In a sweeping package of stories, photos and video, The Associated Press Religion Team takes an in-depth look at how the “none” phenomenon is playing out in the United States, South America, Nigeria, India, Middle East, Japan, Italy and Israel.
In a sweeping package of stories, photos and video, The Associated Press Religion Team takes an in-depth look at how the “none” phenomenon is playing out in the United States, South America, Nigeria, India, Middle East, Japan, Italy and Israel.
They’re taking about atheists. That’s it.
Please read the full article before making comments like this. It marginalizes the experiences of some of the peoples mentioned, who never identify themselves as atheist but who are often seeking community and spiritual experiences outside of religion.
You see, people don’t have to identify as atheist to in fact be atheist. Anyone who lacks belief in a god, for any reason (or lack thereof), is an atheist whether they want to admit it or not.
Yeah, I suppose my second sentence is somewhat diminitive… The article itself is more of a “dossier” than a single article, and gatekeeping discussions only for those who read the full article(s) kind of discourages discussions on the topic.
The first thing I wanted to convey is that they’re trying to redefine something that already exists. Today I learned that “atheism” has such a loaded baggage to you and the article’s authors that they’re is a need for a new word!
Too me, that is quite the revelation: everything I read in the article is exactly what I understand to be “atheism”! I’ve known that in some places on the world, it can be worst to be atheist than to be of the “wrong” religion… I hope using “the none phenomena” will help these people be safer…