There has been a lot of talk recently about our movement and the growth thereof. Newsweek really highlighted the growth of the “nones” in their article The End of Christian America, and since then there have been a flurry of responses from Christians of all kinds, all in true denial.
It reminds me of that Monte Python Parrot Sketch:
“This parrot is dead”
“No it isn’t”
“Yes it is! look at it it’s pushing up daisies!”
“No it isn’t, it’s just resting”
Now I am not saying Christianity is dead. I’m saying it’s dying. The only growth in Christianity is in under-developed nations — we are the last part of the civilized world to dismiss their mythology. Civilization is the enemy of religion (one of many — also included on this list are education, reading, the Internet, speaking, and thinking, but I digress).
When the Pope talks about condoms spreading AIDS, or when a Congressman tries to get Congress to ignore global warming because “God is in control and will kill us when he so chooses”, people know when you’re spewing bull, even when they like the message. Indeed, it has to be embarrassing to be a believer these days to SOME extent — their leaders are either lying to their flock, starting wars, hiding pedophiles, cheating on their wives with hookers, or simply sliding into irrelevance (where is Pat Robertson these days?). The result of that embarrassment is, of course, more wishful thinking, as Christians are wont to do.
Take for example this article by Stephen Prothero, which includes the following:
The fact of the matter is that only a small portion of the “nones” is truly secular. This information isn’t in the ARIS report, but when I called Keysar in an effort to dig deeper into the beliefs and behaviors of the religiously unattached, she told me that when asked about God, 23% of the “nones” said they believed in a higher power and 21% pledged their allegiance to a personal God.
Let’s assume Prothero telling the truth. I think it’s fair to assume that the 21% pledging allegiance are a part of the 23% that are theistic (although the way it’s phrased would make you think otherwise — simply wouldn’t make sense to pledge to a god in which you did not believe). OK. Last time I checked, 77% was far from a “small portion”, but OK. So from 16% we’ve now gone to 12%, which is still 5X more than Jews.
HOWEVER — did you notice how they went one way without the other? Yes, some of the “nones” in the ARIS survey are theistic, but what about those “church pew atheists”? There are LOTS of people who call themselves by a religion’s name but don’t believe any of that god bunk. For example, this article suggests that half of the Jews in this country are atheists. But the Christians will have none of that talk, and the surveys don’t really study that because it’s hard to get a closeted atheist to come out and say it in a survey, even if it’s true.
That will be short-lived. More studies are being funded to study the religious landscape and the world will continue to learn more about itself, spurred on by the ARIS survey and the visible growth of our movement, which has changed dramatically in the past few years.
The movement’s past involved vicious circles of
Ignorance of atheists => hate for atheists => fear OF Christians BY atheists =>atheist closeting => more ignorance of atheists.
This circle has, I believe been broken, and replaced with a new one. Now, Atheists are being seen and heard, either by billboard or Internet or news item, while Christians continuously embarrass themselves.
More frustration with religion => exploration => understanding => conversion (GROWTH), OR at least tolerance => closeted atheists being emboldened => more outed atheists (GROWTH) => more understanding.
We are just beginning to grow.
I don’t need too many examples to support my assertion, and I don’t need to twist words. Look at the Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris books’ success (and notice that the Baylor study only studied the religious books, not the nonreligious ones).
Look at the Examiner, the on-line news source which only a few months ago had one reporter covering atheism (which was news in and of itself), and now has this many, working for money, reporting on atheism — and this is just one on-line news source.
Look at this blog — one of the smaller blogs on the subject — getting 15K unique hits/day. Look at the conventions, which are selling out regularly now (future conventions will be larger). Look at the Secular Coalition for America, which now officially has a “place at the table in the white house“.
Even better, look at the panic on the other side. You can measure our success by their pure, visible, knee-jerk panic. The more they stick their head in the sand or complain about how we are wrecking society, the more you know how much we matter. The more we appear in the news, the more people talk about us, and the more success we have, the more we will grow.
Helooo Polly! I got a nice cuttlefish for you!
