tuxkatz6
Ehhh...I'm not buying it. The article you posted seems to say more that non-religious affiliation is on the rise, which is definitely not the same as being Atheist.
The
study itself says:
Quote:
Who exactly are the Nones? “None” is not a movement, but a label for a diverse group of people who do not identify with any of the myriad of religious options in the American religiousmarketplace – the irreligious, the unreligious, the anti-religious, and the anti-clerical. Some believe inGod; some do not. Some may participate occasionally in religious rituals; others never will.Nones are easily misunderstood. On the one hand, only a small minority are atheists. On the otherhand, it is also not correct to describe them as “unchurched” or “unaffiliated” on the assumptionthat they are mainly theists and religious searchers who are temporarily between congregations. Yetanother incorrect assumption is that large proportions of Nones are anti-rationalist proponents of New Age and supernatural ideas. As we will show, they are more likely to be rational skeptics.
And page 11 goes into it in more detail.
Oh well, was just curious.
True. It's hard to know for certain, because the actual censuses don't normally list "Atheist" specifically.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/03/21/unbelievable-atheists-to-rally-in-record-numbers/
In that article it states that that group is rising in numbers.
Their numbers, whether they're outright Atheists, or secularists, or rational thinkers, or whatever they want to call themselves... well, are you certain that the comedians are atheist? Or are they simply secular, or rational? I could see how they would leave religion for spirituality, or possibly even some self-defined belief (spaghetti monster, and whatnot). I'm pretty sure Bill Hicks was a Baptist, of sorts, even when he was older, if nothing else, he was certainly a spiritualist, given how his experimenting with mushrooms affected him. I've tended to notice a lot of black Christian comics (Stever Harvey, Bernie Mac, etc.), probably Christian (specifically Catholic) Hispanic comedians (Carlos Mencia, Gabriel Iglesias, etc.), Jewish comedians (Adam Sandler, for example), and lapsed Catholics (Denis Leary, George Carlin, etc.).
Out of curiosity, though, what leads you to suggest that more comedians are Atheist?