Neither Last Nor Least
Surveys indicate that approximately 15 percent of the United States population identifies as “non-religious,” making us the second largest group behind Christians, yet we're often listed last in most contexts, even by the most liberal sources. The list normally proceeds in descending order of adherents with the exception of the non-religious. If they bother to mention us at all, it's usually little more than an afterthought. I think this is wrong. The non-religious greatly outnumber all religions except Christianity combined, yet as a group we're hardly in the public's consciousness at all. I don't think this will ever change until we become so numerous that we're impossible to ignore.
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2 comments:
"until we become so large that we're impossible to ignore."
I hope that you don't mean that we have to become fat!
I think that the key is that we become vocal rather than merely numerous. I suspect that there is a critical mass phenomenon to any belief system -- the more people who are noticed to adhere to a system, the more new adherents join. It has worked for religions, so why could it not work for atheism, humanism, or rational thinking?
Thanks for the comment. I updated the post to read more precisely. :-)
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