Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason, said the rising profile of non-believers in the United States began around 2004 with several popular books by atheists and humanists such as Christopher Hitchens. Local groups of atheists, agnostics, humanists and freethinkers began springing up throughout the nation, and a movement to unify the different varieties of non-believers started in 2009.
Edwords compares the growing size and visibility of non-believers to the gay-rights movement in its infancy. Non-believers often refer to "coming out of the closet."
MORE: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-24/features/os-ucf-charles-negy-religious-bigotry-20120824_1_believers-atheists-edwords
