Many atheists are doing great things to advance the broad cause of secular activism, and secular activism is indeed a broad cause. It includes a variety of goals and many different tactics for accomplishing them. At the same time, I think almost every atheist would agree that not enough atheists are involved in secular activism. At least, I think almost every atheist would agree that we atheists aren't exactly where we'd like to be and that too much ground has been lost to those who would do us harm. Secular activism is about changing that.
So, how can one get more involved? It isn't always easy to know where to start. That's why I figured I would put a page together with the goal of helping potential secular activists begin the process of getting more involved. I had been using my blogroll for this, but that never made much sense. Secular activism is important enough that it deserves its own page.
I am deliberately starting small. I expect this page will be under development for some time. I hope to make minor updates frequently by adding things I think might be useful as I find them. I also hope to be selective in the sense that my goal is not to compile a list of every secular organization, website, etc. Others have tried to compile those lists. They tend to be overwhelming and are almost impossible to keep current. Thus, what ends up here will be at my own editorial discretion.
Why We Need Secular Activism
It would be nice if this went without saying, but I don't think it does. From what I can tell, many atheists, humanists, and freethinkers still need to be persuaded that secular activism is valuable. With that in mind, here are some of my thoughts on why we need secular activism and what effective secular activism looks like:
- Organizing Atheists: Difficult But Necessary
- Pragmatic Secular Activism
- Call Us Passionate Atheists, Call Us Atheist Activists
- A Different Kind of Atheist Outreach
How You Can Help
If we can clear the first hurdle (i.e., understanding that we need secular activism), we arrive at the real challenge: figuring out what each of us can do to advance secular activism. Here are some thoughts on that important topic:
- Secular Activism: Two Things You Can Do to Make Things Better for Atheists
- What You Can Do to Oppose Christian Extremism
- How to Promote Atheism With Almost No Effort
- Support Secular Organizations
Secular Organizations Focused Primarily on the United States
I live in the United States, and I am most interested in and most familiar with the work of secular organizations focused here. Why am I more interested in these organizations? First, work focused on the United States is more personally relevant to me because it is more likely to impact my daily life. Second, it would strike as somewhat hypocritical to focus my efforts on cleaning up my neighbor's mess when I haven't bothered to clean up my own. Secular activism is desperately needed in many places. Unfortunately, the United States continues to be one of them.
- American Atheists
- American Humanist Association
- Americans United for Separation of Church and State
- Black Nonbelievers
- BlitzWatch
- Center for Inquiry
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers
- Secular Coalition for America
- Secular Student Alliance
Secular Organizations Focused on Other Countries
Secular organizations outside the U.S. are not my focus, and I am less familiar with those listed here; however, the few I have listed are among those I have observed doing good work for secularism and can easily recommend.
- Atheist Ireland (Ireland)
- Humanists Australia (Australia)
- National Secular Society (UK)
Secular Organizations with an International Scope
There are fewer secular organizations that have a truly global focus, and I am much less familiar with them. Some are doing good work and will be added over time.
