No matter who you are, or where you are, there is one simple fact that we all have in common: we all know more atheists than we think we do.
That's because a huge percentage of us are "in the closet" -- hiding our reality-based conclusion out of fear of rejection or reprisals.
Check out this USA Today poll and click on your state. Now ask yourselves two questions:
Then, extrapolate. You probably know a lot more Jews and Muslims than you know atheists, but it certainly shouldn't be that way according to that poll.
Now, if we compare this to the PEW research poll (known for leaning toward the right), we get a different picture -- only 5% nationally actually saying there is no god.
The difference is of course in how you phrase the question. Exactly how many of the "no religions" are actually nonreligious and how many of the respondents were afraid to admit their rationality and called themselves religious?
These are tough variables, but we can use these reports as good upper and lower-bound measurements. If the Pew folks are right, there are 15 Million Atheists in America. If the USA Today polls are right, the number is closer to 50 million.
Both numbers far outweigh all non-Christians combined, and then doubled.
Atheist? You've got company.
