Atheism being a world of the “rich”- by which I mean the luxury of a leisure class- is a harder problem to tackle. How do we get those from underprivileged backgrounds to take a stand again irrationality? The perception of a “cultural elite” has always been a difficult stigma for us. As much as I often a promote a capitalistic, top-down approach to activism this needs to be met by a grassroots element, but (granted certain notable exceptions) we rarely see outspoken atheists coming out of the underprivileged sectors of society.

New Atheism is old, white and male? Maybe, if you ignore Lori Lipman Brown, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ellen Johnson? But, looking at the lists of atheists on wikipedia, one does see a preponderance of men, generally old, and whitish.

I think Katie does a great job explaining why this is so, and whether or not it is a problem that needs dealing with.

I do not think of it as a problem, not even an image problem. What I think is that it is the prefect opportunity to really look into your prejudices and find out why you think the way you do.

Try this: Look at your feelings about the idea that the majority of atheists that one can see are older, whitish rich males. Peel the layers of the onion and apply the reasoning that freethinkers are purported to put ahead of emotionalism. What meaning are you applying to the statistics that is not really there? What consequences do you foresee that really will not come to pass? What bromides are you substituting for thought? Knowing that in 100 years, nearly every person who reads this blog today will be dead, and mostly forgotten, where does this issue really fall on the list of things you -should- be doing to make your time here as meaningful as possible?