David Mills, author of the book "Atheist Universe," delivers a rousing pep-talk titled "10 Reasons America is Approaching a Golden Age of Atheism."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBxKFCHUpo
1 - Technology has removed an Isolation.
Whereas before there were 3 main tv stations which blacked out atheism, now there are 100's of tv stations offering other points of view. Then you have things like YouTube, internet forums, myspace etc etc which removes cultural isolation and give atheism more exposure and even more acceptance than when it was kept quiet.
2 - Explosion of atheist books.
There have been more books in the last several years promoting atheism than there has been in the last XX number of years. Not only that, but there are many books promoting atheism in the Amazon top 100. David makes the point that his book would never have been published years ago because he was not a nobel prize winner like Bertrand Russell... especially if it's about atheism. But it is possible today.
3 - Science has eliminated our "God of the gaps".
As science progresses more and more, religions have less of a place to say "God did it".
4 - Failure of creation science and intelligent design.
It will never make any progress towards being called science, will never be accepted accepted by scientific consensus and will never be in text books in schools (except of course religious schools). The longer this failure continues, the more the benefit for atheism.
5 - Even believers abandoning literal interpretation of the bible.
Once upon a time believers assumed the bible was infallible. Now they don't believe in the old testament anymore, and perhaps slowly the same thing will happen with the new testament. If we can get them to agree that it's just a story, just metaphoric, then once again this will help reduce religiousity and help atheism.
6 - Public disgust with god driven politics.
More people are becoming revolted with things like vetoing stem cell research for religious reason, going to war because god/jesus told him to, the evangelical welcoming of global warming to hasten the arrival of jesus... and in general, 8 years of Bush. This can only help the cause in the population seeking more rational leadership.
7 - Less tolerant with descrimination of gays, women and african americans.
With the church and fundamentalist religious people usually being the last to remain descriminatory of these groups, it's showing the rest of us how bad religion can be for intolerance of certain groups. Eventually gays will be allowed to marry (at least outside of church), and once again the church loses touch with the rest of society.
8 - The rise of muslim fundamentalism provides a parallel between muslim fundamentalism and christian fundamentalism.
People look to what's going on in the Middle East and see how ridiculous those people are. Being so fanatic over things that don't exist, fighting over a holy book. People are realizing that christians are just as idiotic (and once upon a time just as violent). Christians too froth at the mouth over dumb shit things that rational people can see is pointless. Atheism as a result will inevitably grow the more people see christians and muslims acting like morons.
9 - More people are seeking higher education.
Education can only help the cause of atheism since most credible places of education will not enforce superstition, religion and supernatural bullshit. It teaches people to think rationally, it exposes people to more ideas etc etc. Academics, scientists and probably even students at higher education level, have less chance of believing in any kind of god.
10 - Scholars are beginning to realize that Jesus never existed.
The common theme from scholars is that maybe Jesus did actually exist, but of course they reject all the miracle stuff and son of god thing. But more are becoming aware that there is no evidence whatsoever that he was a historical figure. It only takes these scholars to read what the early christian writers wrote to realize that they never even mentioned anything of an Earthly Jesus; instead they believed in a heavenly Jesus. Stands to reason that the writers later changed the idea to an Earthly Jesus and that would explain the burst of writings on an Earthly Jesus many years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBxKFCHUpo
1 - Technology has removed an Isolation.
Whereas before there were 3 main tv stations which blacked out atheism, now there are 100's of tv stations offering other points of view. Then you have things like YouTube, internet forums, myspace etc etc which removes cultural isolation and give atheism more exposure and even more acceptance than when it was kept quiet.
2 - Explosion of atheist books.
There have been more books in the last several years promoting atheism than there has been in the last XX number of years. Not only that, but there are many books promoting atheism in the Amazon top 100. David makes the point that his book would never have been published years ago because he was not a nobel prize winner like Bertrand Russell... especially if it's about atheism. But it is possible today.
3 - Science has eliminated our "God of the gaps".
As science progresses more and more, religions have less of a place to say "God did it".
4 - Failure of creation science and intelligent design.
It will never make any progress towards being called science, will never be accepted accepted by scientific consensus and will never be in text books in schools (except of course religious schools). The longer this failure continues, the more the benefit for atheism.
5 - Even believers abandoning literal interpretation of the bible.
Once upon a time believers assumed the bible was infallible. Now they don't believe in the old testament anymore, and perhaps slowly the same thing will happen with the new testament. If we can get them to agree that it's just a story, just metaphoric, then once again this will help reduce religiousity and help atheism.
6 - Public disgust with god driven politics.
More people are becoming revolted with things like vetoing stem cell research for religious reason, going to war because god/jesus told him to, the evangelical welcoming of global warming to hasten the arrival of jesus... and in general, 8 years of Bush. This can only help the cause in the population seeking more rational leadership.
7 - Less tolerant with descrimination of gays, women and african americans.
With the church and fundamentalist religious people usually being the last to remain descriminatory of these groups, it's showing the rest of us how bad religion can be for intolerance of certain groups. Eventually gays will be allowed to marry (at least outside of church), and once again the church loses touch with the rest of society.
8 - The rise of muslim fundamentalism provides a parallel between muslim fundamentalism and christian fundamentalism.
People look to what's going on in the Middle East and see how ridiculous those people are. Being so fanatic over things that don't exist, fighting over a holy book. People are realizing that christians are just as idiotic (and once upon a time just as violent). Christians too froth at the mouth over dumb shit things that rational people can see is pointless. Atheism as a result will inevitably grow the more people see christians and muslims acting like morons.
9 - More people are seeking higher education.
Education can only help the cause of atheism since most credible places of education will not enforce superstition, religion and supernatural bullshit. It teaches people to think rationally, it exposes people to more ideas etc etc. Academics, scientists and probably even students at higher education level, have less chance of believing in any kind of god.
10 - Scholars are beginning to realize that Jesus never existed.
The common theme from scholars is that maybe Jesus did actually exist, but of course they reject all the miracle stuff and son of god thing. But more are becoming aware that there is no evidence whatsoever that he was a historical figure. It only takes these scholars to read what the early christian writers wrote to realize that they never even mentioned anything of an Earthly Jesus; instead they believed in a heavenly Jesus. Stands to reason that the writers later changed the idea to an Earthly Jesus and that would explain the burst of writings on an Earthly Jesus many years later.
