My previous posting on August 1^st , about an interesting conversation that I listened to in 1969 between Arthur Koestler and Jacques Monod, was my way of coming out in terms of my belief system.  I was therefore fascinated to read in the current Time magazine issue, dated August 4th, an article by Josh Sanburn about ‘atheist churches’.  Yes, I know, it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it would seem that in those parts of America – e.g. Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma – where churchgoing is big, atheists, often led by ex-clergy, feel the need for a mutual support group of this sort. It also may be pointing to an issue that concerns a growing number of atheists, and that is, as church communities dwindle in many parts of the country, how do we keep a sense of community to care for those in need and other issues in our towns and cities including environmental concerns? 

Sanburn’s article also reports on the Clergy Project, an online group of hundreds of ‘doubting preachers’.  Sanburn writes: “Being an atheist may be America’s last closeted identity.” The article also reports that 20% of Americans claim no religious affiliation now(still significantly lower than in Europe) and rising steadily. Mind you, an ABC poll in 2011 found that 77% of Americans believe in angels!  And polls regularly show that the majority of Americans do not accept that life on Earth, including us humans, has evolved over a long period of time from simple single-celled organisms, despite the overwhelming evidence to support that.   

Even today, America is living in the aftermath of the Cold War where Soviet Communists were the atheist baddies, therefore all atheists are evil, and probably communist to boot. This simplistic and dated view is held in particular by the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, composed it would appear mostly of older white churchgoers.    

Enough of all this. My blog is entitled ‘A biologist’s perspective’, and so I want to get to writing some fun stuff along those lines.  Stay tuned. 

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