Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) (43 page)

A student at the school named Jessica Ahlquist, who was raised Catholic but is now an atheist, became an informal spokesperson in favor of the prayer’s removal, speaking at several raucous and angry school board meetings. “[The prayer] seemed like it was saying, every time I saw it, ‘You don’t belong here,’” she said.

She also researched Roger Williams, who founded the colony of Rhode Island after he was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious opinions that weren’t in the majority, and shared her findings with the board.

New England, one of the two most secular regions of the country, may seem a strange place for this to play out, but Rhode Island is an exception — the most religious state in a secular region.

After the board voted 4–3 to keep the prayer banner, the ACLU filed suit and asked Jessica to serve as plaintiff. She agreed —and then began receiving violent threats from fellow students and the public. Her own state representative called Jessica “an evil little thing” on local radio. Two florists refused to deliver flowers ordered for her by supporters during the trial.

But the atheist community nationwide offered tremendous support, including $62,000 raised for her college education.

When asked about the local community’s reaction, Jessica said, “They might see it as a very negative thing right now, but I’m defending their Constitution, too.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

In January 2012, the US District Court for Rhode Island ruled in favor of the banner’s removal, and it was taken down in March of that year.

Such protests aren’t about attacking Christianity. They’re attempts to create a culture in which individuals and families can truly make their own choices in matters of belief, and no one religion is allowed to dominate these shared spaces. (For more on why this issue is important for everyone, including religious people, see
Chapter 8
.)

Duncan Henderson

In 1984, the US Congress enacted the Equal Access Act, which says that any club at a federally funded school must have the same access to meeting spaces and other resources as all other clubs. Religious groups and individuals who wanted prayer clubs and the like originally urged Congress to pass the law. As long as attendance is voluntary, the group is student-initiated, and it’s not disruptive, you’re good to go.

The act has permitted the formation of religious clubs in high schools across the United States, and rightly so. If they’re student-led, they should absolutely be allowed. But the act also protects and allows gay and lesbian clubs, atheists clubs — the works. So when Duncan Henderson, a student in Auburn, Alabama, wanted to form a freethought club at his junior high school to counter the feeling of isolation he and other atheist students felt in the ultra-religious state, it should have been a no-brainer.

“I had just ‘come out’ in seventh grade,” he told a local reporter. “And I had a few friends that I knew were nonreligious. And as we got older, we started hanging out more, and I was like, ‘You know what? I really want a group for us to not be badmouthed constantly by the majority of the school.’”

But he faced stiff opposition from school administrators, as well as bullying and even death threats from fellow students — one of whom told Duncan he would shoot him “and every other atheist with a shotgun.”

When he went on to Auburn High School, Duncan tried again. This time he found an ally in Dr. Todd Freeman, the school principal, who quickly stepped in to become the club’s sponsor — even though he himself is a Christian.

“Our kids have a right to meet,” he told the local TV station. “And they have a right to establish a club, and it’s not my prerogative to necessarily agree or disagree with positions of clubs, but it is my prerogative and responsibility to make sure they have the right to have the club. I could see where there would be resistance, but it’s not really a question because it’s law.”

Despite differences in perspective, it’s amazing what’s possible when well-informed people of good will work together.

Secular Student Alliance

Do you want tangible proof that the young nonreligious are growing by leaps and bounds, driving the growth of the whole movement? Look no further than the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), one of the most positive and dynamic organizations in freethought today.

Launched in November 2001 in Columbus, Ohio, SSA supports nontheistic students in the United States with leadership training, guest speakers, resources, and organizational support. In 2003 the SSA had 42 campus groups in their network. In 2009 it had 143 groups. At this writing (2012), it’s up to 413 groups, and every indication is that the growth will continue.

Founding new organizations

Several new nontheistic organizations have sprung up since the beginning of the century, including but not limited to:

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (
www.richarddawkins.net
):
This nonprofit was created “to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world . . . to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.”

The Secular Coalition for America (
www.secular.org
):
This political advocacy group represents atheists in Washington, DC, with a mission “to increase the visibility, amplify the diversity of, and respect for, the growing voice of the nontheistic community in the United States, and to protect and strengthen the secular character of government as the best guarantee of freedom for all.”

Project Reason (
www.project-reason.org
):
Author Sam Harris created this 501(c)(3) organization to “promote scientific knowledge and secular values within society.”

Recovering from Religion (
www.recoveringfromreligion.org
):
A nonprofit organization providing support for individuals leaving religious affiliations, especially those who experience severe ostracizing or retribution. Also sponsors the Secular Therapist Project (SecularTherapy.org) to help nontheistic individuals find therapists who are also nontheistic.

Spreading Humanism Worldwide

As the religious landscape shifts worldwide — including more religion in the global South and less in the global North — humanism has stepped forward as a compelling life philosophy that goes beyond disbelief in gods, giving a framework for meaning, ethics, community, and compassionate action. In the process, a movement-within-a-movement called New Humanism offers an alternative to the more confrontational approach of the New Atheists.

New Humanists can be just as critical of religion as New Atheists, but they generally choose to de-emphasize differences, spending more time building bridges and emphasizing common ground between the religious and nonreligious. Some just turn their focus away from religion entirely, working instead on building vibrant and effective humanist communities to meet many of the same human needs.

These sections explore the softer, more humanistic side of religious disbelief in the early 21st century and how it’s making its way around the world.

Creating humanist chaplaincies at Harvard and beyond

If a phrase like “humanist chaplaincy” makes your head hurt, you’re not alone. But like other terms that used to be contradictions — “female congressman,” for example, or “Microsoft Works” — it’s just an example of language lagging behind reality.

A
chaplain
has traditionally been a minister who serves as a counselor or conducts religious services for members of an otherwise secular institution, like a military unit, a college, or a hospital. Because nonreligious people have no less need for personal counseling or emotional support, and because many of them like to participate in rites of passage and other rituals, humanist chaplains have begun taking a place beside the religious ones.