"Secular Americans," or Americans who conduct their lives without reference to a deity, form one of the largest demographic groups in the country and also one of the fastest-growing--estimated at 15% to 25% of the population, at least 50 million. Yet they have long felt themselves shut out of the national debate on a number of issues; particularly since with the rise of the religious right, the lack of belief in a god has been painted as the quintessentially un-American moral failing.
In Nonbeliever Nation, David Niose shows how religious rhetoric has influenced many issues that are important to the secular community--and led to the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public school science classes, the lagging pace of LBGT rights and the denial of environmental degradation and climate change.
In easy-to-read chapters that are nonetheless full of information, Niose combines statistics, court decisions and anecdotes with clarity, arguing that the secular movement's goals are not only reasonable but necessary to a fundamentally equal and just society--and revealing how, with ever-increasing numbers of secular Americans "coming out of the closet," those goals are gaining ground.
The voice of secular Americans is not yet as loud as that of the religious right, or even that of the moderately religious. But it's getting louder. Nonbeliever Nation provides a useful reference guide to how we got here--and how secular individuals and communities can change the game. --Dani Alexis Ryskamp, blogger at The Book Cricket