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GOD, NO GOD AND BROCCOLI

Trinity College recently released its 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), which revealed a steady rise in the ranks of non-religious Americans. One of the country's largest ever surveys of faith and belief, the latest ARIS found the percentage of Americans who don't claim a religious identity climbed to 15%, nearly double the number reported in 1990.

“Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly," observed Ariela Keysar, who conducted the survey with Barry A. Kosmin. "We now know it wasn't. The 'Nones' [non-religious people] are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union."

According to the 2008 survey:

Only 1.6% of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12% are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12% more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6m. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death.

The first ARIS survey was released in 1990, during the presidency of George H.W. Bush—a man who in 1987 reportedly said he didn’t believe that “atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots". 

This was a stunning statement, one that would've rendered Ronald Reagan junior, the atheist son of the sitting president, in search of a green card. But perhaps President Reagan never got the news, since Bush’s hideous quote didn’t exactly create a political storm. Evidently calling atheists non-citizens and non-patriots was a yawn compared to the stunning revelation that he disliked broccoli.

These surveys show a significant non-believing population in America, but there are some who consider atheists a relatively new species. In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed decrying the charmlessness of 21st-century atheists, Sam Schulman opened his piece with the line, “When the very first population of atheists roamed the earth in the Victorian age . . .”  How interesting to learn that atheism is a modern invention, no older than the photograph! Also, it is not true: long before humans believed in God, they didn’t. Every primate and every infant, after all, is an atheist. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God", according to Psalm 14:1, written well before "Nicholas Nickleby".

Nobody panic, but it seems there is even a "fool" in Congress (yes, even there). In 2007 Pete Stark (CA-13), a longtime Democratic congressman, became the first openly “nontheist” in the history of the United States Congress. “Nontheist” appears to be a word that some atheists call themselves, not unlike liberals who call themselves “progressives”. 

Here's the official congressional tally, according to a recent Pew report. As the Trinity survey shows (and Pew confirms), atheists are under-represented. While over 16% of Americans say they are not affiliated with a religion, no one in Congress will admit to this. (While an atheist, Stark is actually a Unitarian-Universalist, so he is affiliated with a religion.)

Still, we are seeing a long overdue place for atheism in American politics and culture—both in rhetoric and representation. After all, this latest survey comes less than two months after Barack Obama became the first president to mention non-believers in an inauguration speech, despite his own faith. 

It is certainly reassuring to know that atheists in America are finally being taken as seriously as, say, broccoli. 

~ BRADLEY FREEDMAN

Picture credit: goa_entranced (via Flickr)