Inside the Minds and Movement of Amerca's NonBelievers by Joseph Langston

04/17/2016 - 13:30
04/17/2016 - 15:30

Inside the Minds and Movement of Amerca's NonBelievers 

by Joseph Langston

Sunday, April 17 at 1:30-3:30 pm
 Pine Room, Penrose Library, 20 N. Cascade Avenue 

Free and open to the public.

 

In 19th and early 20th century Britain, secular and atheist groups underwent schisms that were driven to some extent by differences in education, and political differences based in turn on socioeconomic status differences.  Today in America, some of the same attitudes toward religion that were present in Britain at that time are still on display.  Yet, differences in individual nonbeliever opinions over how best to approach religion in America are not based on politics or class status. This lecture is based on the presenter's 2014 original research study that asked the following questions:

 

What is the “big picture” when it comes to conflicts, schisms, or divisions that might characterize movement participation and secular, humanist, atheist, and freethought groups in modern America?

 

What did nonbelievers who were or weren’t members of these groups think about the actual or hypothetical goals of these groups?

 

What weren’t these groups doing that they should be, in order to attract or draw greater support? 

 

What were groups, leaders, or activists doing that turned people away or polarized either participation in or opinion about the movement? 

 

Why didn’t those who weren’t members, and never had been, join these groups?

 

This lecture will cover original research from a study that collected the opinions and insights of over 2,000 nonbelievers from across all 50 U.S. states. The study analyzed these views, attitudes, and opinions concerning nonbeliever organization goals; religion and religious belief; and nonbeliever movement activism and participation.  We will cover cover the specifics of this study, to include its five major findings.  The study is also being published later this year as a book chapter in academic publisher De Gruyter's upcoming volume, Organized Secularism in America.

 

Joseph Langston, BS, BA, MA, is a former college lecturer in the sociology of religion and a published social science researcher (i.e. Interdisciplinary Journal for Research on Religion; Science, Religion, and Culture). His previous research has focused on the causes or origins of atheism, and on the atheist movement and its organizations in the United States. He is currently researching how and why atheists convert to Christianity.