Believers say atheism no longer a 'dirty word'

By Rebecca Rosen Lum

When Richard Golden put the word out that he was starting a group for
atheists in Walnut Creek, about a dozen people showed up.

Two years later, 80 are dues-paying members and several more drop in
on twice-monthly meetings to chew on everything from particle physics
to court cases.

Horrified by escalating religious violence and alarmed by the Bush
administration's "faith-based initiatives," which make government
money available to religious organizations, atheists are coming out of
the closet -- and organizing.

"Local groups are springing up all over the place," said Ellen
Johnson, president of American Atheists. Active groups have grown by
about 90 percent over the past six years, she said.

In the past few years, groups affiliated with American Atheists have
taken root in Walnut Creek, Berkeley, San Francisco, Davis and Silicon
Valley. East Bay Atheists has grown to more than 300 members.

California membership in the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group
of atheists and agnostics that monitors the separation of church and
state, increased from 900 to 1,200 in one year. Nationally, it grew
from 5,000 in 2004 to 6,400 members by the beginning of 2006, said
co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Meetings and rallies, once the province of older folks, now include
younger people with tattoos and dreadlocks. The Internet, radio spots
during Al Franken's Air America radio show and campus groups are
responsible, Johnson said.

"They don't have the baggage that someone my age does," she said.
"Atheism was such a dirty word -- associated with communism. Plus,
this is a very scientific era. They're not afraid to say what they
think."

But atheism appears to be gaining ground as a belief, not just a wave
of political activism by those who fear the wall between church and
state is being disassembled. Books challenging religion such as
"Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris and "The God Delusion" by
Richard Dawkins appeared at No. 5 and No. 23, respectively, on the
Amazon.com bestseller list Wednesday.

"Our primary conviction is that there is only one world -- there is no
supernatural world -- the world that is the subject of scientific
investigation," Golden said. "We are focused, as the humanists are, on
having our human potential increased in this world, rather than
working everything out in the world to come."

Two UC Berkeley sociology professors found that the proportion of
Americans with no religion doubled from 1990 to 1998, but that it has
leveled out at 14 percent.

"We argue that ... reflects a growing backlash against the role of
organized religion," said Claude Fischer, one of the study's authors.
"People on the political left have reacted against the organization of
churches on the right. Their statement is a reaction: 'If that's what
religion means, than I'm not religious.'"

Studies suggest the surge in interest is more a wavelet than a
tsunami. The Baylor University Institute Religion Survey, released
Sept. 11, showed that 10.8 percent of the nation's population, or
about 10 million Americans, do not adhere to some faith. The majority
of the 1,721 respondents who were unaffiliated with a religion said
they believe in "some higher power."

On Oct. 6, many atheists will head to the Freedom From Religion
Foundation's convention in San Francisco to hear Harris, who also
wrote "The End of Faith," speak and to watch comic Julia Sweeney
perform her "Letting Go of God."

The Foundation has brought 30 First Amendment lawsuits since 1977 and
has more percolating through the courts. Among its victories: winning
the first federal lawsuit challenging direct government funding of a
faith-based agency.

Sept. 11, 2001, hammered home the dangers of religious fundamentalism
for Larry Hicok of Berkeley, who describes the terrorist attacks as an
ultimate "faith-based initiative."

Now he is chairman of East Bay Atheists, whose membership has been
growing over the past five years.

One of the most recent developments to galvanize activists is the
Public Expression of Religion Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. John
Hostettler, R-Ind.

The bill would deny attorneys fees and damages to those who
successfully argue against violations of the church-state separation.
The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill on a party-line vote:
Republicans for, Democrats opposed.

"There's no other time in American history where the wall between
church and state was in such danger," Gaylor said. "We could be taking
a faith-based case every day if we had the resources. This is the time
to come out swinging."