Is atheism growing?

Two months ago I attended a master poetry class here in San Diego. The master poet was
Jimmy Santiago Baca. He asked the class of approximately 30 people, "who still believes in God." One woman (a good friend of mine) raised her hand. She's told him that she was a catholic and she went on to say that she felt her moral beliefs extended from her faith in God.

I've been an atheist for a very long time but cannot ever remember being in a room where
atheists were the overwhelming majority. I suspect that one or two others in the room believed in God but felt intimidated by the master poet, and so they didn't say anything. Even so, the single hand in the air staggered me because I had never experienced this feeling before. It was pure joy, like you get the first time you eat some delicious food you've never tasted before.

Granted this was a room full of poets and that is almost guaranteed to skew the results of the poll. Here are my questions to the group:

Is atheism growing?
Are more people just coming out of the closet as atheists?
Should we find better word choices for what we believe?

I think atheism is growing by leaps and bounds. I think the truth in science and the lies in religion have combined to form a sort of philosophical vortex that has resulted in a great shift away from belief and towards reason. It is only the beginning.

Someone wrote in a separate thread on this site that a Christian chiropractor fired someone for being an atheist. This type of action by believers can be seen by objective observers to be a desperate attempt to save religion. It won't work.

It is my hope that the word atheist will fall in disfavor by our kind in the next few years.
I prefer to call myself a naturalist, or just simply, a reasonable person.


The Supernatural is only the Natural disclosed.
-Emily Dickinson



I look forward to meeting people from this group.

Atheism is not only growing, it is becoming more visible and loud-mouthed. When I finally realized that I was an atheist in the mid 90's, I felt completely alone. Years went by before I even met another overt atheist. Today, it seems like they're everywhere.

I think the Internet has opened the floodgates. It has been absolutely instrumental in both de-converting theists and connecting established atheists with each other to organize and form communities. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if it weren't for the Internet. Web 2.0/Social Media changed everything.

Also, and I'm going to get flamed for this, I think the Bush administration and 9/11 were the biggest boosts to atheism in recent memory because they laid bare not just the absurdity of religious world views, but their outright danger to our survival as a species.

I agree with what you said about The Internet being a major contributor to the expansion of atheism as a force. Both of my grandfathers were atheists back in the early part of the last century. They died with their boots on as atheists in 1944 and 1966. My dad was an atheist but he just never talked about it. Mom was catholic so...

The Internet offers younger people an opportunity I didn't have as a kid to connect with like minded people. I made no bones about my atheism in high school but nobody ever joined with me as an openly atheist teen. It was a small town and it seemed understandable. Nobody gave me any grief because I didn't gripe about the prayers before football games etc..

Now, I'm a bit more vocal. There is strength in numbers.