Atheist Politics and Associations

In this section

Main Secular Organisations in UK and US

Although lack of belief in God is relatively widespread in the contemporary world (click here for atheist demographics), the number of militant or politically engaged atheists is low, and this is reflected in the relative weakness of explicitly atheist associations worldwide.[1] Their membership is normally small: to take a sample of the larger UK/US secular organisations, in 2005 the British Humanist Association's membership stood at 5138,[2] and in 2003 the executive director of the American Humanist Association reported its membership as being '6000-plus'.[3] Given the population sizes of Britain (approximately 60,000,000) and the United States (approximately 300,000,000) direct support and involvement with the secular organisations is low. Similar patterns are in evidence across continental Europe.[4]

Today there are too many secular organisations in the world to enumerate exhaustively. Many (but not all) are brought under the umbrella of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), founded in 1952, which describes itself as 'the world union of Humanist, rationalist, secular, ethical culture, atheist and freethought organizations'. Its stated mission is to 'represent and support the global Humanist movement', and it brings together more than thirty organisations in 27 different countries.[5]

Since the 'New Atheists' are associated principally with UK and US secular networks this section will restrict itself to examining some significant British and American secular organisations.

References

British Humanist Association. "Trustees' Annual Report for the Year Ended 31st December 2005."2006.
Hileman, Tony. "Remarks by Tony Hileman - National Day of Reason." American Humanist Association.
Minois, Georges. Histoire de L'atheisme. La Fleche: Fayard, 1998.

Bibliography

Footnotes

[1]↑ See, for example, Georges Minois, Histoire de L'atheisme (La Fleche: Fayard, 1998), 567-8.
[2]↑ British Humanist Association, "Trustees' Annual Report for the Year Ended 31st December 2005," (2006), 10.
[3]↑ Tony Hileman, "Remarks by Tony Hileman - National Day of Reason," American Humanist Association.
[4]↑ For some representative figures, see for example Minois, Histoire, 567ff.
[5]↑ See http://www.iheu.org/.

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