December 28, 2013
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Days may be dark right now—after all, as the memes proclaim,
axial tilt is the reason for the season.
But things are looking bright for those who would like to see humanity
more grounded in science and reason. If you are a nonbeliever in the
mood for a party, here are 10 reasons to celebrate.
1. Coming out atheist is up and coming. In May 2013, after a deadly tornado destroyed her home, young mother Rebecca Vitsmun gave an
unexpected answer when
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked whether she thanked the Lord for her decision
to flee. Vitsmun tells the story in a sometimes-tearful
interview with Seth Andrews, host of the
Thinking Atheist.
“I had this moment in which I realized you either lie or tell the
truth, and I’m not a liar.” In that moment, Vitsmun outed herself not
only to a national media audience but also to her Christian parents and
friends.
Vitsmun’s situation was extraordinary, but candor about
nonbelief is becoming more and more commonplace. From Hollywood celebs
like Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie to high school students, skeptics
are opening up about their beliefs and values—or simply declining to lie
when asked. (A quick-read book,
Mom, Dad, I’m an Atheist, offers tips for those who are contemplating when, where and how best to come out.)
2. The cutting edge of freethought is less cutting and edgy. In
generations past, coming out as an atheist required a devil-may-care
attitude. The social and even financial costs were so high that most
admitted atheists were also unflinching social activists, people who had
a high degree of zeal and high tolerance for conflict. Most were also
white males who were comparatively safe taking on the religious
establishment. Until recently, then, atheism was virtually synonymous
with anti-theism, and even today people complain that pioneers of the
New Atheist movement like
Dawkins,
Harris, Dennett, and the late great Hitchens are unnecessarily antagonistic.
But
thanks in part to their courage and flame-throwing, a new generation is
emerging, one that sees atheism not as an end point, but as a
beginning. Alain de Botton’s
TED talk and book,
Atheism 2.0, simply
posits the nonexistence of God and then goes on to discuss what
humanity can glean from the rubble of religious traditions. Many younger
people are casting aside labels and adopting what fits from religious
holidays and traditions, in the same way that they mix and match
cultural, racial or sexual identities. As boundaries soften, more
women,
Hispanics and
blacks are joining or even leading the conversations.
3. Biblical sexuality is getting binned. Finally. In
the last part of December, marriage equality became law in three more
states: New Mexico, Ohio and—drumroll—Utah! Even more exciting is the
fact that legal changes can barely keep up with
shifting attitudes about
queer sexuality. Things are changing when it comes to straight sex,
too, and not in keeping with biblical priorities. Perhaps the most
consistent sexual theme in the Bible is that a woman’s
consent is not needed or
even preferred before sex. By demanding an end to rape culture, today’s
young women and men are making the Bible writers look as if they were
members of a tribal, Iron Age culture in which
women were property like livestock
and children—to
be traded, sold and won in battle. Small wonder the culture warriors
have ramped up their fight against contraception and abortion. Imagine
if, on top of everything else, all women got access to
expensive top-tier contraceptives and the power to end ill-conceived childbearing.
4. Recovering believers are reclaiming their lives. Most
atheists and agnostics are former believers, which means that many
carry old psychological baggage from childhood beliefs or some
post-childhood cycle of conversion and deconversion. While many former
believers slip out of religion unscathed, some do not, and believers in
recovery now have a name:
reclaimers.
A small but growing number of cognitive scientists are exploring the
relationship between religion and mental illnesses like depression,
anxiety disorders and panic. Marlene Winell, a California consultant who
works full time with recovering fundamentalists, has brought attention
to a pattern she calls
Religious Trauma Syndrome. Darrel Ray has created a
matching service for secular clients and therapists, while Kathleen Taylor at Oxford has
raised the question of whether religious fundamentalism itself may one day be treatable.
5. Communities are coming together. When two British comedians, Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones, launched a “sort-of church” for nonbelievers last January, their
Sunday Assembly got
media attention around the world. By December, they were on a 40-day
tour of 40 cities from Auckland to Portland helping local groups launch
assemblies of their own.
Their
quirky effort
is part of a much broader movement among atheists who are exploring how
to build communities that provide mutual assistance, outlets for wonder
and delight, rituals to mark holidays, and organized volunteering.
Some, like the
Sunday Assembly or Jerry DeWitt’s
Community Mission Chapel,
deliberately draw on the structure of the traditional church service,
with music and a brief lecture followed by tea and coffee. Others, like
Seattle Atheists,
use social media to organize a broad array of lectures, community
service opportunities and recreation. Harvard’s Humanist Community
opened doors on a new Humanist Hub for both students and locals on
December 8. Even
clergy who have lost their faith are banding together for mutual support and friendship.
6. Secular giving is growing. In
times of crisis, faith communities often step in to provide emergency
assistance or to help those who are most poor and desperate.
Proselytizing aside, churches are able to provide real service because
they have both the will and the necessary infrastructure. Increasingly,
atheists and humanists are saying,
we need to do the same. Since 2010, the
Foundation Beyond Belief has
given away almost $1.5 million raised from nonbelievers who can give as
little as $5 a month, and is now turning attention to building a corps
of humanist volunteers, which is also a focus of the
Harvard community. In July, the Foundation Beyond Belief will host its first conference,
Humanism at Work.
7. The Religious Right is licking wounds.
Bets are still out on whether the Catholic Bishops and the Southern
Baptists are retreating or simply rebranding, but either one is good for
people who care about science, reason, compassion, or the common good.
What’s clear is that the two most powerful hierarchies in the Religious
Right have realized that they can’t simply seize the reins of power and
remake secular institutions along theological lines. Pope Francis has
given a mixture of signals on how much evidence and compassion will
guide church priorities—mostly along the lines of yes if you’re poor, no
if you’re female. Russell Moore, new head of the Southern Baptist
Convention,
has warned that
Baptists shouldn’t be “mascots for any political faction.” The takeaway
for all of us? Fearful, authoritarian conservatives have been smacked
back in their patriarchal power plays, and they know it. Shining a light
on cruelty, bigotry and ignorance works.
8. Texas is evolving! The
State of Texas is such a large textbook market that Texas standards can
influence content across the nation. This means that a handful of
well-placed wingnuts in Texas can reshape the next generation’s understanding of science or history. Thanks to the hard work of the
Texas Freedom Network and
young activists, public school texts in Texas will be teaching
biological science rather than creationism. This fall, reviewers
appointed by the Texas Board of Education pushed to include creationism
in the texts, but publishers pushed back. Acceptance of evolution is
growingacross
the country. As Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species
that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one
that is the most adaptable to change.” Ultimately, the review panel
itself
rejected creationist arguments. Now that’s evolution!
9. Millennials are taking up the torch. When
it comes to separation of church and state, young people are teaming up
with established players like the Freedom From Religion Foundation for
some real wins. Many of the most hopeful, inspiring freethought stories
of 2013 had young protagonists, and we can expect more of the same
moving forward.
Zack Kopplin was
still in high school when he took on the state of Louisiana over
creationism in schools. Now he is a full-time science advocate and
columnist for the Guardian. “
Evil little thing”
Jessica Ahlquist, whose lawsuit forced removal of a prayer banner at
her high school in 2012, has continued a path of secular activism.
Inspiring stories of other young church-state activists can be found
here.
10. Rebuilding the wall of separation isn’t the only place Millennials are leading the way. Young adults who grew up isolated in abusive homeschooling situations have created a network,
Homeschoolers Anonymous,
so that they can lend each other support and fight for change. When a
Catholic school in Bellevue, Washington fired a gay teacher, hundreds
of
students walked out chanting,
“Change the church.” Their protest was picked up by students at other
schools and Catholic alumni. A new documentary movie with a millennial
production crew,
The Unbelievers,
has been described as a rock concert love-fest between biologist
Richard Dawkins and physicist Larry Krause and their young fan base of
science lovers.
For
those who want to find secular inspiration rather than to join a fight
for rights and reason, young photographer Chris Johnson has created a
coffee table book that challenges readers to grab hold of this one
precious life: A Better Life—100 Atheists Speak Out About Joy and Meaning in a World Without God. The title says it all.
Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington and the founder of
Wisdom Commons.
She is the author of "Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old
Beliefs in a New Light" and "Deas and Other Imaginings." Her articles
can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.
