News
News of note to the atheist community
News
A survey on U.S. religious identification recently asked: "What religion do you identify with, if any?" Those responding "No religion" comprised over 14 percent of the sampling--representing nearly thirty million people. Of those not citing a religion, the number which consider themselves to be "humanist" rose a remarkable 70 percent over the past ten years.
These results come from a sophisticated survey conducted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York--the doctorate-granting institution of CUNY. Billed as the "most comprehensive portrait of religious identification in the U.S. today," over 50,000 randomly selected respondents aged eighteen or older participated in the survey, and the stated sampling error for predicting the 208 million U.S. adult population was only plus or minus 0.5 percent.
Other recent surveys suggested an even larger percentage. So, taking the most conservative figure (14%) and applying that to the last population figures for Santa Cruz County (249,705) would suggest that 34,959 Santa Cruzans are non-religious. In reality, the number is probably larger. How many would define themselves as atheists? There's no way to know for certain, but the number has to be significent. Even if only 10% considered themselves atheists, there would be almost 3,500 of us.
Now if we could only get ourselves organized, think of the positive influence we could have on our community!
"Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast."
—Isaac Asimov
Discussing the history, philosophy, and ethics of atheism promotes liberty, responsibility, and peace.