Organized
Antireligion
Move Fades
Statesman, Salem, Ore, Fri., June 1, 06 (Sec I)-3
OPEN FRIDAY
By GEORGE W. CORNELL
Astariated Press RelltlM Writer
Things are quirt- today in the
atheist camp. Its ranks are scat
tered. I
'To tell the truth, we aren't
very active anymore," said j
Charles Smith, long-time prest-!
dont of the American Assn. for 1
the Advancement of Atheism.
As an organized movement, an
tireligion in the United States has
dwindled to a mere skeleton of its
one-time robust dimensions.
Local branches have died out.
The so-called "Damned Souls"
clubs are gone from college camp
uses. The old fire with which ath
fists once tangled with the church
es has faded. i
Atheists Independent
"Atheists aren't very good at
keeping up organizations," said
Joseph Lewis, president of the
Freethinkers of America. "They're
rather independent-minded."
His organization, which 20 years
ago had branches in about 10 cities, j
now has none. It no longer has
a paid headquarters staff. Its j
weekly meetings, which used to
draw 200 people every Sunday, I
were abandoned in the 1940s.
Organized interest has lagged,
Lewis said, because "the opposi
tion isn't as strong as it used to
be."
"There's been a considerable
liberalizing of religion," he said.
"The lines of conflict aren't as
clearly drawn. But from the stand-'
point of intellectual growth, athe
ism is increasing." j
Brioches Disappear
Another organization of atheists
and agnostics, the National Lib
eral I-eagu'e, also has shrunk rad-'
ically. None of the approximately
2no local branches it had across
the country in the 1930s now re-'
main.
The association headed by Smith
also has lost all the dozen or so
local chapters it used to have Its
weekly lectures, which formerly
averaged 400 paid admissions, now
draw only a handful admission
free ,
"It's hard to get anyone out for
a meeting anymore." Smith said.
' "We don't have the great ora
tors we once had. There used to
be a dozen of Jliem touring the
country back in the late 19th Cen
tury. That was the most vigorous
period for atheism."
Inrrrsoll I.vs Over
Those were the days of Hubert
fi Ingersoll. eloquent champion
of American atheism, and his
slashing war on religion as super
slitition and a roadblock to sci
entific progress Thousand
swarmed to hear him.
Nowadays, Smith said, things
are a bit too tame to suit the
cause.
Why, he added, a dedicated ath
eist can't even get himself arrest
ed anymore Xo dramatize an is
sue. ,
Just recently, his organization i
tried to provoke an arrest by de-!
tying a post office ruling against
mailing some material harshly
lambasting the new "In God We
Trust" mottoes on postage stamps.
Cannot Get Arrested
"We wanted an arrest." Smith
sajd, "but all they did was seize
the material."
Things were different back in
1!)29 when Smith got failed in Little
RnVk, Ark., for blasphemy he'd
been denouncing a proposed law
to ban teaching of evolution. His
appeal was dismissed after five
years untried
Organized atheism suffers. Smith
said, both when religion is too
widespread and influential, and
when religion takes more rational
positions.
As for present signs of strength
ened religion. Smith said "some
nf the evidence is hard to ex
plain away." but that he felt the
growth of church life is mostly
as social centers
Subscribers Dwindle
Smith, a white-haired man nf
68, publishes the country's oldest,
continuous atheist periodical.
'The Truth Seeker." a monthly
founded in 1873. In the early era. it
had 10,000 subscribers. Now about
2.000
Despite organizational losses,
Lewis also maintained that "or
ganization does not reflect our
strength" and that current church
growth is based on social, motives
Ingersoll Needed
"If an Ingersoll arose today,"
Lewis said, "he would draw 10
times as many as in his own day.
and be just as great an attrac
tion "
Both Smith and Lewis cited his
torical cases where churches
condemned scientific discovery.
"But most of this is in the past."
Lewis said "The religious lead
ers no longer object to science.
They're afraid to face the opposi
tion any longer. That's why I say
the tendency is toward atheism."
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