Atheism

As Hitchens said, atheism isn't a real thing. Like creating a word for those who don't believe in unicorns.

I'm from an arguably secular country but people still put Catholic or Anglican or whatever on the census even though they are "non-practising" and haven't been to church in years.

Probably better to ask how often people go to church in this type of questionnaire and ignore what people "identify" as.

It's cnn I don't trust it

Sounds quite US centric. Atheism/agnosticism is normal in the UK.

At a guess, it would depend on where you live. For one thing, the number of non-religious people in the USA has doubled in the last 15 years, but notably, most do not go all the way to identify themselves as "atheists" (militant or otherwise):

Perhaps b/c the belief that there definitively is no such thing as any kind of "god" is a rather extreme hard-line stance, while "meh, there might be, but probably isn't, and anyway who cares?" seems much more popular lately (according to that study, and many others like it).

Also there are a HUGE fraction of people who are ostensibly "Jews" or "Protestants" or "Catholic" or whatever, but don't really give a shit and just hang on loosely b/c of historical reasons, or b/c of current cultural rather than religious affiliations.

Unfortunately (imho), while the article itself goes into some depth as to why various people believe as they do, the title itself seems extremely click-baity, trying to capitalize on people's prejudices and fears. Though despite all that, ultimately is accurate so... less so than normal, I guess?

There has never been a better time in the history of America to self-identify as an atheist, I think? Unfortunately, we might look back on this as a Golden Era, if McCarthyism returns and this time in the guise of evangelical christianity. And I say this as not even an atheist myself, just someone who will defend to the death someone else's right to believe what they wish rather than be forced (especially to the death! e.g. let's say a woman who is pregnant and experiencing complications) to believe something else - the latter is one of the chief reasons for the entire existence of America, but the pull of (christo-)fascism is indeed strong...

I wonder if it has anything to do with all of the “bad atheism” that’s populating the internet.

By this, I mean to say that actual TRUE atheism isn’t about hating Christians, but if you look here, and on Reddit- any community involving atheism is nothing but anti-Christian rhetoric. Not other religion- just Christianity. AND A LOT of hate.

Actual atheists don’t define their ideology based on who they hate. It’s simply just not believing in religious idolatry. Nothing more and nothing less.

So if you find yourself hating on someone simply because they believe differently than you do. Maybe ask yourself if any of that seems familiar to you at all. And then back away from the nonsense. Because maybe It’s you that’s making it difficult for the ideology of atheism to be taken seriously.

There isn't much benefit to doing it.