10-09-2009, 03:14 PM
Rob Sherman on 09.30.09
Americans are abandoning religion in record numbers, while at the same time, the number of godless is multiplying dramatically. This news comes from independent sources, religious groups and secular organizations.
An Associated Press story published earlier this week reported that organized religion is experiencing unprecedented losses of membership and donations, while the number of people with no religion is increasing rapidly. In fact, the web address for the Chicago Tribune version of the AP story included the words, "religion meltdown."
All this comes on top of this desperate report.pdf by the Church Communication Network that up to 94% of teens leave church after high school.
What's really behind this surge of rationality in America? Is it the recession, as the AP story suggests, or something else? More likely, the latter.
It used to be, in this country, that if you were an atheist, the community tried to make you feel like you were the only one and that, therefore, you must be wrong, so keep quiet about it.
Back a few decades, ago, there were only a small handful of atheists who were publicly out of the closet, such as Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her son Jon Garth Murray of American Atheists, Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Rob Sherman and my son, Ricky. We refused to be silent about who we were, the merits of atheism, the fallacies of religion and, regardless of your theological opinion, the importance and need for a separation of state and church.
Gradually, Americans who were godless came to realize that they weren't the only ones who were atheists, and that they were right about religion: God is make-believe.
Then, the internet happened. Americans who are atheists had a new way to find out about each other, communicate with each other and form new organizations, such as the Atheist Alliance International, the Secular Coalition for Amerca and Camp Quest, a network of residential secular summer camps for the children of freethinking parents. New atheist leaders have emerged, such as Michael Newdow, who is battling in court to get "under God" out of the Pledge and "In God we trust" off of our money, and Chris Lindstrom of Camp Quest West, who spends countless hours each year to ensure that atheist children have a place to have fun, each summer, without getting God crammed down their throats.
More and more people are hearing our message and are coming to realize that it was Man who created God in his image and likeness, not the other way around.
While the number of religious people in this country is dropping precipitously, there is an exponential increase in the number of people who have come to recognize that atheism makes sense for America.
Our numbers are growing every day, while their numbers are dropping like a rock.
So, no, it's not the recession that is causing people to leave organized religion, because if the recession was the real cause, our numbers would be dropping, too.
The reason that our numbers are up, and their numbers are way down, is that, thanks to more and more of us getting the message out, more and more people are coming to realize that Nobody is in heaven. When you pray, you are talking to yourself. Nobody is listening.
It's no longer just Madalyn and Jon, the Gaylors and me. It's thousands of people, just like you, who are out of the closet and proud to be Atheist.
Keep up the good work!
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/godless-...urges.html
Americans are abandoning religion in record numbers, while at the same time, the number of godless is multiplying dramatically. This news comes from independent sources, religious groups and secular organizations.
An Associated Press story published earlier this week reported that organized religion is experiencing unprecedented losses of membership and donations, while the number of people with no religion is increasing rapidly. In fact, the web address for the Chicago Tribune version of the AP story included the words, "religion meltdown."
All this comes on top of this desperate report.pdf by the Church Communication Network that up to 94% of teens leave church after high school.
What's really behind this surge of rationality in America? Is it the recession, as the AP story suggests, or something else? More likely, the latter.
It used to be, in this country, that if you were an atheist, the community tried to make you feel like you were the only one and that, therefore, you must be wrong, so keep quiet about it.
Back a few decades, ago, there were only a small handful of atheists who were publicly out of the closet, such as Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her son Jon Garth Murray of American Atheists, Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Rob Sherman and my son, Ricky. We refused to be silent about who we were, the merits of atheism, the fallacies of religion and, regardless of your theological opinion, the importance and need for a separation of state and church.
Gradually, Americans who were godless came to realize that they weren't the only ones who were atheists, and that they were right about religion: God is make-believe.
Then, the internet happened. Americans who are atheists had a new way to find out about each other, communicate with each other and form new organizations, such as the Atheist Alliance International, the Secular Coalition for Amerca and Camp Quest, a network of residential secular summer camps for the children of freethinking parents. New atheist leaders have emerged, such as Michael Newdow, who is battling in court to get "under God" out of the Pledge and "In God we trust" off of our money, and Chris Lindstrom of Camp Quest West, who spends countless hours each year to ensure that atheist children have a place to have fun, each summer, without getting God crammed down their throats.
More and more people are hearing our message and are coming to realize that it was Man who created God in his image and likeness, not the other way around.
While the number of religious people in this country is dropping precipitously, there is an exponential increase in the number of people who have come to recognize that atheism makes sense for America.
Our numbers are growing every day, while their numbers are dropping like a rock.
So, no, it's not the recession that is causing people to leave organized religion, because if the recession was the real cause, our numbers would be dropping, too.
The reason that our numbers are up, and their numbers are way down, is that, thanks to more and more of us getting the message out, more and more people are coming to realize that Nobody is in heaven. When you pray, you are talking to yourself. Nobody is listening.
It's no longer just Madalyn and Jon, the Gaylors and me. It's thousands of people, just like you, who are out of the closet and proud to be Atheist.
Keep up the good work!
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/godless-...urges.html
