Atheist activist

Greta Christina in 2014.

According to the atheist activist Greta Christina, the first goal of an atheist activist is “to see atheists be fully accepted into society, and to have our atheism recognized as legitimate.” The second is the demise of religion. See also: Evangelical atheism

Most atheists are apathetic about their atheism (see: Atheism and apathy).

In the United States, from 2006 to 2016, Americans sharpened their negative views towards atheists (see: Views on atheists).

In June 2016, American Interest reported concerning American atheism:

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First of all, religious belief is still very powerful and widespread, and there is nothing inevitable about its decline. In fact, the proportion of people who say they believe in God actually ticked modestly upward, from 86 percent to 89 percent, since Gallup last asked the question in 2014.

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Historically, atheists have had an unrealistic view concerning the endurance of religion (see: Atheists and the endurance of religion).

In 2011, atheist Jacques Berlinerblau declared: "The Golden Age of Secularism has passed."

Pew Research Center declared: "There is a long history of people predicting the demise of religion, but religion has proven more resilient than many people anticipated."

Dr. Rodney Stark, an agnostic, wrote in his book The Triumph of Faith:

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Secularists have been predicting the imminent demise of religion for centuries. They have always been wrong—and their claims today are no different. It is their unshakable faith in secularization that may be the most "irrational" of all beliefs.(p. 212).

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The 21st century (and the foreseeable future) is expected to be a century of desecularization. Global atheism is shrinking in global market share and perhaps in terms of its number of adherents as well (see: Global atheism statistics). In addition, in a great many areas of the developed world, the rate of secularization is now zero (see: Western World areas with stagnant secularization rates).

Atheist movement

See also: Atheist movement and Atheist factions

The atheist PZ Myers declared on September 27, 2014, "I will make a prediction, right here and now.... The number of people identifying as atheists will stagnate or even shrink..." See: Desecularization and Decline of global atheism

In 2015, Dr. J. Gordon Melton said about the atheist movement (organized atheism) that atheism is not a movement which tends to create community, but in the last few years there has been some growth of organized atheism.

However, various schisms occurring within the atheism movement and widespread infighting, has had an adverse effect on various atheist organizations (See: Atheist factions). Divisions within the atheist movement have caused a marked decline in the movement (see: Decline of the atheist movement). For example, atheist organizations have experienced large drops in donations to their organizations (see: Atheist organizations and fundraising).

Most atheists are apathetic when it comes to sharing atheism with others - especially when compared to evangelistic religions such as Christianity (see: Atheism and apathy).

The Journal of Contemporary Religion says about schisms within atheism:

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The persistence of internal schisms and regular outbreaks of in-fighting within the atheist movement also ensure that much energy is effectively wasted on parochial concerns and further undermine attempts to establish a genuine sense of group cohesion.

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The Journal of Contemporary Religion say that internal divisions within the American atheist movement have to do with:

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internal divisions within the movement around issues relating to goals, strategies, and direction. These can be seen most notably in debates about the formation of a collective ‘atheist’ identity, in disputes about the effectiveness of confrontationalism and accommodationism, and in concerns about the movement’s ethnic, racial, and gender profile.

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For additional information, please see: Atheist factions

Seth Andrews on atheist activists dropping out of the atheist movement

In 2017, the atheist activist Seth Andrews declared about the atheist activist dropping out of the atheist movement:

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You know lately when I look around on social media and in the media in general really. I see these proclamations. Proclamations that the atheist movement is on life support. It's dying. It's probably beyond saving. Now I know some people out there are very weary of all the public infighting and the squabbling and the division and just the general nastiness out there between various camps. And I totally get that. I totally get it. Some people draw a big circle around New Atheism... And they declare New Atheism is dead or it's dying or irrelevant or whatever... As an atheist activist myself, I can understand why some people have just left the party.

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List of atheist activists and/or prominent atheists

• 50 top atheists in the world today]