheist."

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Atheism doesn't hold any answers to life's big questions. It won't tell you the meaning of life and it won't tell you how it all started. It's not a religion, not a philosophy, not a way of life. Atheism is quite simply *non-belief*.

Atheism isn't about answers. It's not really about anything, actually.

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Common sense. Some one who doesnt believe in magic or propaganda, is backed up by science and logic, and figures that god doesnt do have the shit he tells us to do.

(God starts holocaust)

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Urban Dictionary: atheism

Pope Francis is lashing out at Catholics who live what he called a double life by not practicing Christian values. He even suggested that atheists might be better than members of the faithful who dont practice the tenets of their faith.

According to a transcript posted online by Vatican Radio, the pontiff called it a scandalduring his morning mass on Thursday:

Scandal is saying one thing and doing another; it is a double life, a double life. A totally double life: I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian, I dont pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my business, I launder money A double life.

The pontiff said many Christians were living this double life.

How many times have we heard all of us, around the neighborhood and elsewhere but to be a Catholic like that, its better to be an atheist, he said.

He gave an example of a Christian boss taking a vacation as his workers went unpaid -- and issued a stern warning about where that will lead.

You will arrive in heaven and you will knock at the gate: Here I am, Lord! But dont you remember? I went to Church, I was close to you, I belong to this association, I did this Dont you remember all the offerings I made? Yes, I remember. The offerings, I remember them: All dirty. All stolen from the poor. I dont know you. That will be Jesus response to these scandalous people who live a double life.

He then called on Catholics to examine themselves.

Francis has addressed atheism in the past, and in 2013 he seemed to suggest they may have a path toward Christian salvation.

A church official later clarified that those who reject Christ cannot be saved, but added that therejection of Christianity may not mean the rejection of Christ.

We can never say with ultimate certainty whether a non-Christian who has rejected Christianity... is still following the temporary path mapped out for his own salvation which is leading him to an encounter with God,Rev. Thomas Rosica wrote at the time.

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Pope Francis Slams Hypocrite Christians, Suggests Atheists Are Better - Huffington Post

Atheism or the absence of belief in deities has seen resurgence in recent times. It is most common is Western and Northern Europe where according to the 2010 Eurostat Eurobarometer Poll, only 51% of Europeans believed there was a God, while another 26% believed there was some sort of spirit or life force. 20% respondents claimed they neither believed in God or other spirits and forces. Individual countries had more extreme results with 40% of French citizens and 37% of Czech Republic residents claiming to be atheists or religiously unaffiliated.

Atheism and disaffection with organised religion is also evidenced in India these days where some people are renouncing organised religion and self- identifying either as outright atheists or non-religious. In fact, as per the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were not religious and 3% were convinced atheists while the remaining 3% were unsure how to respond.

Bangalore based author and educator Ketan Vaidya has been an atheist for over 20 years. I realized religion evolved in the early civilizations of hunter-gatherers as a shield against fear of natural vagaries and bigger beasts.

Later Abrahamic religions fostered a sense of brotherhood and belonging. But I started feeling disconnected from organized religion around the time I was in 12th standard. Vaidya belongs to the very traditional Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu community and it was very difficult for his family to accept his new life as a 'non-believer'. However, with the passage of time they got used to it. Its probably because my atheism is not the vitriolic kind. I dont judge or shame others for believing. Infact, when my children are old enough, I will introduce them to atheist thinking and let them decide for themselves, says Vaidya.

Mumbai based writer Fairy Dharawat who is also an atheist, concurs, I think atheism gets a bad rap due to some very aggressive atheists who try to drown out the arguments of believers. I believe in a live and let live approach. Infact, I sometimes participate in small rituals and ceremonies to keep peace in the family. Fairy moved away from religion because she was disturbed by the bloodshed caused in the name of God. She also finds several religious practices rather inexplicable. Why should I fast? Why would God want me to go hungry? If there is a God, shouldnt he be more concerned about solving bigger problems like global warming, hunger and poverty, she wonders.

Psychologist Deepak Kashya explains, A lot of educated Indians are beginning to see through the tactics of so called Godmen who use religion to control peoples lifestyles. This ability to identify religious hypocrisy makes people question their own belief systems. Freedom of thought and expression is important to modern educated Indians and often this manifests in their departure from ritualism and religious practices that they dont find relevant anymore, says Kashyap.

But there are many other Indians who havent completely disconnected from religion and yet understand why atheism is becoming popular. There are so many wars being fought in the name of religion. While there are terror groups and religious extremists killing and beheading people in the name of religion, closer home in India, we have seen political parties use religion as a trump card during elections to cultivate and sustain their vote banks.

Its no wonder people start feeling disconnected. Young people today dont want to be associated with something that is the reason for so much misery, explains 28 year old film exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi. However, Rathi is a believer and feels that if religion inspires people to become the best version of themselves, perhaps it still has relevance in the world. Im not overtly religious. I just have a small shrine in my house. Every morning I stand in front of it and express gratitude to my maker for giving me such a blessed and privileged life, he says.

Meanwhile, as per the Pew Research foundations Global Study 2012 spanning 230 countries, 16% of the world population is not affiliated with any religion. This was corroborated to an extent by the findings of the subsequent Gallup International poll of 2015 that covered 65 countries where 11% of respondents were convinced atheists.

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The belief in atheism - Daily News & Analysis

THURSDAY, FEB. 23, 2017, 3:15 P.M.

Among those testifying at this afternoons hearing on school standards:

Dave Greegor, a retired ecologist who long taught at the university level and worked with NASA on climate change, told the senators that omitting important facts is in effect lying. He said, This in my mind would be akin to addressing principles of physics and omitting gravity. He said, Fortunately the youth are way out in front. They arent going to be fooled by any omission of a few words. The earth is not a grand experiment. .. We dont get another shot at it.

Robert Compton of Midvale said he is opposed to the rule, and said schools have been unwilling to teach the evolution-creation controversy. Compton said, Idahos next-generation science standards are atheistic and based on materialism wherever they touch on the religious sphere. Thus promoting this bill does in fact favor the teaching of a religious position, materialistic atheism. .. Atheism has no valid source of moral values.

Of the first dozen people to testify this afternoon, Compton was the only one to take this position; all others urged approving the standards as-is, including sections on climate change.

John Segar, a recently retired fire director at the National Interagency Fire Center, said, I can tell you first-hand experience, I know what climate change is, I know what it looks like. He said, These university professors know a lot more about it than I do. . As a taxpayer, as a citizen, this stinks of censorship. He said schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra did a good job of ensuring the new standards were well vetted. This is a good package, he said.

Austin Hopkins, a scientist from Boise, said, I hope that you vote to support these standards as-is, with all the references to climate change. He said his interest and curiosity about science were sparked by an ecology class he took in his junior year at Centennial High School in Boise; now he has graduate degrees in science. He said, I think this is what we risk by not including these five standards, is hindering that spark.

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Testimony: 'Akin to omitting gravity,' 'Materialistic atheism,' 'What we risk' - The Spokesman-Review (blog)

Jeff Newport can cite the Bible chapter and verse.

He went to Christian schools, attended church every Sunday and delivered his first sermon at 13.

In 1996, he was called to pastor a small Baptist church in Jesup with a congregation of about 30 for Sunday morning services.

Everything revolved around church, Newport said. We would not have even thought of missing a service unless we were ill. Family Bible reading and prayer were normal activities we never had a meal, even in public, for which we didnt say a blessing.

Today, though, the 46-year-old Savannah man considers himself a nonbeliever.

He lost faith in faith.

Its not easy being a nonbeliever or a skeptic in the Bible Belt South.

Move to a new city. Start a new job. Or meet a potential romantic interest.

One of the first things youre asked is: Where do you go to church?

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Religion is big in these parts. It can be the social center of a persons life. Often friendships are built within the walls of a sanctuary. Families worship together. Faith and where you worship not only give people a sense of believing but belonging.

Still, atheism (or at least the acknowledgment of it) appears to be on the rise though slightly.

Pews 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that 3.1 percent of American adults say they are atheists, up from 1.6 percent in a similarly large survey in 2007. An additional 4 percent of Americans call themselves agnostics, up from 2.4 percent in 2007.

The Washington, D.C.-basedSecular Coalition for America, for instance, boasts 29,000 people on its mailing list and more than 130,000 followers on its various social media accounts. Its followers include atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nonbelievers or those who arent sure of the presence of a higher spirit.

Thats an increase in 2016 of more than 5,000 new subscribers on their email list, more than 7,000 new Twitter followers and more than 10,000 Facebook likes.

Turning away

For Newport, it was a gradual change. For most of his early life, he never doubted the existence of God or the doctrines of Christianity.

The more he attempted to learn and weigh evidence pro and con, the more that faith began to unravel.

He left the Baptist ministry in 1999 and converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church. During his 12 years in this tradition, he gradually laid aside some of the dogmas of Christianity the reality of a literal hell, the inerrancy of the Bible, the exclusivity of Christianity as the only way to God, among others.

At the same time, he developed a love of science and the reliability of an evidence-based approach to find truth.

In 2012, he took a job that required work on Sundays. It gave him time and space to re-evaluate his faith. My faith couldnt stand up to this scrutiny. By the middle of 2014, I had quietly, but firmly, decided I no longer believed in God or the supernatural.

He has never approached the topic with his parents, who are dyed-in-the-wool Christians.

I think they would be disappointed, and would certainly worry about my soul if they knew I no longer believed, Newport said.

Newport is a member ofthe Clergy Project, which was formed in 2011 to create a safe and secure online community for former and current religious leaders who no longer believed in God. Many of the former pastors and church leaders prefer to remain anonymous, in part because of fear of being ostracized by family and friends. For pastors, stepping away from the pulpit can also mean loss of income.

The organization has more than 750 members in 34 countries.

Initially, all were from Christian backgrounds, but its members now include Muslims and Buddhists.

About a third of its members still serve in religious leadership positions, although they no longer believe in a higher power. It runs the gamut from more scientific stuff to more theological questions, said Drew Bekius, president of the Clergy Project. They see tragedy in the world, yet you see people claiming God just got them a parking space. So God will answer the prayer for a parking space while millions of people are in poverty?

For others, its more personal. Perhaps there was a personal heartbreak or death of a loved one. Perhaps they saw immense suffering and wondered how could God allow people to suffer?

A large part of it is that people are dissatisfied with the moral teachings of some of the religions they belong to, said Casey Brescia, a spokesman forSecular Coalition for America. For instance, a lot of people are turned off by their churchs position on LGBTQ equality. But also people are beginning to find community elsewhere. Churches dont play the same role in the community they used to. Its just a wide variety of factors.

He sees a growing number of younger Americans who eschew any religions, and that, he said, is a tectonic shift. That means that people are walking away from church and walking away from institutions that used to play such an important role.

In what has become an annual holiday tradition,American Atheistslaunches billboards nationwide urging viewers to celebrate an atheist Christmas by skipping church. Several of the locations in Southern states will be up later this year to promote the solar eclipse convention the atheists will host in Charleston, S.C., in August 2017.

It is important for people to know religion has nothing to do with being a good person, and that being open and honest about what you believe and dont believe is the best gift you can give during the holiday season, David Silverman, president of American Atheists, said in a release about the holiday billboard campaign.

Doubts and discomfort

Its hard to say how many atheists there are in the United States. Even the Pew Research Center has trouble giving an exact number. Why?

Its complicated.Some people who describe themselves as atheists also say they believe in God or a universal spirit, according to Pew. Conversely, some people who identify as Catholic, Protestant or Jewish also say they dont believe in God.

According to a survey by theAtheist Alliance International, most people who identify as atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, nonreligious or secularists are male, college-educated and more than a third are between the ages of 25 and 34.

Mandisa Thomas, the founder and president of theBlack Nonbelievers, a 3,000-member organization based in Atlanta, grew up in a black nationalist household.

In this age of information, she said, a lot of traditional notions are not holding up anymore. We are beginning to see the world is not right. Were told to just have faith or pray on it. Thats just not enough for people anymore.

Its especially hard for African-Americans, she said.

Religion is still so ingrained in the black identity that to openly state that one is atheist means that youre rejecting your race and culture.

Nonbelievers often talk about how uncomfortable it can be to navigate a world that can be largely faith-based.

You get a lot of unnecessary attention, and most of it is negative, said Deric McNealy, 28, a machine operator who lives in Jonesboro. People always try to come up and save you. They try to speak to you about God all the time or badger you, and that makes work very uncomfortable.

McNealy grew up in a Christian family that included church leaders.

He began to question things in the Bible at an early age.

As McNealy became older, he began to apply critical thought to all aspects of my life, and religion just happened to be one of the main things.

His family wasnt too happy.

I think its a lot easier today than in the past because of the internet, he said. In the past, there was no community, no communications for people who questioned their beliefs. Now we go online and link with like-minded individuals.

Atlantan Ross Llewallyn, who identifies as atheist, grew up in a Methodist household in Atlanta. I had a good time going to Sunday school and the service, said the 28-year-old software engineer. Over time, he began to think more about the presence of God.

I was always someone of science and reason and tried to be true and accurate in my understanding of the world, he said.

Take prayer, for instance. He was always told that before going to bed, he should get on his knees by the side of his bed and pray. He prayed for good things to happen to family, friends and himself. Soon he questioned whether he really needed to be on his knees. Why not just in bed? And why did he have to say his prayers aloud? Couldnt God just hear his thoughts? I started thinking more critically about things like that, he said.

EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY

Sunday may be the prominent day of worship in Atlanta, but thats changing as a growing number of other religions establish congregations in our global city. This is an occasional series that examines how religion impacts life in Atlanta. You can read the earlier entries in the series onmyajc.com.

Originally posted here:

As atheism rises, nonbelievers find one another - MyAJC

The Pew Research Center

A

There are a multitude of websites aimed at an atheist audience.Many tend to follow the same lines, talking about problems of religion in society as well as attacking religious apologetics.These sites are tremendously popular, as many atheists were brought up in a religion and have some amount of animosity towards what they see as a repressive ideology that did them harm in the past.Atheists are by no means limited to religious talk, however.A number of sites are devoted to atheist political action, most of which promulgate a highly progressive political agenda.

Many atheists seek to do more online than read someone elses arguments, advice, or calls to action though.As with almost all media endeavors in the modern world, consumers want lots of content and lots of interaction.One of the most popular places on the internet for users to interact is Reddit.While there are numerous subreddits for atheists, skeptics, agnostics, and the like, the top dog is the /r/atheism subreddit. Currently with about 2 million subscribers, it is in the top 100 subreddits (

Some, who are willing to broadcast their atheism to the world, are able to reach hundreds of thousands.There are over 1,000 religious radio stations in the U.S. but I was able to find no atheist stations, and a very small number of broadcast atheist themed shows.That does not mean, of course, that there are no atheists in radio, but rather that a new niche has been created and populated very well, in online atheist radio and podcasts.Some of the most prominent atheists in the world, including Sam Harris, have a weekly podcast, but there are hundreds of others done on different aspects of atheism.Examples include

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Thomas Smith about his take on the online atheist community.Thomas told me that through his podcasting and online activity he has been able to develop meaningful relationships with others.He believes that the internet has provided a place where atheists can congregate without needing to physically go to any location, allowing the scattered atheist community to support each other. The internet is certainly a boon to any minority group, and atheist demographics, which skew young, white, and male, are also some of the biggest internet users.Thomas recently changed the name of his main podcast from Atheistically Speaking to Serious Inquiries Only, a step he said came in part from losing guests because of the societal stigma attached to the word atheist.He says that after the name change he had numerous people tell him they loved it, because now they could share the podcast with friends and family without outing themselves as atheists.

This societal stigma is certainly part of the reason atheists seem so drawn to internet interactions.Anonymity, or at least the safety of separation from those around you, provides the ability to truly speak ones mind.For atheists that means declaring their atheism.For atheists in some parts of the world that anonymity could literally be a matter of life and death, as there are

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Atheists Online: -How Atheists Grew An Active Internet Community ... - Conatus News

An atheist middle school teacher is under investigation by her Florida school district after she posted a complaint about her students calling them little cretins whove bullied and harassed her over her beliefs on a private Facebook page that was screen-grabbed and made public.

Susan Creamer, a teacher at Merritt Brown Middle School in Panama City, had sought advice from the Atheists of Bay County, writing that a bevy of boys in one of my classes are taking turns either inviting me to church or leaving (anonymously) flyers inviting me to church events.

She added in the post: Every time any child sneezes, they loudly say God Bless You! and look in my direction. I have complained twice to the principal once last month and once today. She has spoken privately to one or two of the little cretins, but it seems to do NO GOOD. I am feeling bullied and harassed. It has become intolerable. I dont feel like talking with the parents will stop the inappropriate behaviors because, for all I know, the parents are encouraging them.

Creamer on Monday did not immediately respond to TheBlazes request for comment.

Karen Tucker of Bay District Schools told the Northwest Florida Daily News its against school policy to criticize students either in person or online and that Human Resources is investigating and examining the Facebook post in question, as well as other comments from Creamer on the Atheists of Bay County page.

Tucker added to the paper that writing disparaging remarks about students even on a closed Facebook page is a violation of school policy.

I dont think it matters [if the page is closed], because eventually someone else is going to see it posted, which is what happened, she told the Daily News. People were re-posting. If you said things on there, which she did, about students, no, I dont think it matters.

Tucker also noted relevant Bay District Schools policy to the paper: Teachers are encouraged and trained to keep clear boundaries between their personal and professional lives to ensure that the classroom remains a neutral and supportive environment. This training and related School Board policy includes guidelines for interactions on all social media platforms including, but not limited to, Facebook. We do not condone the use of disparaging comments about our students in any form, on any social media platform or in any school.

If the investigation concludes that Creamer violated the policy, Tucker told the Daily News she could be disciplined.

Nick Fish, national program director of American Atheists, told TheBlaze that if Creamer discussed principles of atheism in class, that could potentially be an issue. For example, saying in class that all religions are wrong or insulting believers would be impermissible. But that doesnt appear to be what has happened here. Simply indicating that she is an atheist isnt inappropriate.

Fish added that its frustrating that the administration hasnt handled this or given support to the teacher and that Creamer instead is being investigated: It certainly speaks to the stigma faced by atheists that a teacher can be harassed by students over her religious beliefs, or lack thereof.

Jeromy Henderson, a member of the Atheists of Bay County page, told the Daily News the districts investigation has turned into a modern-day witch hunt. He acknowledged that Creamers comments were off-putting, but she was just looking for advice about how to deal with them. Shed already been to her principal and was not getting results.

Henderson added to the paper that Creamers comments were made public by a group member who took a screen shot of her comments and then left the group.

Crystal Moseley wrote a letter to school superintendent Bill Husfelt, the Daily News reported, noting that Creamer should not be discussing her religious preferences (or lack thereof) with any of these students. Had she not been proudly boasting of her atheism these children would not know of her personal beliefs and I would not be addressing this situation. Secondly, as an adult in a professional occupation her choice of words to describe her students is completely unprofessional and completely out of line. Third, for her to seek out suggestions from a group on social media of how to handle her students (my children) has me outraged

Rebecca Warfield told TheBlaze that Creamer taught her during 7th grade almost a decade ago, but she doesnt remember Creamer ever speaking of her atheism in class.

Other commenters on Creamers Facebook page noted that she very well may have never mentioned her atheism to students but then again, her beliefs are already quite public in her Facebook bio, which indicates shes a wife, mom, teacher, actor, gardener, baseball lover, atheist, loyal friend, and proud nerd.

And while theres a huge mixed bag of comments on her page, both supporting and criticizing Creamer, several of her allies wrote that if her students have been invoking God in class just to get under her skin, they havent been acting like Christians.

Susan, as a Christian, I beg your forgiveness for my fellow believers for not seeing this for what it is: out of control students. And for judging you using the rules that we are supposed to apply to OUR OWN LIVES. Not yours, one commenter noted. I love you, my friend. I am praying for these hypocrites to find other fun.

Warfield has a different take.

I do not see inviting her to church as harassment she told TheBlaze. As for if they were doing it out of spite from her lack of religion, she should have kept it professional and knew the consequences of opening up her personal life to children who know they have freedom of speech.

(H/T: EAGNews)

Excerpt from:

Atheist teacher under fire for saying 'little cretins' have 'bullied' her in ... - TheBlaze.com

Is AAs God as we understand Him as inclusive today as it was intended in 1939? A debate over the sacredness of AA language and rituals started in Toronto Intergroup and landed at the doorstep of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. The Fixcovers the press release here.

I couldnt grasp what seemed to be the integral concept: the concept of God. I began to consider God as an acronym for Great Others Divine, Sharon, a Toronto AA member tells The Fix. However, in my cognitive struggle, there was the literature so chock full of Him with the capital H. I was unable to reconcile what I saw to be a rift too incongruent. I could not shake the ever-present notion that I was failing to grasp something key and, by extension, that I was a failure.

Sharon first came to Toronto AA in 1975, and a 38-year in-and-out struggle began. Sharons first agnostic meeting was in 2014. When I was walking out of that first We Are Not Saints secular meeting, This could work for meas incredulous as it seemedfilled my mind. Seeds of connection were planted. Sharon has remained sober and active in her agnostic group and as a regular in hospital and other AA meetings.

Lawrence was a member of We Agnostics in Toronto. His group was de-listed by Intergroup in 2011. Sincere efforts were made by Toronto AAs broader-path members to restore unity. A vote to re-list the two agnostic groups in 2012 failed and Torontos third secular group was de-listed, too. In 2014, while Sharon was finding lasting sobriety in agnostic AA, Lawrence filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Both the Greater Toronto Area Intergroup (GTAI) and AA World Services (AAWS) were named in the discrimination complaint. AA came under the microscope of the Human Rights law which states:

The Ontario Human Rights Code (the Code) states that it is public policy in Ontario to recognize the dignity and worth of every person and to provide equal rights and opportunities without discrimination. The aim is to create a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of each person, so that each person feels a part of and able to contribute to the community.

In AA, member rights, or AAs Code, is found in the six warranties contained in Concept XII in the AA Service Manual.

The AA Traditions accord the individual member and the AA group extraordinary liberties ... Because we set such a high value on our great liberties and cannot conceive that they will need to be limited, we here specially enjoin our General Service Conference to abstain completely from any and all acts of authoritative government which could in any way curtail AAs freedom

So there seems to be no conflict between AAs individual and group rights vs. the Human Rights Code. Anyone with a desire to stop drinking can declare themselves a member. There is no vetting. Bill W. expressed AAs radical inclusion policy in AA Grapevinein 1946:

AA membership[does not] depend on money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobrietymay call themselves an AA Group.This clearly implies that an alcoholic is a member ifhesays so; that we cant deny him his membership; that we cant demand from him a cent; that we cant force our beliefs or practices upon him; that he may flout everything we stand for and still be a member So long as there is the slightest interest in sobriety, the most unmoral, the most anti-social, the most critical alcoholic may gather about him a few kindred spirits and announce to us that a new Alcoholics Anonymous Group has been formed. Anti-God, anti-medicine, anti-our recovery program, even anti-each otherthese rampant individuals are still an AA Group ifthey think so!

Lets compare how 1940s early AA America looked? Judeo/Christian adherents were 95% of Americans, 5% had no religion and 0% were other religions.Statistically, this means that less than half of 1% of 1940 Americans practiced a faith that wasnt monotheistic.

Statistically, God as we understand Him resonated with 95% of early AA members. In more fluid AA language, our narrative would use more contemporary language that would include a growing population of members who have more progressive spiritual or secular views. Heres some data from Pew Research:

The religiously unaffiliated population is expected to nearly double in size, growing from 59 million in 2010 to 111 million in 2050. The number of Muslims is expected to nearly triple, from more than 3 million as of 2010 to more than 10 million in 2050, making Muslims the third largest religious group in the region by mid-century.

The first group(s)like Larrys We Agnosticsthat took God out of the 12 Steps were Buddhists. In 1955 on page 81 of AA Comes of Age,Bill found himself defending non-theists' AA Steps to AA traditionalists:

To some of us, the idea of substituting good for God in the Twelve Steps will seem like a watering down of AAs message. But here we must remember that AAs Steps are suggestions only. A belief in them, as they stand, is not at all a requirement for membership among us.

Celebrating 30 years of atheism in AA, original-six member Jim B., in a 1968AA Grapevine, coaches other AA non-believers. Jims article shared that The AA Fellowship became my Higher Power for the first two years, and, Gradually, I came to believe that God and Good were synonymous and were found in all of us.

The first North American AA for atheists and agnostics group (Quad-A) started in 1975 in Chicago. In 2017, around the world, secular AA gatherings happen about 400 times a week. The first international gathering for Secular AA was in Santa Monica in 2014, then Austin in 2016, and Toronto welcomes the world of AA non-believers in 2018.

How does Toronto Intergroup defend doing their own thing? Conceived by an unelected Ad Hoc Sub-Committee Re: Human Rights Complaint in Toronto Intergroup, the following legal defense was made as public record which included:

In order to be part of GTAI [Intergroup], a group must be prepared to practice the 12 steps and thus the members of the group must have a belief in God GTAI also submits that it is a bona fide requirement that groups that wish to be part of this Intergroup must have a belief in the higher power of God.1

Imposing requirements for a belief-in-God for AAs violates the Ontario Human Rights Code. People are free to believe in God in Ontario, but they cant impose views on others.

The right to be free from discrimination based on creed reflects core Canadian constitutional values and commitments to a secular, multicultural and democratic society. People who follow a creed, and people who do not, have the right to live in a society that respects pluralism and human rights and the right to follow different creeds.

What was AAWSs role in all of this? In the 2016 interim decision, it was still to be determined if AAs General Service Office was guilty of willful blindness. Delegates and concerned AAs, including Lawrence, made GSO aware that an unlawful practice was probably going on in Toronto, and an intervention was sought to encourage Intergroup inclusivity and toleranceand follow the rule of law. Heres where GSO may have been off-side, per the Code:

Organizations must ensure that they are not unconsciously engaging in systemic discrimination. This takes vigilance and a willingness to monitor and review numerical data, policies, practices and decision-making processes and organizational culture. It is not acceptable from a human rights perspective for an organization to choose to remain unaware of systemic discrimination or to fail to act when a problem comes to its attention.

Around AA, from coffee shops to secret Facebook groups, GTA Intergroups mandatory obedience to God requirement was a hot topic. Even the most adamant anti-agnostic deacons couldnt get behind Toronto Intergroups religious requirements for inclusion in AA.

The showdowns next step was mediation.

Kate Sellar, a lawyer with the Human Rights Legal Support Centre explained the process to The Fix regarding how the Tribunal can order remedial action if a respondent is found to violate the Code.

First, the Tribunal wants to put the applicant back in the position that he or she would have been in if the discrimination hadnt happened.

Secondly, the Tribunal can do what they call "remedies for future compliance." The Tribunal can order a respondent to put a human rights policy in place where policies and procedures were not in place before, or to participate in human rights training.

In the eleventh hour, mediation succeeded and a hearing was averted. AAWS appeared to side with Lawrences wish to have his group included without Intergroup governance. AAWS did not side with Intergroups view that the 12 Steps are sacred and a belief in God is mandatory. AAWS was released by the complainant.

GTA Intergroup agreed to return agnostic groups as rights-bearing equals. In a report to Intergroup, GTA Intergroup acknowledgesthat the manner in which individual AA members or groups of AA members interpret and apply the Steps and Traditions in their own lives is a matter for those individuals alone."

Is there a place for secular AA? Sharon, who recently celebrated three years of sobriety, deserves the final word: Now there are no thoughts that I am failing in any way. Now I have a firm foothold in the fellowship and I reap the same rewards as recognized by and accessible to others for decades. I credit agnostic Alcoholics Anonymous with saving my life and then giving me a life very much worth living.

Jesse Beach is a researcher/columnist for Rebellion Dogs Publishing.

In 2013, Rebellion Dogs Published the first secular daily reflection book for addicts/alcoholics, Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life by Joe C., foreword by Ernest Kurtz http://rebelliondogspublishing.com

Ontario Human Rights File Number: 2014-18832-1, Adjudicator Laurie Letheren, Interim Decision February 17, 2016

Originally posted here:

No God? No Problem: Atheism in AA as a Human Right - TheFix.com

When I was a boy, so long ago the New Atheists were young men, atheism was sold to us in many a science fiction book as freedom from the sexual repression that was killing us all. Someday, writers like Isaac Asimov promised, sex would be less of a mystery and a great deal more available. Meetings of atheists were proudly freewheeling.

They were governed by science and reason so they were going to get rid of archaic sex rules. At least in their conferences and sub-culture they did.

How did it go?

It did not go well. A new generation has arisen to suggest that the end result was using women like tissue paper. I know this is true, since my students had to deal with atheist big shots who seemed to think every female worker was a dating opportunity. A new generation of atheists rightly challenges the ugliness, but good luck prevailing.

The alpha males have no reason to do more than give lip service to any system you create. On the other hand, as they age, they might worry about an ethical system that might suggest they have a duty to die and stop using up resources. A Christian leader who has lived his life consistently with Christian values knows he can find a Christian place to let him die with dignity. An atheist leader has no such promise.

Our morality endures. Atheist morality keeps trying to say we ought when all they have is this is. Atheist morality changes all the time and yesterdays virtue (free love!), becomes todays vice. Sadly, there is no reasontothink that atheist leaders will listen to critics for now.

Is still does not give an ought and people with power in a system without transcendent morals will find reasons to ignore any barriers to their desires. Fighting the good fight is hard enough for those of us who believe in a real hell and moral absolutes. . . we have our own hypocrites, but at least they are hypocrites. Religion helps buttress morality.

Expose a pastor as a hypocrite and you harm his ministry. If you are creating your own meaning, you cannot be a hypocrite, just sly. You might be a cretin, and some of the leading atheists plainly are, but that judgment is based only on someone elses self-created meaning. When a traditional Christian sins, he might try to hide it, but he cannot claim it is virtue. The same thing has not been true with theStar Trek: the Original Series generation of atheist leaders.

They meant to set up a system where middle aged white men got power and women.

They are those who fame got them accessto the liquor cabinet as a localized celebrity and then they abused the liquor and the power. There is a reason that atheists lose more of their own children than any other group: the movement is ugly to the core. Findone atheist, secular, or non-religious web site that isnot dominated by being against everyone else and you have found the black swan. They exist, but they are rare.

When atheism is mostly white people angry with bad religious childhoods, there is not much future to the movement.Atheism is the only mostly white, mostly Western phenomenon in the world that gets good press as the cutting edge of history and that is not enough. Atheist kids get it and most leave as a result.They know the truth: the whiter the town, the more secular it is. The more diverse the town, the more religious it is.

Atheism cuts you off from African culture, Indian culture, and the parts of Chinese culture that are not running atheist motivated concentration camps. What do you have? The truncated bits of the West that does not include Shakespeare, Bach, Newton, Handel, or Michelangelo. You do get Isaac Asimov, the Amazing Randi, and Daniel Dennett.

It is all a bit sad.

If you inherited a Christian culture from your folks, you might leave, because you think you can keep the good and get rid of perceived evils. What do you inherit as an atheist? Read the Atheist Net. Eliminate rants against religion and you are left with almost nothing. . . except a population shrinking in every part of the world that is not mostly white. You are angry white males that hate Trump.

Thats not much on which to base a culture. Christians can be scientists, philosophers, and (mostly) ignore atheists. Periodically atheists get control of a country and start killing people, but fortunately, our American brand of atheists seem far from powerand more benign.

The second generation of atheists, the converts from some religion and the few kids who stayed, are busy trying to deeply reform the misogynistic, exploitative culture of the old atheist boysnetwork. I wish them luck. However, they should be warned: they too have a morality based on nothing other than what they prefer. They will be radically rebooted by the next generation, because all atheism has culturally been against something. When it is not us, they have to have the last generation of atheists.

They are a culture of repudiation and anger based on hurt. If religious people were not bad, there would soon be no atheists. For that reason, all of us who love God, Love Himself, cannot be triumphant in the rise of a second atheism. Mostly we look to our own problems. . . except when a cock a doodle doo from some new atheist reminds us that atheism has not been harmless. You can be moral without religion, though most agree religion helps, but there is vanishingly little evidence that an atheist can stay moral without religion.

Religious minorities all over the world have left and formed new cultures. Atheists stay and hope to hijack what is there. If not, they have never succeeded in making a culture.

It has been damnable, even by the standards of this generation of atheists. Because of reason and experience, I am a Christian. Maybe I am wrong and some other interpretation of reality is better, but this much is relatively sure: atheism is a dead end. They did not get ought from is in 1970 and my bet is they are doing no better now.

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The Two Atheisms: How to Know Smart People Cannot Get Is From Ought - Patheos (blog)

In the modern era, atheists, agnostics and other religiously unaffiliated persons have made great strides in gaining acceptance in society. One recent milestone was when President Obama signed an amendment to the International Religious Freedom Act to include protections for nonbelievers. A panel created by the law has criticized those countries that continue to persecute atheists, some of which even consider atheism an act of terrorism. Despite this, atheists at home still face large pockets of resistance in society and are one of the most underrepresented groups in the country in terms of political power.

According to polls taken by the Pew Research Center, more than one in five Americans are religiously unaffiliated. It should seem safe to assume that this ratio holds in government. Out of a Congress with 535 members, we should expect to see around 100 that are religiously unaffiliated. The number is close to 100 in a way, because its what we get if we take out the two zeroes. Only Democratic Representative Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona is unaffiliated.

There are many reasons why atheists face such severe underrepresentation. Historically, of course, atheists were not trusted and were treated as heretics. Religious people who formed the majority of the nation in its earlier days clearly did not like atheists, as eight states still have unenforceable provisions banning atheists from public office. Of course, thats just history. Nowadays, people are more accepting of views that differ from their own. Thats why a whopping 58 percentof people say they would vote for a qualified presidential candidate who was atheist.

This is disappointing, to say the least. If a person is qualified for office, you should at least be willing to vote for them no matter their religion or lack thereof. This holds especially true in a country where we are supposed to have a separation of church and state. In fact, you could argue that atheists would be the best for satisfying this vision, and would indeed be the best group for maintaining proper freedom of religion.

Why would an atheist, someone who doesnt believe in God, be the best for preserving freedom of religion? Because freedom of religion also includes equality and consistency in the law among different religions. In other words, no one law can be made that derives from the beliefs of just one religion. So banning something like shellfish or pork would be putting the interests of one religion above others and would be unconstitutional. While there are many religions in this country, the religiously unaffiliated are, well, unaffiliated. That makes them the ideal group to make laws that will ensure equality between different belief systems, sort of like a third party arbiter.

This ties into one of the major problems regarding new religious freedom laws. Because the overwhelming majority of politicians are Christian, these laws are often skewed. For example, laws have been passed that allow businesses to refuse service to homosexuals. These are unconstitutional acts, because religious belief does not give you the right to discriminate and because such acts deny equality among religions. Homosexual marriage may be considered a sin by some Christians, but if other religions dont consider it so then a law against it does not meet constitutional requirements.

Our country was born out of a desire to have fair representation in our government. The underrepresentation of the religiously unaffiliated is one of the most blatant cases of the continuing failure to realize this ideal. One way to remedy this would be for more religiously unaffiliated people to put themselves out there and run for office. But a lot of the responsibility lies on our society to stop being so hostile towards them. 49 percent of Americans would be unhappy if a family member married an atheist. And when 42 percent of the population is unwilling to vote for even a qualified atheist, very few will be willing to run. Those that do will likely feel coerced to hide or downplay their beliefs out of fear of opposition, in comparison to Christian politicians who are allowed and even encouraged to flaunt their beliefs for the public. No citizen should be effectively prevented from a political career because of their beliefs.

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Atheists and religiously unaffiliated need more representation - UConn Daily Campus

Pop goes the philosophyits time fortop 10 ancient atheist philosophers and their quotes.

Philosophers arent always atheists. The one I dated for 7 years was thoughI still tease her by saying God is controlling the universe. It seems like a weird thing to tease someone about I knowbut she often teases me by telling me that everyones brain is just existing in a vat someone and the universe isnt real. As the philosophers say,people do weird things. Then I make her reassure me that it is because Hilary Putnam made many arguments against the theory we are all brains in vats. Also, my man Ned Block said that we have no reason to think we are living in a simulation. Take that, the Matrix.

Lucian Milasan/Shutterstock.com

Atheism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is a lack of belief or a strong disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods. Atheistsstress that atheism is not a religion. It is not a disbelief in a god or any gods, but is rather a lack of belief. Its as if you reach into your pockets to see if you have any belief on you, turn them inside out, and theyre empty. That being said, atheists are also very diverse in what they believe inthere can be a multitude of subtle differences to a belief or non-belief. They have different reasons for their lack of belief. The only commonality in their belief is that there is no god nor supernatural beings.

If you are wondering where atheism came from, or how long it has been existing, here is the answer. Atheism is believed to trace back its origins to Ancient Greecewhich is why we have what we call the ancient atheist philosophers.Atheism also has roots in the Vedic period of India. There are also ancient atheists hailing from pre-Socratic Greece, like Thales and Anaximenes. In the ancient time,atheist philosophers were persecuted and punished for what they believed and did not believe in. There were philosophers who were thrown out of their cities and some were even executed.

At one point in history, Christians were tagged as atheists by non-Christians because of their lack of belief in the Roman gods. When Christianity became well-established, their positions shifted, and soon enough non-Christians were dubbed as either pagans or atheists.

18 Most Famous Atheists in the World

There have been several ancient atheist philosophers who had their mark in history over the years. They were most popular because of their quotes that defined what they did and did not believe in. Here, we enumerate the top 10 ancient atheist philosophers and their quotes, and we have also prepared 18 Most Famous Atheists in the World. No ranking is necessary, as there is simply no way to really rank them from greatest to least. They were all great in their own right. We just searched for the 10 great ones who made an impact with their arguments through the quotes they once have said in their lifetime. We used data from Arguments For Atheismand BBCas well as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyand the Internet Encyclopedia ofPhilosophy.

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Top 10 Ancient Atheist Philosophers and Their Quotes - Insider Monkey (blog)

FEBRUARY 10 Humankind has been searching for the truth since time immemorial. Apart from looking for the best way to live and indeed what that way would constitute, they have also been asking what lies in The Great Beyond, past the threshold of death.

Various answers have emerged in the form of what we know as global religions. Each religion has its own postulation about what happens to us after we die.

And there are those who say nothing happens. When our bodies cease to function, so do our consciousness. It is then a total blackout forever.

That is what atheists postulate and this view is not something new. In The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, we find plenty of examples of atheism in history. However, they were very marginal back then, owing to the fact that Europe had a strong religious presence.

In recent times, however, atheism has exploded in terms of numbers.

What has brought about the rise in atheism? By some estimates, and I have noticed this on social media myself, even in the very conservative Saudi Arabia 15 per cent of its population are atheists.

This is possibly due to excessive religious authoritianism which has put many young people off religion. Not only that, the presence of social media has enabled the internet savvy to consolidate with one another and moreover, absorb ideas from abroad.

When the allegedly atheist Raif Badawi was jailed and sentenced to whipping, he received tremendous support from atheists all over the world, thanks to social media.

The question now is, can atheism become a world religion? For a start, it definitely has the rhetorical capacity to do so.

While some religions claim to be a personal relationship with God and others a complete way of life, atheisms slogan is that it is a non-belief.

In other words, it alleges that our primordial state, our psychological tabula rasa as it were, is one of non-belief. Atheists tell me that if one were to ask a baby if he or she believes in God, the answer would be no.

The problem is, if one were to ask a baby that, one would first have to explain the concept of God. In doing so, one would undoubtedly fertilise the babys mind with the idea of a deity.

Hence, the baby would no longer be able to retain the purity of innocence from that idea and lose his or her objectivity.

It is the same problem with the questions of ethics. In his book The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris sets forth a scientific methodology in determining ethics.

This is another one of atheisms proclivities, by the way, scientism. Scientism is not the same as being scientific. Being scientific is a methodology for deriving information.

Scientism is rather the ideology that science is a means of attaining truths. I am not saying that science cannot yield truths but that the truths it produces is subjective to the experiments it conducts.

This is why, there was a time when science was used to prove racial superiority! It all boils down on how an experiment is set up and more importantly, why it is set up to begin with.

Another issue which concerns me is New Atheism, a political movement which is very anti-theist and anti-religion. While I welcome their criticisms of the existence of God and religion, the language they employ is decidedly lacking in nuance.

The aforementioned Sam Harris, for example, called Islam the motherlode of bad ideas without deigning to acknowledge aspects of the religion which even the vilest of racists would find acceptable. This may appeal to his neo-colonialist masters but it is intellectually dishonest and moreover, only serves to deepen the conflicts between civilizations.

Can atheism be a world religion? Not yet, I surmise. Strong counter currents from religious movements will keep atheism on the side for the time being but maybe in the next generation, things will change. Atheism can perhaps stem the tide of religious fundamentalism.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Can atheism be a world religion? - Malay Mail Online

Ricky Gervais was on with Stephen Colbert and was challenged on his non-belief in God. An atheist is someone who rejects the notion that certain men claiming to speak for God somehow had more authority to do so than the millions of other men making the same claim.

Why is there something instead of nothing? is the first challenge from Colbert. In other words, somehow the atheist is in the position of providing proof. The truth is that we dont know how the universe came to be.

Somehow the truth of not knowing validates simply making things up. Since we dont know, it means a singular all powerful male being, whos jealous and doesnt want us to eat shrimp, sent himself to be sacrificed to himself, in order to save us from himself (but only if you believe it), because of the talking snake incident, pushed the Big Bang button. Obviously!

Why didnt the end of the world happen in 2012? If you cant explain, then you must accept the fact that Macho Man Randy Savage put an elbow drop on Jesus to stop the Rapture. If you cant prove that this didnt happen, thats proof that it did.

Gervais puts the ownership on Colbert explaining that atheism is a rejection of a God claim, and unless he can provide proof, he doesnt believe the claim. Ricky also points out that Colbert is an atheist regarding the thousands of other Gods in other religions, and that he simply takes it one God further.

Then we get the worst argument for God Ive ever heard. I have a strong desire to direct my gratitude. You need an ancient book that condones slavery and murder in order to express your gratitude? You cant direct your gratitude towards your parents, towards human advancements in civilization, towards your evolutionary heritage? You cant direct your gratitude towards science which explains your biological connection to every living thing and how you're atomically connected to the universe itself?

The conversation moves on to Ricky explaining the difference between blind faith and science. We get the results of science through experimentation, so if all of science was destroyed, it would all come back identical as the same experiments would show the same results over time. Religious stories, if completely destroyed, would never come back exactly as they were as they dont have the discipline of reality checks. People would make up different things which would cause different stories.

Even in the same books there are numerous religious sects and interpretations of scripture which itself is commonly filled with inconsistencies, contradictions, and absurdities.

Throughout this discussion, Colbert jokes about hell. Why not? Nothing is more funny than an all-loving God that burns people forever if they pick the wrong religion or demand extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims. Wait till Colbert finds out that only the Mormons go to heaven. Thats going to be a riot!

-James Kirk Wall

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Stephen Colbert Worst argument for God ever - ChicagoNow (blog)

Atheists of Kenya. Photo credit: BBC

Atheists in Kenya(AIK) have called on the government to devote a national holiday for the celebration of non-religious belief.

AIK is an umbrella society for free thinkers and the non-religious in Kenya. The association was officially registered on February 17, 2016, after a long battle to get the authorities to recognize it. It is believed to be the first atheist society to be registered in all of Africa.

The societys president,Harrison Mumia, said although atheists and the non-religious only constitute a minority group within Kenya, they deserve a national holiday to celebrate their beliefs.

We will petition Parliament to legislate that public holiday; we have religious holidays. Why not us? We will move to court if they discriminate against us. Under Article 8 of the Constitution, the government cannot run the country based on any religion, Mumia said.

Consequently, according to Standard Media, atheists have asked that February 17th be declared Atheist Day, a public holiday to celebrate the freedom and responsibility that the non-religious have.

In a recent letter addressed to the Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery, the society also demanded equal treatment, equal protection, and benefits of the law as provided by the constitution.

Harrison Mumia. Photo credit: Nairobi News

On the 17th of February, we want to celebrate the fact that atheism frees up a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted in worship. We want to celebrate atheism, because it prevents one from being ripped off by religious charlatans, Mumia added.

We want to celebrate atheism because it provides great freedom and at the same time great responsibility, since we are not looking forward to the promise of heaven or the punishment of hell.

We want to celebrate atheism because we can now do things without worrying about metaphysical reward or punishment. We want to celebrate the fact that the results of our actions as atheists are our responsibility and we cant blame it on sin.

The society also wants authorities to scrap the teaching of religion in all Kenyan public schools and believes the study of the three major religions (Islam, Christianity and Hinduism) amounts to discrimination of all other religions.

Last October, the society also demanded that the word God be removed from the Kenyan national anthem, arguing that it was inherently unfair as not all Kenyans believed in a God. They emphasized that Kenya was a secular state and the concept of God was alien to the constitution.

As non-believers, we feel that the National Anthem is not representative of us and goes against the spirit of the Kenyan Constitution. Removing God from the National Anthem will make it inclusive, the society said in a statement.

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Kenyan Atheists Demand National Holiday To Celebrate Non-Religious Belief - Face 2 Face (press release) (registration) (blog)

The out-spoken atheist was asked on the CBS programme The Late Show with Stephen Colbert whether he believed in the existence of a creator God.

The British comedian and actor, who received audience applause when he said he didn't believe in God, answered: "Outside of science and nature, I don't believe so."

He branded himself as an "agnostic atheist" during the conversation, which stemmed from a Twitter post which told Gervais he was going to hell.

Host, Stephen Colbert asked him: "Do you ever have a feeling of great gratitude for existence?"

Gervais answered: "Of course, I know the chances are billions to one that I am on this planet as me and never will be again."

Colbert replied: "I know I can't convince you that there is a God, nor do I really want to convince you there is a God, but I can only explain my experience which is that I have a strong desire to direct that gratitude to something or someone and that thing is God".

Gervais suggested he found it easier to believe in the Big Bang theory, saying science is "constantly proved all the time".

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Ricky Gervais challenged on his atheism - Premier

Its been over 13 years since Ricky Gervais bade farewell to David Brent, the middling middle manager on the original U.K. version of The Office that launched his career. Since then, hes had other successful series (Extras,Derek), dabbled in movies (The Invention of Lying), and sold out venues with his standup tour. Yet the character who considered himself friend first, boss secondprobably entertainer third has never really gone away. There wasnt a day that went by where I wasnt managing the estate of David Brent, Gervais notes. There were remakes around the world, I would get requests every day to show clips, or something would could up with licensing.

SEE MORE: Awards: The Contenders

After short appearances on the American version of The Office or at Comic Relief, Gervais has brought Brent back in full force with the release of David Brent: Life on the Road. Written and directed by Gervais, the film hits American theaters and streaming platform Netflix on Feb. 10. It follows Brents attempts to extend his modicum of fame by launching a music career with typically uncomfortable results. As Gervais puts it, If you went on Facebook and found out the most boring man you went to college with was trying to be a rock star, youd have to watch.

We spoke with Gervais on the phone from England the morning of Donald Trumps inauguration, mere minutes after Trump was sworn in. The outspoken comedian noted some parallels between his fictional character and the new president.

Thank you for bringing David Brent back, I didnt realize how much I missed him.That was sort of the point, really, for people to catch up on an old friend. Its a fake documentary but I deal in realism. And I suppose theres parallels to real life where everyone wants to be famous. He had a bit of fame at the turn of the century, and we thought hed go away. But now fame is a different beast and people dont give up. And its easier to be famous because people are willing to do anything to be famous. Theres no difference now between fame and infamy. Weve just seen the host of The Apprentice become President of the United States.

Did you see some news reports are saying he lifted parts of his speech from Bane in The Dark Knight Rises?And Im not shocked. A year ago, I would have been horrified. But then again, the things he said running up to thisif any other politician or any other world leader had said it, he would have resigned. He confessed to abusing women and that wasnt enough. There is no greater role model in the western world arguably, so what happens when a guy is caught for attacking a woman and says, My president said it was all right? Its off the charts. I do sort of blame reality TV in a way because we are all made from our input. Hes a man who wants to be famous. Donald Trump has more in common with David Brent than he does with JFK or Lincoln or Roosevelt. Hes not even a smart man who had to work for it. Hes not particularly erudite or educated or caring. He wants to be famous, he wants to be loved. Im not saying that makes him a terrible president or its the end of the world, Im just saying he is different from other presidents and he is a product of the last 50 years of people wanting to be famous. Its like he wasnt satisfied with having $5 billion and running companies, he had to be on telly every possible moment.

When thinking of ideas for a David Brent movie, did you ever imagine a storyline where he or someone like him ran for president? It would seem too outrageous.Thats exactly right, nothing is fiction now. It seems like the way it first started was a little bit like one of those 80s movies where two old billionaires in a gentlemans club make a bet that they can make any idiot into the president of the United States. One says, Where are you going to find someone that stupid? And it cuts to Trump and the one says, Youre on sir! Its like Pygmalion in a bad, Hollywood 1980s genre movie. And it worked.

Do you still watch reality TV?Its been good to me. Ive watched it and found it enjoyable and laughed at some things and been angry at others but I have studied it, it has been my muse. I wrote The Office based on my experiences as a middle manager, I worked at an office for 10 years. I also watched a lot of those quaint docu-soaps in the 90s that followed someone at work and they sort of became a household name for 15 minutes. But now its different. Now you get on The Apprentice by saying, Ill destroy anything that stands in my way. They choose the people who are willing to do anything, and people get on by promising to behave badly. And theyre rewarded for it. Though I dont think it ever ends well.

You seem to be drawn to the subject of fame in a lot of your work.The Office was about a man who wanted to be famous. Extras was about a man literally on the first rung of being famous. The Golden Globes was a study in fame to me. I was shocked by how worried everyone was about what I would say. I just dont get it. It was a shock that people were that sensitive or that worried about what a little fat guy from Reading said about them. I always like to sort of play with that. I think its staple of British comedy, even more than American, we always try to bring down authority. Theres something were trying to undermine when people take themselves too seriously. It was reflected in the remake of the American Office. Its more hopeful. Americans are told you can grow up to be the next president of the United States. Brits are told to not even try, who do you think you are? Its funny because my sense of humor is British but my comedy is American. I embrace both things.

What do these characters or someone like David Brent hope to get out of fame?Ive always been fascinated with what people think leading a good life is. Good people do bad things, for many reasons. For money, for fame, because they think it will make them happy. They should just cut out the middle man and just be happy. So Im always on the side of the deluded, if theyve got a good heart. David Brent isnt an evil person. Now hes 55, not 39, hes not the boss. Hes not doing a job that anyone ever dreams of as a child. So he believes, like most people, that fame will sort their life out. Hes putting all his money on one number and cashing in his chips to buy fame. Hes looking for the wrong thing and hes certainly looking in the wrong place. We see sort of a more sympathetic side of him.

It would be easy to mock David Brent as a musician, but the music in the film actually isnt bad.Well, David Brent is paying for it so David Brent would get the best musicians he could. Hes hemorrhaging money because he wants a real band. But at least hes trying and it is his money, hes not stealing or conning anyone. Hes following a dream, no matter how deluded that may be and thats admirable. Thats the staple of comedy. Comedy at its essence is the normal guy trying to do something hes not equipped to do. And when were snickering at him, were only snickering at ourselves. When we laugh at David Brent were sort of going, Oh, Ive done that.

But the album actually charted internationally, it hit number three in Britain and number one in New Zealand.Yeah, but people are in on the jokethey know theyre not buying a cool album. Its David Brent, not me releasing my songs. When you see Ricky Gervais Sings the Blues, shoot me. Thats when its all over. The problem is in the narrative, David Brent isnt as successful as he is in real life. When we do gigs, we sell out huge venues. I have to keep the narrative piece not a huge success otherwise its a bit too far-fetched.

Wait, so you as David Brent is selling out concerts? Yeah, thats how it all started. I brought David Brent back for a Comic Relief sketch and he did a track called Equality Street. It went really well and I did a couple gigs and people went crazy. We had 110,000 ticket requests for these small venues. They called and said I could play Wembley Stadium. I said, This is mad. Why would David Brent play Wembley? Thats when it hit me; he paid top musicians, hes booking venues, and thats where the idea for the movie came.

The Office spawned a lot of comedies that used the fake documentary format or played up the comedy of discomfort. How does it feel to have been at the forefront of that?I dont think I started it, but I fused a few genres so it looked original. I wasnt the first to tap into that stupidity and those idiot characters, Laurel and Hardy did it. I wasnt the first to do a naturalistic fake documentary, you could point to This Is Spinal Tap. Awkwardness and discomfort were done in Seinfeld. What I did do was probably up everything a notch. Mine was slower, more uncomfortable, more desperate.

In addition to your performing, youre an outspoken animal rights activist and atheist. How does it feel to be almost as well-known for your causes as for your work? Its funny isnt it? Those things have always been my passion but you get a bigger platform. As your fame grows, those things about you grow as well. With the invention of social media, the more famous you get and the more access people get to you, the more youre loved but they more youre hated as well. But thats no reason to not still give your opinion and tell the truth. Its never worried me to have a popular or unpopular view. One of my favorite tweets Ive ever got said, Everyones entitled to believe what they want, so shut up about your atheism.

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Ricky Gervais on Atheism, Donald Trump, and the Return of David Brent - Variety

Ricky Gervais gave a defense of atheism on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The British comedian and actor is an outspoken atheist, and Colbert is somewhat of a rarity in comedic circles: a devout Catholic. Unlike similar conversations with Bill Maher, this was far more gracious than it was testy.

Ricky Gervais has never been shy about sharing his beliefs. (Photo: Getty Images)

So this is atheism in a nutshell, said Gervais. You say, Theres a god. I say, You can prove that? You say, No. I say, I dont believe you then. So you believe in one god, I assume but there are 3,000 to choose from So basically, you believe in you deny one less god than I do. You dont believe in 2,999 gods. And I dont believe in just one more.

Colbert explained that his gratitude for existence needs to be expressed and winds up being directed toward God. Gervais explained his gratitude for existence is displayed in an appreciation for scientific discovery. We want to make sense of nature and science. It is too unfathomable everything in the universe was once crunched in some small atom, said Gervais. But you dont know that, Colbert interjected. Youre just believing Stephen Hawking, and thats a matter of faith in his abilities. You dont know it yourself. Youre accepting that because someone told you.

Stephen Colbert is a rarity in comedic circles for his deep Catholic faith. (Photo: Getty Images)

Gervais then explained why Colberts argument wasnt compelling to him, and did so in such a succinct manner that Colbert had to give him credit. You see, if we take something like any fiction and any holy book and any other fiction and destroyed it, in 1,000 years time, that wouldnt come back just as it was, Gervais pointed out. Whereas if we took every science book and every fact and destroyed them all, in 1,000 years theyd all be back, because all the same tests would be the same result. Thats good, Colbert acknowledged. Thats really good.

Previously on Colbert: Jon Stewart Reveals Trumps Next Executive Order:

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Ricky Gervais and Stephen Colbert Debate Atheism - Yahoo TV (blog)

My Great-Great-Aunt Kit might have been, in the parlance of her times, an infidel. In the 1890s, she loaded her scrapbook with the blasphemous speeches of the eras most famous agnostic, Robert Ingersoll, marking them up with apparent appreciation.

A student of American religious history, I was surprised to find such interest in unbelief among these ancestors because that side of my family is a long line of Ohio farmers. The instincts of my discipline recommend for them a quiet but dogged Methodism, maybe a flash of revivalism here and there. "Ignorance is the soil of the supernatural. The miraculous is false" wasnt the first thing I would have expected to find circled and starred in a family heirloom.

Village Atheists: How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation By Leigh Eric Schmidt

(Princeton University Press)

Schmidt wants to neutralize some of the polemicism surrounding the topic. The very words by which we name this strand of American religious history are negations, inherently adversarial: atheist, nonbeliever, irreligious. Even freethinker is a provocation, if one is just a thinker. Schmidt, though, discovers gray areas and blurred lines between belief and unbelief. "Certainly many freethinkers and evangelicals saw this as a war without a middle ground, but forbearance and mutual recognition nonetheless frequently emerged amid the Manichean opposition."

This is complicated, however, by Schmidts own title character, a composite "cultural figure" drawn from the lives of his four contrarians. Samuel Porter Putnam once published a pamphlet called "Religion a Curse, Religion a Disease, Religion a Lie" (1893). Charles B. Reynolds co-opted the methods of evangelicalism and traveled the country holding tent revivals, preaching a gospel of freethought. Elmina Drake Slenker defied obscenity laws to spread advice about sex and the body, taking particular pride in using "short, emphatic, and clear" words i.e., four-letter ones. Watson Heston drew cartoons demonstrating the absurdity of belief and the unfairness of religions hold on the nations institutions. A typical Heston cartoon mocked common Protestant imagery about "clinging to the cross" by labeling the suffering souls supposed life-saver "a piece of worthless theological driftwood." A "Freethought Life-Boat" offers rescue as the sharks of priestcraft close in.

Schmidt wants the lives of these characters to "capture the dilemmas of a quotidian secularism the tensions between combat and courtesy, candor and dissembling, irreverence and respectability that marked the everyday lives of Americas unbelievers." He succeeds to the extent that these public atheists wrote and spoke to audiences of everyday nonbelievers living amid the assumptions of belief. His four main subjects do not appear to have dissembled much, though, and most of the book is about court cases and public controversies, moments not easily thought of as part of their normal daily lives.

The fact is that much of the everyday 19th-century atheism Schmidt set out to chronicle might have been characterized by silence. Proclaiming oneself an atheist has been and still is in many circles simply considered rude. Schmidt chronicles a recurrent argument among freethinkers themselves about how impolite to be, but does not reflect on the constant violence of self-censorship that this implies. Self-censorship in the face of overwhelming cultural pressure is as much a part of the American atheist experience as irreverent provocation. Family members who knew her she lived to be 99 have no memory of Aunt Kit ever discussing religion.

Beyond the risk of social stigma, atheists have been subject to violence, imprisonment, and the denial of political rights. True, they are not exactly like other persecuted religious minorities in American history. For one thing, they have not been powerless. Contemporary surveys indicate that they tend toward the white, male, and educated, and that is not a new trend. Even in the 19th century, the self-consciously irreverent edge of so much atheist rhetoric came from a place of relative privilege. Compared with the violence wrought along lines of race, gender, and class, the challenges faced by atheists can seem minor, or quaint, or even funny. Schmidt recounts the story of a one-armed Kansan named Jacob B. Wise who was prosecuted in 1895, under the Comstock obscenity laws, for mailing a minister a postcard with a single line on it about eating and drinking human waste. The joke was that the line was from the Bible (Isaiah 36:12).

Schmidt is mostly mindful of this tension, punctuating stories of relative tolerance toward atheists with the real consequences of persecution. (Wise spent a month in jail and was fined $50, all for sending a postcard with a Bible verse on it.) Even as the religious right has wrapped itself in the rhetoric of victimhood, claiming to feel oppressed in a secular nation, surveys continue to suggest that it is atheists who might feel most compelled to hide their commitments of conscience. Americans feel coldest about atheists and Muslims, and admit that they are less likely to vote for members of these groups than any others. In 2005, Justice Antonin Scalia may the God he worshiped rest his soul argued in a dissent "that the Establishment Clause permits the disregard of devout atheists."

Nevertheless, the irreverent work of the village atheist goes on in a public arena radically changed by high-profile 20th-century Supreme Court cases. The Satanic Temple is easily the most entertaining avatar of the village atheists spirit today. They are atheists who claim Satan as a metaphor, not a deity, and they recently announced an "After School Satan" program as a counter to Christian programs permitted to evangelize in public schools. And the University of Miami will soon run a search for an endowed chair in "the study of atheism, humanism and secular ethics." It took the donor more than 15 years and $2.2 million to get the university to agree to use the word "atheism" in the title, but the term might soon be an everyday presence.

Seth Perry is an assistant professor of religion at Princeton University.

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Devout Atheists - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)