CHARLESTON, SC, USA, April 27, 2009: More than ever, America’s atheists are linking up and speaking out. They are connecting on the Internet, holding meet-ups in bars, advertising on billboards and buses, volunteering at food pantries and picking up roadside trash, earning atheist groups recognition on adopt-a-highway signs.
Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years. Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990.
At the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, 19 atheist students gathered in a group that uses humor to convey their opinion. They say that their goal is not confrontation, or even winning converts, but changing the public’s stereotype of atheists. A favorite activity is to gather at a busy crossroads on campus with a sign offering “Free Hugs” from “Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist.”