Why Millennial Women Are Embracing Atheism

[HAB911]

Danielle Schacter never thought she would become an un-Christian. "I slowly became more and more disgusted by the way I saw people treating others," says the 32-year-old, who was raised Baptist. "I didn't want to be associated with a religion that preached so much hate."

Schacter, like so many millennials, has chosen a secular life, and she's not alone: according to the Pew Research Center, only four in 10 millennials say that religion is very important to them, compared with six in 10 Baby Boomers.

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The numbers of religiously unaffiliated support this, too: 23 percent of the population identifies with no religion. This number is up from 2007, when it was only 16 percent. Of older millennials, 35 percent are religiously unaffiliated — and they're driving the overall growth of the nonreligiously affiliated in America.

https://www.popsugar.com/news/What-Atheism-43489300

[Merlot]

1. Not a millennial, just ahead of the curve.

While it's great that millennials are breaking free of religion, they didn't discover it.

[HAB911]

2. Oh not by a long shot

although they probably think so

[rurallib]

3. I would venture that most religions also treat women as second class

which really pisses off the millennial women I know - I am an old guy.
These young women are not about to take the old 'helpmate' crap.

[Warpy]

4. Had they interviewed Boomers 50 years ago, they'd have gotten similar results

I saw secular friends get sucked back in when they had kids and those kids wanted to join church youth groups with their friends and go on fun camping trips and all that. The parents had to join up to get them in and once they joined up, the community kept them there.

Likely the Millennials will also get sucked back into it when they have kids.

So don't hold out hope for people in their 20s to be some sort of secular revolution. With any luck, the churches will get their bodies but never gain control of their hearts or minds, but they'll still say the community is important, if not the dogma.

Still, the Boomers are only 60% religious. Earlier generations were 80-90%, That's progress.

[Bradical79]

6. That was an explicit strategy, going after kids first

When I was teen in an evangelical youth group, we were encouraged to invite our friends who weren't "saved". Convert them, then encourage them to get their other family members involved so they didn't burn in hell. I recall during a service, on of my fellow former youth group members (now in college) gave a speech in front of the congregation. His friend had died, which was bad enough. But this guy was in tears devestated by guilt that he didn't get his friend to come into the religion. He legitimately thought his friend might burn in hell suffering for eternity, and he shared some of the blame. It's was heartbreaking. This stuff is poison.

[beam me up scottie]

5. Good for them, especially millennial women.

The Atheism and Feminism Connection

Lauryn Seering, 27, has never been religious, but she found atheism in high school in reaction to mainstream fundamentalist Christian ideas that condemn her lesbian mother. "Millennial women want autonomy over their own bodies," says Seering, communications coordinator for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting the separation of church and state.

"They recognize that all the arguments against this autonomy (contraception, birth control, marriage) are religiously fueled," Seering continued. "Women aren't being pressured by society anymore to get married at a young age, have children right away, and tend house while their husbands work."


Schacter identifies as agnostic. She's based in Kansas City, MO, where she founded a digital marketing agency called Boxer & Mutt. To her, growing secularism is a sign of independent women. "It's becoming more socially acceptable for women to think for themselves and really question why things are the way they are rather than blindly accepting them," she says.

Kayley Whalen, 31, is a queer transgender Latinx woman who identifies as "a humanist and an existentialist and an atheist." These different identities certainly influence how she approaches the world. "We have ethical values without the need for the supernatural," Whalen says. "We believe in social justice, that we can live a life with meaning, purpose, and dedication to social justice without the need for supernatural guidance." Unsurprisingly, Whalen's beliefs are tied up in her activist work: she's the digital strategy and social media manager for the National LGBT Task Force and is on the board of directors for both the Secular Student Alliance and the Trans United Fund.

As Whalen epitomizes, many young women who do not believe in god share a point of view that goes beyond just being atheist or just being a woman. The two are intertwined identities oppressed similarly in the United States.

Every generation has more women atheists and while a few may decide to return to religion later in life I still see this as progress.