No Single Strand of Secularism has Vast Numbers

 

Every once in a while I read a Christian critique of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and those atheist writers of 15 years ago. The standard conclusion of these Christians is that the best sellers were read by millions but the entire "atheist movement" they started has died. This is, of course, non-sense. 

It's true there have not been shocking best sellers about atheism recently. It's also true that there are not atheist meetings attended by the numbers who attend church weekly. Christian pundits have to agree, however, Christian numbers are falling.  They also have to agree the numbers who claim no religious affiliation, "nones", has risen dramatically. Nones are now the largest religious group in the U.S.

The Christian pundit in the link points out that when Dawkins published his famous book, the generation that bought and read it had grown up in Sunday School and knew the basics of Christianity. The atheist authors aimed their writing at those who knew Christianity. Today there are millions of young people who did not grow up going to church. The attacks on Christianity by Dawkins are not interesting to them because they don't know what Dawkins was attacking. The prey has disappeared.

The Christian link author makes light of a group called "Sunday Gatherings." It is a secular group, perhaps atheist, started several years ago by two British comedians. I had forgotten about it but has many chapters across Europe and the U.S. The gatherings have a talk on some secular topic then discussion. There is group singing of contemporary pop music. The sequence of the program is prescribed by a home office. These groups are serious people addressing serious social topics.

The link says Sunday Gathering is trying to fulfill a "longing" people have and feel the need to fulfill. He says, following the script of Christianity, the longing can only be fulfilled by the Christian church service.

Maybe non believing readers have had my experience. It is that there not a driving desire for atheists, or other branches of skepticism, to get together for fellowship. There are about 2,000 people on the atheist list serve where I now live. Perhaps 10% show up at the brunch events twice a month. Even among that small group of 20-30 people there are disagreements about which is the best restaurant, whether we should have programs of just visit and how often we should meet. "Longing for something?" I don't think so.

Dawkins and Harris are never discussed. Eggs and pancakes are more important.