Practicing Atheism: Culture, Media, and Ritual in the Contemporary Atheist Network

by Hannah K. Scheidt

Overview

The number of people claiming no religious affiliation has skyrocketed in recent years, and that growth shows no signs of slowing down. But while the religiously unaffiliated demonstrate a variety of attitudes toward religious belief-including, in many cases, a complete lack of interest-a prominent subset of nonbelievers has claimed the mantle of "atheism." For them, atheism has become a marker of identity and a source of community. However, atheists themselves often disagree about core ideas, values, affinities, and attitudes. Contemporary atheist culture is marked by debates over deconversion, the relationship between science and religion, and the role of authority. What exactly does it mean to be an "atheist" beyond a simple lack of belief in a higher power?

Hannah K. Scheidt's Practicing Atheism: Culture, Media, and Ritual in the Contemporary Atheist Network examines the variety of cultural products, both corporate-driven and grassroots, that carry messages about atheism and its relationships to religion. Through primary source materials such as Internet communities, popular television programming, and cultural representations of the movement such as those found in atheist fan art, the book paints a portrait of a culture in unique tension with religion, and provides a unique perspective on whether or not organized atheism constitutes a belief system in itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197536940
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2021
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Hannah K. Scheidt received her PhD in religion studies from Northwestern University. Her work focuses on contemporary (non)religious thought, media, and theories of religion. She has contributed to the anthologies Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement and American Examples: A New Conversation About Religion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One
Deconversion Narratives: True and Enlightened Selves

Chapter Two
Scientific Myth: Science, Religion, and Atheism in Popular Television

Chapter Three
Autonomy or Authority?: Ideology, Charisma, and Patriarchy

Chapter Four
Ritualized Debate: Order, Redemption and Power in a Contemporary Media Practice

Chapter Five
Atheist Indoctrination?: Practicing Atheism in Parenthood

Conclusion
Culture War as Culture Ritual

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"In this way, Practicing Atheism has much to teach us about what it means to be religious" — Charles McCrary, American Religion

"Scheidt approaches atheism in a very different way, interpreting it as a complex cultural phenomenon. Her intent is to help readers understand atheism by viewing it from a variety of perspectives. She draws material from narratives found in different forms of media to provide this analysis of cultural atheism." — J. Jaeger, CHOICE

"Far from being simply the absence of religion, atheism finds itself having to craft and redefine itself in contexts and conditions not of its own making. Hannah Scheidt presents a careful and fascinating account of these efforts and their prospects in the evolving geography of contemporary public and private life, from social media to evolving locations of social connection." — Stewart M. Hoover, author, Religion in the Media

"Practicing Atheism takes the topic of non-belief out of the seminar room, dealing only with disembodied ideas, into the real world of flesh-and-blood people, of huge integrity, living with, wrestling with, finding fulfilment with their inability or unwillingness to accept the existence of a deity, of any kind. It is a total revelation and simply compelling reading. I finished the book wiser, and very much humbler. Highly recommended." — Michael Ruse, author of Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know®

"Moving deftly between analyses of personal deconversion narratives and narratives of popular television, memes, comics, celebrity debates, and a review of parental commentary on raising children as critical thinkers and caring world citizens, Hannah Scheidt has melded the insights and methods of cultural studies and religious studies to render a fresh and authoritative work on U.S. atheism. She has broken ground for future studies of atheism as a fascinating and widely misunderstood cultural phenomenon." — Lynn Schofield Clark, author of From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural and The Parent App

"Practicing Atheism: Culture, Media, and Ritual in the Contemporary Atheist Network by religious studies scholar Hannah K. Scheidt is a welcome addition to the task of understanding this second, secular movement. Not a long book, it is a good read and particularly strong on reflections of ideas as they are transmitted in various media-blogs, for instance, and television programs and so forth. It takes up such contested questions as to whether atheism is a religion...Also, whether we should think of the atheism movement as something in its own right or more of a reaction to the above-mentioned Christian movement." — Micheal Ruse, Florida State University, Journal of Religion

From the Publisher