In case you’ve been visiting here and are unaware, I’m an atheist. Yes, I am one of those, although I’m unsure what anyone means when they refer to me that way. If you’ve perused my archives, you’ll see a lot of posts concerning atheism, many about that those of us that will say publicly that we are atheists (around 10% of the US population) are just like anyone else in that we have families, careers, and yes, friends. What some of us used to say was that we were just like you, we just believed in one fewer god that you. Cute, huh? It didn’t really make any friends and rarely was cause for much discussion with non-atheists, but hey, we tried. Personally, I was never evangelical concerning my non-belief. I never attempted to convince anyone else that my way was the right one and theirs, Christian, Muslim, Judaism, etc., was wrong.

Still, there were difficult times but in the early 2000’s, atheists seemed to come out from behind the curtain and there was a lot of online activity with conference all. of=ver the country (and world, as you might guess) as well as popular atheists receiving interest from the media (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett -aka, “The Four Horsemen , to name just a few) became popular guests and speakers around the world. Atheism, in its way, was going mainstream – no more hiding in the shadows, at least for a lot of us. Of course there was, and still is, prejudice against non-believers. In the twenty-first century, it’s hard to see. During the heyday it was even worse where business owners in some cities, where some small atheist conferences were held, would have signs on their doors and windows saying that they wouldn’t serve said atheists. Remind any one of anything?

Now we have faded into the background and I’m sure that there are many religious that are happy to see our decline. But it really isnt a decline in numbers. Check the Pew Poll on Atheism, or this question. Is it possible that atheism is not fading from our society, as some want us to believe? It doesn’t appear there are any atheists of the level of popularity as those mentioned above, and I don’t think we atheists need or really want anyone to speak for us. It would be an improvement though if we were at least recognized as something other than demons and devil worshippers (we don’t worship any supernatural beings, remember?) and not relegated to the back bench of society.