Expert: Vincent M. Wales - 2/20/2011

Question
As someone who lives in a fairly secular country (though technically CofE) I'm still dismayed to see far too much "demonisation" and negativity towards atheism. So my question is this: Do you think atheism gets too much negative publicity (as you're in the U.S. I assume its probably worse) and what do you think we, as atheists, can do about and the best course of action to help present atheism as a viable and preferable alternative to blind faith.

Thanks in advance

Daniel

Answer
Daniel:

Though I've never been to the U.K., my friends who've lived both there and here in the U.S. assure me that things are, indeed, much worse here.  Among the "industrialized" nations of the world, the U.S. is the only one, to my knowledge, that has not been growing increasingly secular over the past hundred years.  (In fact, the U.S. in the past couple decades has probably been the most overtly religious that it's ever been.)  This may, finally, be beginning to change, as I keep hearing reports that more and more teens identify as atheists than in the past.

So on a global scale, I think secularism in general is becoming more widely accepted.  And in my opinion, the only thing I suggest we do is continue what we've been doing: teaching by example.  Live a purposeful, ethical life, and don't hide the fact that you don't subscribe to fantasies in order to be the good person you are.  

Confront the bullshit "demonisation" when you see it, of course.  But in my view, passive persuasion is the best weapon we have.