{"id":748,"date":"2009-04-27T00:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T00:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/04\/atheists-come-out-of-the-closet.html"},"modified":"2009-04-27T00:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-27T00:10:00","slug":"atheists-come-out-of-the-closet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/04\/atheists-come-out-of-the-closet.html","title":{"rendered":"Atheists come out of the closet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does it seem like there are suddenly more atheists around? It may just be that they’re being more vocal about it. The New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein has the scoop<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying \u201cDon\u2019t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,\u201d the group\u2019s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman\u2019s living room to grapple with the fallout.<\/p>\n

The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite. An overflow audience of more than 100 had showed up for their most recent public symposium, and the board members discussed whether it was time to find a larger place.<\/p>\n

And now parents were coming out of the woodwork asking for family-oriented programs where they could meet like-minded nonbelievers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs everyone in favor of sponsoring a picnic for humanists with families?\u201d asked the board president, Jonathan Lamb, a 27-year-old meteorologist, eliciting a chorus of \u201cayes.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than ever, America\u2019s atheists are linking up and speaking out \u2014 even here in South Carolina, home to Bob Jones University, blue laws and a legislature that last year unanimously approved a Christian license plate embossed with a cross, a stained glass window and the words \u201cI Believe\u201d (a move blocked by a judge and now headed for trial).<\/p>\n

They are connecting on the Internet, holding meet-ups in bars, advertising on billboards and buses, volunteering at food pantries and picking up roadside trash, earning atheist groups recognition on adopt-a-highway signs.<\/p>\n

They liken their strategy to that of the gay-rights movement, which lifted off when closeted members of a scorned minority decided to go public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about carrying banners or protesting,\u201d said Herb Silverman, a math professor at the College of Charleston who founded the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, which has about 150 members on the coast of the Carolinas. \u201cThe most important thing is coming out of the closet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the link for more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does it seem like there are suddenly more atheists around? It may just be that they’re being more vocal about it. The New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein has the scoop: Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying \u201cDon\u2019t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,\u201d the group\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nAtheists come out of the closet - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/04\/atheists-come-out-of-the-closet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheists come out of the closet - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Does it seem like there are suddenly more atheists around? 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