As teens, they start thinking that it just doesn’t make sense anymore, and for years, it’s their secret…  then, in college, surrounded by more open-minded peers, they come out of the dark, still-stigmatized atheist closet.

One in four adults under 30 are atheists, agnostics or unaffiliated, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (see chart), but the number of young people who outwardly identify as nonbelievers is much, much smaller, for fear that it could threaten their careers, social lives or familial relationships. Now, with the help of the Internet and the Obama administration, 2009 may start a more open age for America’s nonreligious population.

Hemant Mehta, a 26-year-old living outside Chicago, describes himself as a math teacher by day and “friendly atheist” by night.  His blog, aptly titled friendlyatheist.com, is one of hundreds of sites where freethinkers and nonbelievers gather online to critique religious and political news and discuss life events (dating, marriage, jobs) from an atheist perspective.

Although Hemant figured he had been an atheist since 14, he held off for years, telling his parents only when he couldn’t hide it any longer.

“I thought, ‘Well, I can’t keep lying to them,’” said Hemant, who was traveling to secular students conferences across the country while attending the University of Illinois at Chicago a few years ago.  “They were disappointed. They thought, ‘if you’re not religious, where are you going to get morals from?’”

Because religion often holds ties to culture and ethnicity, coming out atheist can be even harder for second-generation Americans like Hemant, whose Indian parents practice Jainism, an Indian religion based on non-violence towards all living things.

“I knew very few Indian atheists,” said Hemant, who remains a vegetarian, a spillover from his Jain roots.  “You won’t see a lot of black atheists either.  At any national convention, it’s mostly old white men, but that’s slowly starting to change.”

According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, whites and Asians are more likely to identify themselves as having no religion than blacks or Hispanics.

Fellow young atheist Ron Gold agrees that “most of the outspoken atheists are, like me, white males…the stereotypical science types.” But as atheism grows more mainstream, he’s also met a more diverse group of nonbelievers.

Ron’s parents, once Jewish and Protestant, weren’t religious when he was growing up, he said, and Ron stopped believing in God before he turned 10.  According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 12 percent of the population doesn’t believe in God or says they’re “unsure.” Now in his late 20s, a graduate of the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, Ron works to “overcome irrationality one post at a time” on his blog, the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

Many atheists groups agree that the community is growing due to interest from the under-30 crowd online.

“The problem with atheism is that many atheists thought they were alone, but with the Internet, they’ve become connected with millions like them,” said David Silverman, spokesman for the American Atheists, a civil rights group based in Cranford, N.J., which offers scholarships to atheist activists in high school and college.

As more college campuses provide opportunities for students to get involved in groups of nonbelievers, it’s becoming easier for younger people to identify as atheists.

“It’s such a big deal in college; when you’re in high school, you’re really sheltered.  Your beliefs, they’ve never really been challenged,” said Hemant, who founded a group for atheists when he was in college and now serves as the chair of the Columbus, Ohio-based Secular Students Alliance’s board of directors.

The Secular Students Alliance has tripled in size over the last five years, now up to 150 chapters nationwide.  The group has drawn national attention—President Obama mentioned “nonbelievers” in his inaugural address, and the White House is looking to secular groups to involve Americans in public service.

Although Obama has taken some very God-friendly moves—deciding in February to uphold Bush’s policy funding faith-based groups and having the face of evangelical Christianity in America, Rick Warren give the invocation at his inauguration—atheists are quick to note that Obama’s administration represents welcome relief from his predecessor’s reputation for down-home Christianity.

“People growing up (during the Bush administration) could really see the threat of theocracy and felt that they now have to become vocal,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, headquartered in Madison, Wis. “That did have an impact on students.  They thought, ‘we could lose our freedom of conscience if we don’t do something now.’”

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Tags: atheism, Chicago, Indian-American, Internet, Minneapolis, religion

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