1.Atheism+ and similar ideologies

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I would like to address a important problem within the rational and skeptical community.This problem is about the need for community especially for people who are fresh out of religion,and how that need causes that person to fall into communities that are similar to religion.Unfortunately humans will always seek someone or something to belong to and as a result,a person will never be able to freely express themselves to others because they fear being outcasted by the group whos company they have come to rely on for support.Pz myers and freethought blogs do just this.They take people who have freshly left religion but are in need of community.They offer it in exchange you must pledge your loyalty to them and join there cause.Individuals who are in the group are reluctant to "bite the hand that feeds them" and pretend simply agree so they can avoid criticism and being disowned by the group.Another issue i have with them is they try to force people to subscribe to certain world views in order to be an atheist.This only lends fuel to theists who claim atheism is a religion.

I want to hear your thoughts on this and tell me where iam wrong if you find flaws.

Some people desire that kind of community, some don't. There are six or seven million atheists in the US, I have trouble believing they all haunt forums like this, blogs like PZ's, or belong to local atheist groups or Unitarian churches. Heck, there are less than a million Unitarians counting all the atheists they already have. Maybe people do need to belong to something, but they don't NEED to belong to something religion-like. Further, as atheism becomes a larger minority, the main force driving the formation of atheist groups (social isolation) will disappear. Right now, almost every atheist I've ever met is someone I first met online, through the atheist group I founded, or throught the local UU. In ten years, I expect my religious friends will be introducing me to otther atheists they know.

In the UK, where it would be accurate I believe to describe atheism as the majority 'religious"' demographic, it is exactly as you say. Very, very few belong to to any sort of group or organisation, and indeed most probably don't even identify as atheist as it doesn't even enter their mind as something to think about.

Things like humanism appear to be more in vogue as a collective voice against the interference of religion in the public sphere. But not atheism per se that I am aware of.