Introduction

The introduction to Practicing Atheism familiarizes the reader with contemporary atheist culture through a brief description of a billboard campaign sponsored by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. This chapter situates the larger work within a growing body of scholarship on secularism and atheism, suggesting that the cultural studies approach of this book makes a novel contribution to the field of secular studies. The introduction explains the book’s approach to media, both theoretically and methodologically, suggesting that there is no separating culture from media. Finally, the introduction lays out the theoretical argument of the book, which accounts for the central tension of contemporary atheist culture: the fact that organized atheism comes to bear a resemblance to what we (and atheists themselves) think of as religion. Ritual theory is introduced as a tool for explaining this tension.