‘Atheism is cool,’ says Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams thinks “atheism is cool” and that’s made it difficult for his church to convey its message. 

Well, he’s right that there’s been a recent surge in the popularity of atheism, but that’s not the reason the church isn’t growing.

Think back to the “cool” people you know in high school.  They were the ones willing to say what no one else was saying, the people who always maintained a certain level of confidence, the people who didn’t care what you thought because it just didn’t matter.  That’s the position a lot of young atheists are in now.  At an ever-lowering age, students are willing to challenge religion in ways we never saw in the past.  The number of Secular Student Alliance affiliate groups in college has skyrocketed in the past few years (nearly 300 as I write this) and the number of high school affiliates is well into the double-digits.  These are students who want to have discussions and debates about religion and who want to challenge the orthodoxy and what most parents teach their children.  

Even in conservative areas, atheist groups are thriving.  In many cases they may be the lone island of rationality in a sea full of religion.  One of the hallmarks of hipness is scarcity -- certain bands may be popular because only a few diehard fans know about them… but they may lose that coolness when they go mainstream.  Such is the case with atheism right now.  We’re still in the minority no matter how you dice up the demographics, but the fact that we’re a vocal, social, active group of people makes us interesting.  If 90 percent of the United States ever became atheists, I suspect we’d lose the title of “cool” immediately.  

So, is our coolness the reason the church is having so many problems?  Absolutely not.  Certainly, many churches are not doing themselves any favors by their mishandling of child abuse scandals.  But other Christian churches are also digging their own graves when they align with one political party, condemn people for their innate sexuality, and boast about their rejection of scientific truths.  Atheists, on the other hand, pose a rational opposition.  We know that one political party will never stand for all of us, that homosexuality isn’t a sin, and that the scientific method is the best way we’ve ever had to evaluate truth claims.  Those facts alone mean that we have little to do to convince young people that we’re on the side of reality.  We’re honest about what we believe and open about why we believe it.  Anyone can fact-check the claims of an atheist with ease.  (Good luck getting citations after a sermon.)

Hemant Mehta  | Sep 27, 2011 9:59 AM