More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

Interesting article in the NY Times about the reaction following the "be good for goodness sakes" campaign. While expecting hate mail, turns out they were flooded by letters of support from people tired of hearing about God all the fucking time.

The gist is that self-identified Atheists (in the United States) have gone up dramatically since 1990, and people feel much more comfortable with it. Atheists have gone from 8% to 15% in 19 years, a survey finds, which is a pretty fast rise. A multimedia is included in the article showing the the % rise in each state, with Vermont the highest with +21 (!) and Mississippi the slowest with +3.

Now, before everyone harps on Mississippi please remember they are the poorest state in the union and that definitely has something to do with it whether you'd like to admit such or not. I was honestly surprised to Texas only reflect a 4-8% change, on par with Alabama and lagging Wyoming, but hey that is still a decent rise and not bad for the South in general.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/us/27atheist.html?em

Edit: Ugh I don't know why I posted it here, was aiming for religion.

[Lynx]

Thank-you, comrade, for sharing the Good News :)

[Sean]

Moved.

[Decolonize The Left]

In a nation where the church is supposedly separate from the state, we sure do hear about God an awful lot... it's even on our money...

- August

[JimmyJazz]

Someone I talked to once said that when he told his mom he was an atheist at ~15 yrs. old, her first response was, "so how do I know you're not going to kill me in my sleep?"

I have spent years on atheist discussion forums, and while I think atheist and anti-creationist activism is often downright silly, it's true that they really have accomplished a lot. Other than the activists who have tried hard to make atheist more visible, I can't think of any other major factor of the last 15 years that would have led to more acceptance and a greater number of people IDing themselves as atheists. So, mad props to the secular activist types.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

I don't know if one could say it's completely because of the atheist 'Non-Prophet Organizations' (love that phrase :D) but a more general change on views that seems to be happening in all social realms. People seem to be accepting common sense and rejecting clerics more and more in areas ranging from pot to homosexuality to the understanding of Jesus himself.

No disrespect to those groups, don't get me wrong. Certainly they played a large part.

[Nulono]

In a nation where the church is supposedly separate from the state, we sure do hear about God an awful lot... it's even on our money...

- August
If Jefferson found out, he'd be turning over in his slave.

[TheWaffleCzar]

Thanks for sharing.
I don't know if any of you saw Religilous, but Mr. Maher points out that atheists at 16-19% of the population (or along those lines) are the biggest minority in the nation. Bigger than Jews, Gays, and African-Americans. It's crazy that we don't have the most powerful lobby in congress.