Atheists are the last minority in this country that are legally allowed to be
persecuted. If Jews, blacks or Mexicans were to be legally discriminated against
as us Atheists regularly are, the uproar would be stupendous. But since its just
Atheists, who gives a shit, right??? At least that seems to be the
general attitude. From thousands of pulpits every Sunday, chickenshit preachers
slam Atheists for everything that's wrong in the world, much like Hitler used to
blame "the Jews". Preachers seem fearless in their slander and gossip, and
regularly make up lie after lie. Back when I was a Christian, I was of the
(uneducated) opinion that there must be MILLIONS of organized Atheists out there
just ready to burst thru the church doors and kill us. After I lost my religion,
I found out that in most cities, the number of church janitors easily exceeds
the number of organized Atheists, and the vast majority OF those Atheists were
well into their golden years.
Unorganized Atheists, as opposed to organized Atheists, to my surprise,
have turned out to be a VERY sizable minority in the USA. If you were to compare
them to denominations, they would come in as the THIRD largest denomination in
the United States. Examine the following chart, and educate yourself. Who knows?
You might be living next door to a whole family of...
Atheists!!!!
So, what does the City University
of New York's new "American Religious Identification Survey" tell us about the
incidence of nonreligion in America, and in particular nonreligion among those
American adults under the age of 30?
More importantly, what does it
tell us about atheists (nonreligious) in general? If you count atheism (no
religion) as a religious "sect" or "denomination," we are the third
largest religious "sect" in the United States. Here are the figures:
of all American adults (207.98 million), the top five "denominations" or
"sects" are as follows:
24.5% Roman
Catholic (50.87 million)
16.3% Baptist (33.83 million)
14.1% Not Religious (29.48 million)
6.8% "Christian" -- no denomination
supplied (14.19 million)
6.8% Methodist or Wesleyan (14.19 million)
The sixth "category" consists of
those who refused to answer the question.
Thus, the group of Americans who
say they are "not religious" (or "atheist," "agnostic," "humanist," or
"secular") is the third-largest "denomination" in the land, exceeded only
by the Baptists and the Roman Catholics.
Consider this, the group whose
name was, just 21 months ago, uttered by the mayor of one of America's largest
cities as a word meaning "evil." We were even shut out from the ceremony
mourning victims of the Day of Atrocity.
However, thirty-five percent of
the 29.4 million Americans who are "not religious" are adults under the age of
30. To get an idea of the size of this group: if we divide the group of
nonreligious people into two groups (the under-30 nonreligious adults and the
30-and-older nonreligious Americans), the under-30 nonreligious adults
themselves become a force to be reckoned with. The "sects" that are larger
than that of the under-30 nontheists are as follows:
all
Roman Catholics (50.87 million)
all Baptists (33.8 million)
all 30-and-older Nonreligious (19.16 million)
all Christian -- no denomination supplied
(14.19 million)
all Methodist or Wesleyan (14.15 million)
In other words, the group
consisting of under-30 nonreligious Americans is the sixth-largest
"denomination"!
I find this utterly staggering!
Let's back up and look at the
total figures again: Of the 207.98 million adult Americans, 14.1 percent
(29.48 million) are not religious! This is almost twice the percentage,
8.2 percent (13.1 million), we represented a mere ten years ago.
When a
Miami Mayor can't think of language vile enough to convey his disdain for
that day's arch-villains, if he calls these evil ones "atheists." Numbers
accomplish nothing when what we do with those numbers is remain silent, as if
behavior such as the Mayor's is acceptable. This is why I am doubly excited:
not only has it come out that we have the power in numbers, you have begun to
"Get up, stand up / Stand up for your rights," as Bob Marley used to chant!
If you had the suspicion that there were way too many christcrazy people in
the United States, you are right. Not only are we the most overdosed in
Christianity country in the world, we also have one of the largest crime
problems- proof once again that Christianity Doesn't Work As Advertised.
