General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am not religious. Can you please categorize Atheism into a "race"? [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)It's not about "cuteness" though. It's not about militancy, either.
It's about recognizing a person's philosophy of life in equal measure as one's peers.
The relatives of people long dead, if they even knew or care if their ancestor was an atheist, are unlikely to petition the government to change something that wasn't allowed until fairly recently.
Just because you don't see evidence of them, in the form of recently permitted symbols, does not mean that they weren't there.
Since 40 percent of millennials identify as atheist or agnostic, though, you'll probably see more of them in future. It's probably off-putting to many people that this Sunday Assembly movement is taking hold; from a religious perspective, it encroaches on their collective "brand," and from a "militant atheist" perspective, the POV is that these young people are "selling out." What they are actually doing, though, is joining the mainstream and pushing their philosophy of life right out there in the marketplace of ideas.
Next step--acknowledged atheists in public life, in electoral politics, without anyone batting an eye. I may see this in my lifetime if that Sunday Assembly movement keeps growing, which I think it will.