Last week, the president of American Atheists announced plans for an atheist TV channel. Beyond that fact, it seems that all news outlets disagree and argue about what this might mean.
It's hard to collect the "Single Story" on atheists. Even the delivery of this news about the atheist TV channel, a straightforward reporting job, was spun and twisted, paraded and trumpeted, protested and renounced. While the USA Today reported the news with Christianity as a comparison and a backdrop, ("Move over, Christian televangelists. Atheism is coming to television."), the Christian Post was sure to include references to socially questionable actions of atheists in years past, such as their protest of the cross-shaped beam at the 9/11 Memorial.
From the composite of all the sources, I'd say that atheists are just like the rest of us. The difference is more publicity. Because atheism is so outspokenly non-secular, non-secular news outlets are able to give them favorable news coverage. By the same token, more secular news outlets can give them extremely unfavorable news coverage.
As a result, I think that there is a disconnect growing in America. Atheists and agnostics will look at the actions of their unbelieving allies and think of them as civil rights leaders. Those who oppose atheism must be religious zealots and bigots. After all, when stories like "Embrace of Atheism Put an Indonesian in Prison" are emblazoned across the front page of the New York Times, it's be easy to see atheism as an equal rights issue. On the other hand, with stories like "Atheist Group Resurrects War on Easter" and "A Christmas Gift for Atheists -- Five Reasons Why God Exists" are distributed courtesy of Fox News, theists and religious folk will feel that they are under attack.
I suppose that the single story from all these sources would be that atheists are people with a belief system. That's it. Their problem is that they are a catalyst for heated political discourse and dramatic headlines. They make religious folk seem like extremists and the non-religious seem like anarchists. They make people spring to the aid of their First Amendment rights, both in defense of and attack on God. I hope that as people read from a variety of news sources, they can see that these people are just people and that the "single story" here has been milked by both sides of the political media.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/05/09/atheist-television-channel/8891455/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/world/asia/indonesian-who-embraced-atheism-landed-in-prison.html?_r=0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/new-openly-secular-group-seeks-to-combat-anti-atheist-discrimination/2014/05/02/b8195ba8-d231-11e3-a714-be7e7f142085_story.html
http://www.christianpost.com/news/american-atheists-launching-worlds-first-all-atheist-tv-channel-119451/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/13/christmas-gift-for-atheists-five-reasons-why-god-exists/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/13/christmas-gift-for-atheists-five-reasons-why-god-exists/
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