Nonprophet organization

Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.

Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters.

Local and national atheist organizations have flourished in recent years, fed by outrage over the Bush administration’s embrace of the religious right. A spate of best-selling books on atheism also popularized the notion that nonbelief is not just an argument but a cause, like environmentalism or muscular dystrophy.

[...]

Until recent years, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry were local pariahs. Mr. Silverman — whose specialty license plate, one of many offered by the state, says “In Reason We Trust” — was invited to give the invocation at the Charleston City Council once, but half the council members walked out. The local chapter of Habitat for Humanity would not let the Secular Humanists volunteer to build houses wearing T-shirts that said “Non Prophet Organization,” he said.

When their billboard went up in January, with their Web site address displayed prominently, they expected hate mail.

“But most of the e-mails were grateful,” said Laura Kasman, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina.

The board members meeting in the Kasmans’ living room were an unlikely mix that included a gift store owner, a builder, a grandmother, a retired nursing professor, a retired Navy officer, an administrator at a primate sanctuary and a church musician. They are also diverse in their attitudes toward religion.

More Atheists Shout It From The Rooftops (New York Times)

The Hitchens Post

Verses inspired by Gawker's brilliant Wonka-referencing tag for posts on atheism, "Everlasting Godstoppers," and Hitch's latest runaway bestseller:

Come and think, have a drink
In a world of pure rationalization
It's not odd, there's no God,
But there's Scotch enough for a small nation

Just for spite, trash the Right,
And their blind insistence on Creation
Warn the world, as we're whirled,
Into spheres of Islamification

You will never view Paradise
It's a snare and a delusion
Only adding to confusion
Want to change the world? God's an illusion.

God's not great, so berate
Both fanatics and moderate believers
We've no use for a truce
Just rhetorical checkmate.

If you want to view Paradise
There is nothing like polemic
No matter how you pray or hymn it
Our derision... is systemic...

Damn, if I could only figure out a way to turn a minor talent for doggerel into a paying gig.