It doesn’t seem that long ago, at least to me, when atheism was in the news and controversial, at least in some people’s eyes. Today, it appears to have completely vanished from the social conversation completely. Is that for the good or not? Does it really matter that atheism remain in the spotlight and contentious with mainstream society? Well, aren’t we, atheists, part of mainstream society? If not, how not?

When it comes down to it, atheism offers the common person nothing, and especially recently, people are looking for something more than a non-belief in god(s). Of course, there are atheists still evangelizing out there in the ether, but no one is really listening. We’ve become irrelevant to any conversation. I think that’s good. I’d rather be invisible than a target for all things evil. No one cares if I’m an atheist, just as I’ve never cared if they were Christian or Muslim, or any other religion. What a person believes is immaterial to who they are (mainly). I rarely find anyone that introduces themselves by their religious belief ( a preacher, imam, or rabbi would be different).

I think it’s okay that we atheists virtually vanished from the societal landscape. It means to me that we have become a non-threat to society in general which may mean, in larger terms, we are more accepted. We’re ignored as a group because, well, we aren’t a group. It’s hard to categorize us because we come from all walks of life. Mostly liberal, politically, but beyond that, very diverse. Just like other people. We’re not sought after as a block because we’re not. Even a large group of liberals have to be able to come agreement to become something viable politically or socially, and atheists are not even close to becoming any sort of power to any ideology extant. Let’s go herd cats. Easier.

We are, and have always been, part of mainstream society no matter who attempts to convince any one of the opposite. The main difference is our non-belief, no different than people that prefer Coke over Pepsi. Would we consider someone with different tastes in music, movies, food, or anything else to be outside the mainstream of society? Of course not and therefore, atheists aren’t and as I have written on these pages multiple times over the years, never have been.