Atheists Come Out

Mike Drucker and I just went down to American University in Washington DC this past weekend and performed for the campus Rationalists and Atheists organization. It was a fun time, and the third show I've done recently for a crowd of atheists. Other than the obvious benefits that come from performing for a group of like-minded people, I've also found that these crowds seem to be extremely appreciative to hear someone making jokes about subjects--like religion and it's place in society--that rarely get addressed by our mainstream media.

Along those same lines, here's a sort of recent article from the NY Times about atheists coming together and "coming out of the closet." I'm not fond of that phrasing, because I think that the struggles that young gay men and women face are far, far greater than what atheists face.


Here's a passage talking about the growing number of atheists in America:

"Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.

Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters."