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Originally Posted by shakran
Seems like every week someone comes out and says he's an athiest. Another post here on TFP has an interview with Julia Sweeney in which she informs us that she too is an athiest. As few as 3 years ago, that would be a career ender unless your name was George Carlin.
That got me to wondering - how much of this athiesm movement is fueled by people genuinely sitting down, thinking it out, and coming to the conclusion that there is no god, and how much of it is just because it's a trendy thing to do?
I recall 10 years or so ago when being bisexual was suddenly hip. Every couple of days some celebrity would get him/herself onto a TV show and tell the world they were bi. You don't really hear about bisexual celebs anymore.
I'm sure it's a bit of both, but I'd be interested in knowing just how many of these newly-out-of-the-closet athiests are just hopping on the latest bandwagon. Your thoughts?
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I think a lot of it is a response to the religious right and other fanatical religious movements around the world ramping up their rhetoric. People are starting to realize that fanatical, impractical, and nonsensical beliefs can do real damage.
A return to fanaticism and fundamentalism is usually a sign of an ideology in its death throws. When any given school of thought is incapable of reconciling its central tenets with modern life or simple objective reality, its most vocal proponents usually respond by undercutting their particular ideologies' ability to incorporate any new information. This was evident in the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the Christian uprising in Alexandria.
In the United States in particular, mainstream Christianity has really gone off on a tangent. The religious right routinely attempts to legislate morality and pass pseudoscientific nonsense off as legitimate science. You can only expect a rational human being to suspend their cognitive dissidence for so long. Eventually, they're going to start smelling the bullshit.
That, to a certain extent, is exactly what I think is happening. People feel more comfortable standing up and saying "You know what? BULL-SHIT."
Beyond that, I wouldn't say atheism is experiencing a growth period. We're just hearing a lot more from it's most vocal proponents. The same can be said for the batshit crazy variety of fundamentalists christians. There are plenty of believers out there who are capable of practicing their faith like grown-ups, but unfortunately they tend not to be the ones in any position of religious authority.
That being said, atheists still appear to be one of the most mistrusted minorities in America. I'm glad more are speaking up. There is a lot of unmitigated horseshit out there that goes unchallenged.