The good news is, it's difficult to keep up with all the black freethought activity in cyberspace. Here are a few sites/groups I've recently discovered.
Black Atheists (blog)
"We are a minority within a minority."
Black FreeThinkers
Self-contained social network in ning format.
Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta
A local group with a presence on Facebook & elsewhere.
Not surprisingly, these all have the flavor of youth. All seem to be freshly experiencing the vigor and the militancy of self-assertion. Intellectual maturity will take much longer, but clearly there is a tidal wave of nonbelief among young black people in the USA (and elsewhere) that is making its presence felt, weak though in may be in the vast ocean of black religiosity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
So is this phenomenon simply a reflection of the New Atheist trend of the last few years, or is there also something special going on within the African-American community that is creating a disaffection with religion?
Such linkages would be rather difficult to demonstrate, as there may well be an interconnected set of social changes giving rise to both New and Black Atheism. My guess is that the meteoric rise of black atheism is a joint product of generational change and Internet culture.
Neo and Black Atheism seem to be on a steady trajectory. The progress and participation is growing everyday and we look forward to having a positive impact.
Thank you so much for including us in your article.
it's not a reflection of the new atheist trend...many of us were atheists while sitting in the pews, while ministering etc. There's great ambivalence about coming out as a black atheist because our community is inculcated with religion. god is EVERYTHING in the community! Eschewing the christian god in favor of NO GOD AT ALL? Why not just commit murder-suicide? That's what you're doing socially anyway!
I believe the reason why we're hearing about the sudden emergence of black atheists...now..modern technology: social networks (fb, twitter, Ning etc), websites, blogs, YT etc makes it possible to come out on our own terms. Additionally, black people are WAKING UP (it's a slow awakening, but it's still an awakening). Scandals, nepotism, manipulation, confusion, betrayals within the black chuch are causing congregants to backtrack to their bibles pick it up and READ/QUESTION the PREPOSTEROUSNESS of its contents.
It's reminiscent of a person in a relationship who FINALLY realizes their partner never loved them...they simply needed to control them.
Post a Comment