About

This site is an exploration of what it means to be free from religion in a country awash in fervent christianism. Atheists in America in the 21st century are a phenomenon not seen before.  We live in a country where our right to be free from religion is protected by our Constitution. And we live in a time when, finally, millions are throwing off the last vestiges of the ancient superstitions and standing up to those who still wish to perpetuate de facto theocracy. In the last 20 years, the number of out atheists has simply mushroomed. This is largely due to the internet which has allowed Atheist to find each other, and has given us visibility and a voice. Every day, thousands are discovering that it is not only OK to be an atheist, it’s just plain smart. Atheists everywhere are fearlessly asserting their right to be free from the ancient religions. And all that that implies.

The old religions will not yield easily to Reason. For millenia, the old religions the voice of authority, backed by the power of the state, and used that power to crush dissent. For most of the last 2000 years it was highly lethal to question the European churches. For all of those centuries, they told their flocks that Atheism was the worst imaginable crime and would be punished in the worst imaginable way.  Non-believers were demonized, despised, and deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Atheists were hunted for bounty.

Twenty centuries of bad press, deserved or not, will give pretty much everyone on the planet a bad impression of Atheists. Even now, the adamantly religious do not hesitate to perpetuate the big lie: Atheists, they say, are amoral and immoral; atheists believe in nothing and have no principles; atheists are devil worshippers and they eat babies. A lot of the old-timers even call us Communists and suggest that we return to Russia. And that is kind of the point. We are not Soviet Communists and have no connection to the defunct Soviet Union. That is just one of many facts that the adamantly religious must ignore in order to continue to portray us as enemies of all that is good and pure.

Nevertheless, under our Constitution, the rights of Atheists are exactly equal to the rights of god-believers. This has been the case since about 1787 in this country, though widespread lack of enthusiam for the rights of Atheists has only perpetuated the hostitlity, making Atheists the most hated minority in America. In spite of Constitutional protections, christianity has continued to dominate culture and government, and, given a couple of millennia of power and privilege, they have never had much incentive, and little inclination, to consider the best interests of Atheists.

But this is now changing. Somewhere between 50 and 75 million Americans do not believe in the christian deity. And we have computers. We are loud and proud and we have the momentum.  And there is not a damn thing they can do about it.

So, buckle up kids – this is going to get interesting.

Rick Wingrove