Atheists in Alabama

[Stuckinthebush]

http://blog.al.com/montgomery/2013/11/atheist_in_alabama_talladega_c.html#incart_river_default

Roger and Pat Cleveland, of Talladega County, first had the idea in the 1980s to create an oasis where atheists in Alabama and the South could gather.

They wanted to have a place in the heart of the Bible Belt where atheists could feel free to congregate with those with similar beliefs and feel safe, Pat Cleveland said.

The Alabama Freethought Association, formed by the Clevelands in 1989, is now the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s longest-running chapter in the country and is the only one that the national organization teamed up with to build a meeting hall, FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said.

For years, Alabama was one of the organization’s largest and most active chapters with its own retreat on Lake Joan in rural Munford, which they call Lake Hypatia.

Membership in the state organization has dwindled to about 170 due to the aging of core activists. The national organization boasts about 20,000 members. However, the actual number of atheists both nationally and statewide are much larger, as many non-religious – especially in the South, do not publicly disclose their beliefs.

A 2012 Pew Research Center study shows 19 percent of the country – 60 million people -- consider themselves non-religious, up 15 percent from 2008.

A 2008 American Religious Identification Survey indicates 11 percent of Alabamans are non-religious and 12 percent are non-Christian.

(more...)

[JoeyT]

1. Are the 11% and 12% numbers different groups?

I'd be amazed if Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, New Agers, and Scientologists only made up 1% of the state.

Of course I'd be equally amazed to hear that between the non-religious and various non-Christian religions 23% of the state isn't Christian, so there you go.

The comments section is entirely predictable. Plenty of Christians sobbing about how oppressed they are because they're forced to allow people that disagree with them to exist.

[dimbear]

2. Lake Hypatia is a nice classical touch.

Having spent several years in the American South, I can witness how few and far between secular folk can be down there.

Good on em.

[RebelOne]

3. Lived here in the Atlanta, GA, area since 1989

and have yet to meet another atheist. I have met some who were leaning toward agnostic, but still stated they believed in the almighty god.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. It might be that they are just afraid to admit

that they are "atheists". I spent a lot of time claiming to be agnostic, when I really had no belief in any god. It seemed easier for people to handle....I was not stating that there was no god, only that I did not have total faith in a god.

When you live in a very Christian area, it is difficult to stand up to them. It is easier to just pretend.

[Stuckinthebush]

5. Drive to Birmingham and let's have lunch

You can then meet another atheist in the area!

[Fumesucker]

6. I'm outside Atlanta and have never knowingly met another atheist n/t